More Jamie Oliver fury
The shortest of posts, as it’s the Friday before half term and busy, busy, busy. Suffice to say, the news that Jamie Oliver has reportedly been given a £2m golden handcuffs deal to keep him at Channel 4 has gone down like a turd in the family punchbowl at Horseferry Road, C4’s HQ where, you will remember, about 150 jobs are disappearing like packets of value biscuits off Lidl shelves.
All a bit rum, indeed, for C4’s employees who are understandably tense about who’s getting their redundancy marching orders and who isn’t. Still, Jamie’s doing the business for C4 by pulling in ratings and heaps of publicity for his recent Ministry of Food series, so of course the channel wants to keep him and not let another broadcaster get their dirty mitts on this bit of TV talent.
But surely, of all the other broadcasters, the BBC wouldn’t touch Oliver with a bargepole because he’s still the frontman for Sainsbury’s advertising. The Beeb famously let Oliver go because his Naked Chef series bore an uncanny resemblence to his Sainsbury’s ads and the BBC is fabulously uncommercial. Thus we could conclude C4 is paying Oliver a reported £2m to keep him from ITV. Good value? You decide. Go on… leave a comment. It’s nearly the weekend.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
However, have you actually tried the recipies? They are so straightforward and amazingly tasty. The book is great value if not the handcuffs…turned my daughter into a master chef!
October 31st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Daughter… handcuffs… is this a wise combination of mental images, given Mr Ross’ problems with the notion of a grand-daughter, the Satanic Sluts burlesque dancing troupe and Mr Russell Brand.