How the Other Half Eat, Channel 4 - TV review: Swapping food trolleys shows how food and class are closely connected

Channel 4's How the Other Half Eat is a treat

If you're the type of person who peeks into other people's supermarket trolleys and draws damning conclusions (hey, it passes the time), then Channel 4's How the Other Half Eat is a treat. Each week, two families swap groceries, recipes and meal time routines and havoc ensues. Unsurprising, given that, like everything else in this country, food is intimately connected with class.

The Ringshalls were the middle-middle-class ones with a relaxed approach to meal times and a cupboard full of sugary treats. The Janes were the lower-middle-class ones who shop at Aldi and stick rigidly to a fully budgeted meal plan.

As you might expect, Ringshall dad James sneered at Michelle Janes' recipes ("Beef cobbler is eaten by people at primary schools in the 1970s"), and sudden exposure to e-numbers sent the Jane boys haywire. Still, when the families met up for an end-of-challenge appraisal, everyone was polite and positive about the lessons learned. Hopefully, in any future episodes it'll be self-righteous vegan bores vs unrepentant junk food addicts. Then things will really get interesting.