Stuffing! Apricot! Pine nuts!

So the preview disc of episode one of The F Word‘s second series has arrived.

Previews are often funny things to watch, with longeurs of nothing much happening, other than a caption stating “TITLES HERE”. Even more baffling can be the sound of a bored production team member laying in the commentary in lieu of the show’s star. This becomes quite comedic when said commentary is in the first person, and very much so for Dominic Littlewood’s Don’t Get Done, Get Dom, wherein the gruff haggler’s monologue drifted between what sounded like an adolescent lad and a chirpy housewife. Likewise, when a production team spod fills in for Gordon Ramsay’s terribly butch monosyllabic recipe recitation.

But, The F Word. And things are much improved at the hot plate. This time around the show is far more focussed on Ramsay cajoling a brigade of amateurs into turning out acceptable food in his kitchen (mucho comments about “balls”). Giles Coren is no longer welcome on the premises (hooray!), although there’s still too much stuff about Gordon, his family, and what’s going on in the back garden. Dunno about you, but I prefer to see Ramsay as some kind of culinary automaton. Anything about his personal life just distracts from that.

As before, elements of the show plugged in the pre-publicity seem to have come adrift. Where’s Janet Street Porter and her regular reports on food? Like Jane Moore before her, at this stage it looks like she’s ended up in the scraps bin – bar one passing comment from Ramsay.

But that’s fine. The show’s now moving to a post watershed slot, so it doesn’t need all that. It’s got excellent swearing instead – plus the trailer for episode two looks really promising, Ramsay railing at an amateur cook to, “Call me Gordon! I’m not your ‘mate’!”.

The show’s on Channel 4 from June 21. “Fucking delicious”.