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Season 3, Episode 4
Richard Ayoade asks farmer and foodie Jimmy Doherty to join him for a visit to the supermarket to trial gadgets designed to ease grocery shopping, including a robotic assistant, a fruit ripeness reader and a food ethics scanner. He then turns his attention to clothes shopping and heads to a department store, with actress Alison Steadman in tow, to test a 3D virtual mirror and a check out a mannequin with expanding bust and hips
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subtitles
16x9
Education/Science/Factual Topics
Technology
Cast & Crew
Richard Ayoade
(Presenter)
Jimmy Doherty
(Guest)
Alison Steadman
(Guest)
Colin Byrne
(Producer)
Dionne South
(Producer)
Dom Bowles
(Series producer)
Leo McCrea
(Series director)
More Information
Did You Know..
Richard Ayoade
(Presenter)
Best Known For:
The IT Crowd.
Early-life:
Born Richard Ellef Ayoade on June 12, 1977, in London. His mother is Norwegian, his father Nigerian, and Richard is their only child. The family left the capital when he was young and settled in Ipswich. He was interested in film from an early age, and wrote plays and sketches while still at school before landing a place at Cambridge to study law, where he met David Mitchell and joined the famous Footlights group. On leaving university he spent two years writing for TV sketch shows and attempting to become a stand-up comedian.
Career:
Ayoade's breakthrough came when he and Matthew Holness created fictional horror author Garth Merenghi; a stage show featuring the character won the Perrier Award, which was followed by the Channel 4 series Garth Merenghi's Darkplace. Ayoade went on to appear in The Mighty Boosh, Nathan Barley, Bunny and the Bull, and The IT Crowd. He made his big-screen directorial debut with the acclaimed Submarine (which he also wrote, adapting it from the novel by Joe Dunthorne), and has since directed The Double as well as numerous music videos for acts such as the Arctic Monkeys, Super Furry Animals, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kasabian. He's was a team captain on Channel 4 panel show Was It Something I Said? and took over as host of Gadget Man from Stephen Fry.
Quote:
"I find performing very difficult. It's difficult to be a good actor. I get very nervous, even though it sounds disingenuous, because you could legitimately go, 'Well, why do it?'"
Trivia:
Here's Ayoade's tips for aspiring directors: "Try not to get depressed. You need to be healthy so don't get a cold. Get comfortable shoes because you don't sit down for two months."
Jimmy Doherty
(Guest)
Born:
May 24, 1975
in
Essex
Best Known For:
Jimmy's Farm.
Early-life:
Born on May 24, 1975, in Ilford, Essex. After leaving school he studied animal biology at the University of East London and entomology at Coventry University's zoology department. Jimmy proved he had TV presence while appearing briefly in Jamie's Kitchen and Oliver's Twist alongside his childhood friend Jamie Oliver. Harbouring dreams of being self-sufficient and to grow all his own produce, he attempted to turn his vision of living the 'good life' into reality.
Career:
At 28, Doherty quit his life as a city-dwelling academic and threw himself into the back-breaking task of transforming a dilapidated old dairy farm into a flourishing organic pig business. His efforts, documented in BBC series Jimmy's Farm, turned him into a household name. The success of that show spawned the follow-up BBC projects Jimmy's Farm Diaries, Crisis on Jimmy's Farm, Jimmy's Farming Heroes, Jimmy's Food Factory, and A Farmer's Life for Me. More recently, he has presented Channel 4 shows Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket, Jimmy and the Whale Whisperer, Jamie & Jimmy's Food Fight Club and Food Unwrapped.
Quote:
On the importance of farming: "It's the most important thing, without a shadow of a doubt. Because without organised agriculture, you just wouldn't have anything else."
Trivia:
In August 2014, Doherty was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum vote.
Alison Steadman
(Guest)
Born:
August 26, 1946
in
Liverpool
Best Known For:
Abigail's Party and Gavin & Stacey.
Early-life:
Alison was born on August 26, 1946, in Liverpool, where she was raised with two older sisters by her mother Marjorie and father George, who worked for an electronics firm. She wanted to be an actress from the age of nine and later trained at the East 15 acting school. Success did not come quickly, and she worked as a secretary for the Liverpool Probation Service before making her professional debut on stage in 1968 alongside Vanessa Redgrave in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Career:
In 1973, she made her TV debut in Mike Leigh's Hard Labour. She has also worked with Leigh on TV movies Nuts in May and Abigail's Party, and the films Life Is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996) and Topsy-Turvy (1999). She made her movie debut in Champions (1983) and her other film credits include A Private Function (1984), Clockwise (1986), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), Shirley Valentine (1989), Wilt (1990), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) and Confetti (2006). She earned a new army of fans with her role as matriarch Pamela in hit BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey. Her other TV credits include The Singing Detective, Pride and Prejudice, Fat Friends, The Syndicate, Love & Marriage and Boomers.
Quote:
'I didn't become an actress because I wanted to tell people what colour my knickers were. I wanted to entertain people.'
Trivia:
Steadman won an Olivier Award in 1993 for her role in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
Colin Byrne
(Producer)
Dionne South
(Producer)
Dom Bowles
(Series producer)
Leo McCrea
(Series director)
