ARTS CHANNEL – Thursday 26 February, 8.30pm
Starring Catherine McCormack and Greg Wise, this is the compelling story of the woman behind the Mrs Elizabeth David persona. Elizabeth David is the most important cookery writer of the past century – she revolutionised the way we, as a nation, think about food. When Mrs David published her first book in 1950, post-war rationing was still in place and olive oil was only found in chemists in bottles marked “for external use only”. British housewives were making do with Spam, dried egg and over-boiled cabbage. David changed all that. Her books, with their beautiful descriptions of mouth-watering Mediterranean cuisine, introduced the country to the previously unheard of delights of olives, apricots, avocados and basil. This film tells the compelling story of the woman behind the Mrs David persona. At the heart of the drama is the one true love affair of David’s life – the affair which she claimed drove her to success as a food writer – and the moment where it all came crashing down. Her misery at losing this great love was so extreme that she suffered a brain haemorrhage, which tragically and ironically robbed her of a full sense of taste.