I THINK I must have been living under a rock because I've only just discovered Channel 4's brilliant cookery show, Come Dine with Me.

The premise is that over five days five amateur chefs take turns to battle for the title of best dinner party host by inviting the others into their homes for a three-course meal.

After dinner, each of the guests awards the host (who is a stranger) marks out of 10.

At the end of the week the top-scoring chef wins £1,000 cash.

At times it's daft and you don't learn anything useful about cookery, but what a great show.

This is mainly down to the work of the hilariously sarcastic narrator.

To be fair he's got some great material to work on, for each week there seems to be an older woman who thinks she's the bee's knees, a young woman, an old lothario, a young good-looking man and a Hyacinth Bucket- type mumsy woman.

None of the contestants seems to be short of cash - they often have great big tasteless homes, which the other contestants have a good old poke around while dinner is cooking.

Last night's show was another classic - the best bit being when one woman who insisted on showing off with a complicated Mediterranean theme ended up with her tail between her legs and calling on her guests to help her get the stuff done on time.