Irish 'Come Dine With Me' seeks to replicate the winning recipe

SIX YEARS after the television series Come Dine With Mewas first aired in the UK, an Irish version has been unveiled.

The series, in which four strangers compete for a cash prize by hosting dinner parties for each over over the course of a week, combines features of the reality, cookery and property television genres and has won huge ratings for Channel 4 in the UK.

However, it is the tart observations of Dave Lamb, who provides its voiceover, that have made the series memorable for its fans.

Lamb was in Dublin yesterday for the launch of the Irish version of the series. Disappointingly for some, he does not sound just like the waspish voice of the series but he delivered some radio stings in what he described as his “completely out-of-control and ludicrously camp” voice when asked.

“I don’t know where it is all going to end,” he said. “It is damaging my larynx.”

The series scripts are usually written by producers, not by him, though he improvises on them.

“Quite often I’ll make it less harsh, because the producers who write the stuff are with the contestants for five nights and they genuinely hate some of the people involved,” he said.

Lamb is providing the voiceover for the Irish version, the first instalment of which is due to be broadcast by TV3 next Monday at 9pm.

Executive producer David Sayer said the show is so well known in Ireland there was no point changing the format.

Two episodes were shot in Dublin and one each in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

Next Monday’s edition features the Cork contestants, who include a pro-hunting country mother and a strict vegetarian who cooks quorn schnitzel. The programme also features a contestant whose idea of postprandial entertainment is for his fellow diners to search outdoors for a horse.

Several contestants turned up for yesterday’s launch.

Cora Murphy, a cosmetic nurse based in Crumlin, said she ensured her guests were well oiled by the time food arrived.

“At that stage they would have eaten kebabs,” she said.