Two Fat Ladies Were A Delight

"Two Fat Ladies," was a late 1990s BBC produced television show about food. Highly popular in Britain, the show also was shown on American television on the Food Network, which is where I saw the show originally. It also aired in Australia, on the the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (by the way, the mother of Clarissa, one of the ladies, was an Australian). The two ladies, who were literally two fat ladies, often went against political correctness; obviously, even with the name of the show, and the two made little remarks about their weight in some episodes. Clarissa Dickson Wright, the younger of the two, did not shy away from mentioning her days of heavy drinking in the past. They were both Catholic, and they talked in general ways, at times, about religion in their lives, although Jennifer, the other lady, mentioned having been disruptive in a religious school when she was in her teens. The two never backed away from using traditional ingredients, even though such ingredients, like heavy cream, butter, etc, are often frowned upon in modern society. Jennifer Paterson, the other lady, was a regular smoker, and she made no attempt to hide that fact, or her desire for a cocktail. Both ladies made occasional remarks about men, with sexual innuendo not far from the surface. Usually pretty broadminded, both ladies had traveled extensively BEFORE ever even meeting one another, with Jennifer having lived in Berlin,* Porto in Portugal (she spoke Portuguese, and used it in one episode especially), Benghazi in Libya and on the Italian island of Sicily, all much earlier in her life.

In the show, the two traveled around on a Triumph Thunderbird motorbike (American English: motorcycle) with Clarissa in the attached sidecar, and both complete with headgear (vrrroooooom!). They did shows from various locations, primarily in England, but also in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and even in Jamaica,** with one episode done from the Brazilian embassy in London, where Jennifer spoke some Portuguese, which I mentioned above,*** from a brewery in North Yorkshire, in the north of England, from an abbey in Ireland and from the island of Jersey (a British island at the southern end of the English Channel).****

The show ended because of the death of Jennifer Paterson in the second half of 1999. Clarissa Dickson Wright died in 2014. There is a DVD set available, with all of the episodes (see photo below). Their eccentricities AND their food were a delight!

* In a special tribute episode to Jennifer, after her death, one of the participants mentioned that when Jennifer lived in Berlin, she spent much time around gay men. 

** Jamaica is a British Commonwealth nation, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state, with a governor-general serving in Jamaica as the Queen's (monarchy's) representative.

*** Brazil was once a colony of Portugal; thus, Brazilians speak Portuguese. Amazing! (Hahaha!)

**** Here is a link to an article I did on "Hot Buttered Crab," which was inspired by this show, although not exactly like Jennifer prepared it:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/08/great-seafood-recipe.html 

Photo is of the Acorn Media DVD set. 

 WORD HISTORY:
Dough-This word goes back to Indo European "dheigh," which had the notion, "to shape, to form;" thus also, "to build, to knead." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "daigaz," meaning, "substance kneaded for baking." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dag" (long "a" sound), then, "doh" (long "o" sound, the "h" was aspirated; that is, was forced out with breath^). The word then became "dogh," before the modern form. The other Germanic languages have: German "Teig" (all German nouns are capitalized), Low German Saxon "Deeg," Dutch "deeg," West Frisian "daai," Danish "dej," Icelandic and Norwegian "deig," Swedish "deg," all meaning "dough." By the way, the use of the word "dough" as a slang word for "money" goes back to the mid 1800s, from American English.

^ This aspirated sound gave English the "gh" spelling in words, which WAS pronounced in the past. Close cousin German uses "ch" as its spelling of the aspirated sound.