The Supersizers Eat... — Season 1

Restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins experience the food culture of years gone by.In this programme they go back to the 1980s, the years of their adolescence. Living in a converted loft on the Thames, they sample the high life of a couple of yuppies. To a soundtrack of 80s classics including the Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, ABC and Billy Bragg, they power-lunch their way through the decade, knocking back champagne while talking loudly into their oversized mobile phones.With Margaret Thatcher running the country, they have a Tory meal with Norman Tebbit and Jeffrey Archer at Shepherd's restaurant in Westminster. Sue tries to find her inner Sloane by sampling Princess Diana's wedding breakfast, while Giles tries out the most expensive champagne at the Stock Exchange. After a week of nouvelle cuisine, the F-Plan, and New Romantic cocktails, the 1980s ends with Black Monday and a foodie dinner party with guests Ken Livingstone, Carol Decker, Lynne Franks and Toby Young.

Restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins experience the food culture of years gone by.In this programme, they go back to medieval England to live the life of a Lord and Lady in their country manor.Starting life in 1066, Giles takes on the guise of a Norman conqueror, complete with broadsword and chainmail. Sue wears pointy hats and is a damsel in deep distress, as Giles has been given her manor house and all the lands around it. He is also on a mission to woo her.Taking on the role of 100 servants is Michelin-starred chef and Anglo-Saxon lookalike Martin Blunos. During the week, he prepares the most sumptuous of meals including cockentrice - a creation made from the forepart of a chicken sewn to the rear of a piglet.The Supersizers are advised by their doctor that food must be prepared to balance their four humours, so Sue and Giles discover if they are phlegmatic (sluggish and dull), melancholic (sad), choleric (bad-tempered) or sanguine (sexy and laid-back).During an exhausting week, Giles becomes a chivalrous knight and goes off to experience the food of a crusader. Sue learns to play the harp, has visions, and samples medieval dating food. Together they try out falconry, go on a Chaucerian pilgrimage and dine with historian Colin Spencer and broadcaster Michael Portillo, discovering how the Magna Carta affected what could and couldn't be eaten.At the end of a week that covers nearly 400 years of medieval history, the intrepid Supersizers have a full-blown banquet with more than 20 guests, a contortionist, a fire-breather and musicians, while a trumpet fanfare heralds the arrival of Martin's fabulous feast, which includes peacock, coqz heaumez (helmeted cock), suckling pig, boar's head and hippocras.

Restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins experience the food culture of years gone by.Giles and Sue go for a journey back to Revolutionary France in the 1780s. Donning wigs and corsets, Giles and Sue find out what King Louis XVI ate, why Marie Antoinette was so hated, and how the Revolution was instrumental in creating the first restaurant and first restaurant critic.French chef Mickael Weiss from London's Coq d'Argent sweats it out in the kitchens providing the lavish banquets in some of the most beautiful chateaus in France.During the week, they sample frog's legs, a masked meal, an iced sculpture of the Bastille complete with fireworks and Marie Antoinette's soup before she was taken to the guillotine. Sue tries cake at Versailles while Giles has a banquet consisting entirely of a new vegetable called the potato.Following in the footsteps of the king and queen, Giles and Sue escape from Paris in a horse-drawn carriage and end the week with a meal consisting entirely of black food and with a live pig as the guest of honour. The French Revolution in a week is truly a supersized undertaking.

Series in which restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins experience the food culture of years gone by.This time, Giles and Sue discover the culinary delights of the bright young things in the 1920s. Chef for the week is food writer Allegra McEvedy, providing aspic-inspired cookery. 'It' girl Sue gets a real bob and Giles dresses in the dandyish fashions of the period. During their 1920s week, they go from one social engagement to another: cocktails at The Ritz, the charleston at Cafe de Paris and motor racing at Brooklands.During the general strike of 1926, Giles helps out by working on the buses while Sue cooks sausages for the volunteers in the park. They even find time to go on a Tutankhamun-inspired Egyptian expedition to the British Museum, together with a recreation of the picnic supplied by Fortnum and Mason for Howard Carter.The week culminates in a spectacular Red and White Meal cooked by Allegra, with guests Celia Walden, Diana Quick, Lord Ponsonby and David Taylor. The meal hails the end of the Roaring Twenties and the beginning of the Wall Street Crash.

Restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins experience the food culture of years gone by.Giles and Sue go back to the 1950s, an era started on rations and ended by Prime Minister Harold MacMillan remarking that 'we'd never had it so good'.Cookery writer Mary Berry helps Sue become the perfect housewife as they start the week on rations with canned salmon and horse. Giles has his real boss from The Times round for Babycham and a dinner taken from Elizabeth David's bestseller Mediterranean Food.They are joined by Marguerite Patten and perfect housewife Anthea Turner for a coronation buffet to celebrate the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II. Giles experiences the meal laid on for the Australians when they lost the Ashes to England, while Sue demonstrates against the Bomb in Trafalgar Square.After being shown how to dance by Bruce Welch of The Shadows, Giles and Sue end their week at a holiday camp, dining on a meal taken from a 1959 menu with guest social historian Dominic Sandbrook.

Series in which restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins experience the food culture of years gone by. This time they travel back to the early days of the Roman Empire. Living in asplendid villa, Senator Giles dons a toga while Vestal Virgin Sue dresses in tunics and keeps the fires of Rome burning.Italian chef and cookery writer Valentina Harris slaves away in the marbled kitchen, cooking extraordinary meals, including the stinking fish sauce known as garum. When not gorging on delights from Valentina's kitchen, Giles and Sue try out the popular Roman snack lagana, the precursor of pizza and pasta, while attending the Colosseum.Sue also finds herself as Queen Cleopatra, and is delivered to Giles in a carpet. Together they dine on spicy Egyptian fare. Giles tries his hand at being a gladiator and Sue discovers some of the more obscure gods at the Pantheon. While dining on sheep's testicles, sow's udder pate and duck tongue, Giles realises that being a gladiator may not be such a good idea, so they decide to go and conquer a small island called Britannica.Rocking up on Dover beach, they try British oysters and the food provided for the invading Roman army. Sue tries her hand at being Boudicca and Giles plunges into a freezing cold Roman bath. Missing their slaves, they retreat back to Rome for a final banquet with guests actor Kenneth Cranham, historian Adrian Goldsworthy and food expert Angela Pagano. Our intrepid Supersizers end their adventures suffocated in a shower of falling rose petals.