20 years since the last ‘Two Fat Ladies’ aired

Last week I was describing an event to two young women and they asked me how long ago it occurred. I replied “The late 90s, not that long ago.” They chuckled, and I then realized that the late 1990s were, in fact, 20 years ago. That is also how long it’s been since the last ‘Two Fat Ladies’ episode aired. The show, which ran for three seasons, was a catalyst for many other shows that came after and inspiration for legions of food writers. Anna Girling writes about the lasting legacy left by the program.

In case you did not have the pleasure of watching the show, the premise is that two titular ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson, ride around on a motorcycle and cook fabulous (and quite decadent) meals for a variety of guests. The people eating the meals range from priests to girls at a boarding school. The joie de vivre expressed by Wright and Paterson was a refreshing change from the sometimes stodgy food programs that preceded it.

Not just a recap of what made ‘Two Fat Ladies’ a phenomenon, the article recounts each woman’s fascinating history. We learn tidbits about Wright and Paterson that you would not expect from watching them on the show: that Wright was one barred from practice as a barrister and slept rough for a time, and that Paterson had been expelled from her convent school at the age of fifteen. After reading their backstories, I appreciate the women and their show even more.