Giles Coren and Sue Perkins, after fattening up in Edwardian Supersize Me, have taken to slimming down with a unique new diet – rationing, World War II style.

It’s a far cry from their previous excursions, which involved stuffing their faces with as many rich Edwardian foods as they could get their hands on.

This time it’s an entirely different story, with the meagre weekly rations of the average wartime household being a far cry from the decadence of today. 

While there’s no doubt that the show is hugely informative – I didn’t know that root vegetables could be whipped up into so many unappetising meals – the weak links are the presenters.

Sue Perkins spends most of her time trying to be deliberately quirky and strange, obviously playing up to the cameras, and Giles Coren mooches around being pompous and pretentious.

Watching them stray away from the meat of the show and try to be engaging and entertaining on their own is pretty painful.

Despite this, the show includes some surprisingly tasty-looking food – after all the thriftiness, a huge plate of cottage pie followed up by a mountain of crumble looked particularly appetising – so it’s well worth a watch, for that alone.