Is there a TV channel just devoted to food

A. UK Food began broadcasting to 5.5 million homes with digital satellite plus further subscribers to Telewest's digital cable service from November 5.

The new channel churns out a non-stop diet of cookery and food from 7am to 7pm every day. The channel features a lot of familiar faces from BBC2 and other terrestrial channels,� but around 50 per cent of its output is newly commissioned. It boasts celebrities such as Sanjeev Bhaskar from Goodness Gracious Me who is travelling through India and Britain for Delhi Belly, a host of Galley Slaves dressed in bikinis as cooks aboard a luxury yacht, and Cupids' Dinners, a cross between a cookery show and Blind Date. At Christmas, the channel will screen five hilarious shows from the late Fanny Craddock, TV's first superchef.

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Q.� Will the channel be mostly repeats like other digital TV

A.� Repeats partly sustain the high percentage of original programming, including re-run highlights from Good Food Live, a 90-minute lunchtime show fronted every day by former breakfast TV presenter Jeni Barnett.

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Q.� Do people really want more cookery programmes

A.� The channel's editors are convinced the public has an unprecedented appetite for food shows. The channel is aimed princiapply at ABC1 women aged between 25 and 44, who enjoy their food. Jamie Oliver's new series attracted 2.6 million viewers and his latest books is one of the must-have gifts this Christmas. In an interview recently, the channel's editor Nick Thorogood said the channel was responding to a demand for lifestyle viewing.

He was quoted as saying: "I think people watch cookery programmes for pure enjoyment. The reality is you may be sitting at home having cheese on toast but on screen there is the most beautiful fillet of beef, cooked in a wild mushroom ragout with a fabulous jus of rich wine gravy..."

The channel has also tuned into so-called "Cocooning", after the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11. Food and lifestyle programmes such as BBC's GroundForce are thought to be feeding people's desire for reassurance and comfort in uncertain times.

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By Katharine MacColl

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