Sue Perkins (Great British Baking Show) and restaurant critic Giles Coren spend a week eating a diet that would have been familiar to the wealthy in Regency England. Using contemporary recipe books, our hosts sample everything from tea to jugged hare, potted venison, cheese on toast, sweetbreads (num!), trifle (original recipe, heavy on butter and cream), shrimp bisque, hare cake in jelly (nyet) brandy and claret punch, stuffed boars head (no thanks), pies and Wow Wow Sauce. Other subjects include Game Laws, port, the divide between rich and poor, the Corn Laws, the Duke of Wellington (yay!), the Prince Regent (boo!), gout, laudanum, Bath waters, Jane Austen, Italian ice creams (tea flavoured?!), battledore, the London marriage market, phaetons, cheese mites (yech!), the Beefsteak Club, 800 pound oxen (left overs!), cheese on toast (again), anti French songs, Dandies, corsets, Beau Brummell, cravats, sedan chairs, French cookery, spun sugar, testicles (no thanks), duels, Byron’s tea with egg diet (blech), Harris’s List (Huzzah!), Emma Hamilton, the Language of the Fan, gambling, sandwiches, debtor’s prison, George IV’s Coronation, the beauty recipes from the Mirror of Graces, the Royal Horse Artillery (yes, please!), dancing (good and bad), syllabub (never mind the calories), and the dangers of uric acid.
With special Guest Star Ian Kelly!
WARNING: Decidedly tongue in cheek!
Watch the full episode here.