Where to even start? Once again, The Restaurant (BBC Two) proved to be one of the highlights of the TV year, exuding class, sophistication… as well as all those crude things we like, like tension, drama, hissy-fits and a big fat prize. After the first series, I thought that this was a series that couldn’t get any better… but how wrong I was. A tweak here and a tweak there saw the show as scintillating as ever and Raymond Blanc showed further why absolutely every single human in the world adores him.

Related: The Restaurant Section on TV Scoop | Top 50 2008

It was hard to imagine anyone getting under my skin as much as those that appeared in series one of The Restaurant. I mean, how do you compete with the Tilli twins? Or Laura and Grant? The lesson learned is that you should implicitly trust the people who make this show. While there was no replacement for the Tilli twins, everything else was there in spades. And some.

The contestants were, as ever, a mixed bunch, veering from the completely hopeless to the brilliant, to the plucky, to the plain irritating. The show started with a real bang by hitting all with a sacking. No-one had even got keys to an establishment and *BAM* one lame frozen mango thing later and Anita and Kashelle were told to piss off. It was clear that this series would have more twists and turns than the previous outing.

The hopeless came and went pretty sharpish, with Harriet and Mike making dog’s dinners all the way and standing out as the poster-boys for ‘least likely’. Chris and Caroline were lovely and plucky, but ultimately, nothing like good enough for going into business with Le God.

Whatever.

Fact is, this series was all about four couples, notably, Lindsie and Tim, Helen and Stephen, Alisdair and James and Michele and Russell. Michele and Russell ended up winning out with a sure and steady pace, albeit littered with tears and tantrums. In fact, they shared a lot with the previous winners (remember, Jezza and Jane?). However, the last weeks were wide open. Helen and Stephen looked a dead-cert at more than one point, but sadly, at the sharper end of things, were shown lacking, same goes for Lindsie and Tim, who provided one of the most stunning bits of telly of the year before they left (in the “would you hire yourself?” incident).

However, like series one, the real stars were a couple that didn’t win. Of course, I’m talking about Alisdair and James. Initially, I hated them. I hated them with an unnatural passion. Then, and rightly, I went soft of them. Between them, they created wonderful TV. Alisdair had some kind of heart attack or something, neither of them could spell for shit (“Scalloops”, and “Poached Pairs”) and generally made life as difficult for themselves as humanly possible. However, their blundering only served to make them more likeable. I mean, at certain points, I felt myself wanting them to win because, let loose in the real world, there’s a good chance they somehow end up killing themselves in some freak accident or something.

From the choice of music, the edit, the pace, the contestants, the judges (Sarah Willingham is surely the TV woman of the year?) and the ‘content’, The Restaurant was a feast on all fronts. Magical, enchanting television.