What the 'cronut' tells us about why TV cooking shows are dying

The curious case of why the UK has fallen out of love with once-beloved 'chop and chat' food shows.

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Some 30 years ago I found myself working with David Pritchard, a director who turned the late Keith Floyd into a TV star.

He had first encountered Floyd, glass in hand, chaotically running a Bristol restaurant and coaxed him into cooking on television, often, it appeared, semi-sloshed, on a trawler or a gale swept hillside or, memorably, in a field of ostriches.

Audiences loved it. More than 20 television series ran with Floyd at the helm, and one of the attractions was the obvious tension between him and his director.

It was never going to end well.