Eva Longoria: Searching for Spain (BBC2)
There cannot be a single restaurant or tourist hotspot in Europe that hasn’t been visited by a famous actor or TV presenter with a camera crew in tow. At least, that’s how it sometimes feels.
The form is always the same. They perhaps go to a market, or visit a traditional local business and try their hand at weaving or barrel making, but inevitably they end up in a restaurant.
The latest of these shows is Eva Longoria: Searching For Spain, in which the Desperate Housewives star visits the country from which, 11 generations ago, one of her ancestors set sail for the New World.
As TV tourists go, Eva is perfectly competent and gets on with everybody she meets. It helps that she speaks very good Spanish, despite learning only ten years ago.
But there is a limit to the number of times you can watch somebody sitting down for a meal and making approving noises.
She began her tour in Barcelona, where food writer Matt Goulding introduced her to vermouth, which is apparently as much of a tradition in the city as wine o’clock in the English home counties.
In Eva Longoria: Searching For Spain (pictured), the Desperate Housewives star visits the country from which, 11 generations ago, one of her ancestors set sail for the New World
As TV tourists go, Eva (pictured on the programme) is perfectly competent and gets on with everybody she meets. It helps that she speaks very good Spanish, despite learning only ten years ago
But there is a limit to the number of times you can watch somebody sitting down for a meal and making approving noises
Frankie speaking
Banned In The 80s (BBC2) featured an intriguing theory from Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Holly Johnson about a 1984 BBC ban on their single Relax: ‘As the BBC are a sort of government situation, I’m sure they did it to improve the balance of payments.
‘The record did really well abroad.’
An idea there for Rachel Reeves.
‘Oh!’ said Eva, taking her drink. ‘It has an olive inside.’
Doesn’t miss much, does she?
For lunch, they had veal and pork meatballs with squid. ‘Wow!’ said Eva.
She then joined the son of writer Manuel Vazquez Montalban, who invented the food-loving detective Pepe Carvalho. Inspector Montalbano, Andrea Camilleri’s own food-loving Italian detective, was named in the author’s honour.
Eva and her host shared pan con tomate, a local snack of stale bread with tomato and lots of garlic. ‘Wow!’ said Eva. ‘Wow!’
The show then struck a serious note: a reminder of the consequences of political division. She went to visit her host’s mother — inevitably to have something to eat — and discovered that the old lady had once spent five months in prison. Her crime? To have protested as a student against General Franco, the country’s former dictator.
But easily the most interesting part of her journey, and certainly the most colourful, was a trip to cava country. In the village of Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, she watched a bizarre but lively festival which celebrates the insect that devastated the area’s red wine business in the late 1880s.
Some of the revellers were dressed as giant yellow phylloxera, the guilty pests. With crops ruined, local growers instead planted a grape that was resistant to phylloxera — and created a booming cava trade. Ninety per cent of Spanish cava is produced in the region.
By this time, perhaps Eva was conscious that she was saying ‘Wow!’ just a little too often. Over a meal with a local producer, she tasted their best cava. ‘Oh my God!’ she said.
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ROLAND WHITE’S review: Seeing Eva eat her way round Spain didn’t leave me hungry for more…