Food on TV is wholly made-up of middle class people who are good at baking and chefs who are absolute wankshafts giving off the impression that they sniff cocaine constantly. That is, except for The People’s Foodie, Sir Gregg Wallace. He’s the lad about town who would be as happy eating at Smith’s of Smithfield as having a kebab after a night on the burp-pop. So while Jamie Oliver’s attempts at introducing Rotherham to celeriac seemed a little contrived and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s ‘Chicken Out’ campaign didn’t exactly endear himself to everyone in the country, step forward Gregg (so foodie that’s he’s even got egg in his first name) with a show called Gregg Wallace’s Recession Bites (BBC Two, Tuesday, 30 June, 10pm).

Related: Masterchef stuff! Here!

First thing first. Recession Bites was a little weird initially. Not because of some psychedelic soundtrack or because it was presented upside down. No, it was something much simpler that threw me. Basically, Gregg Wallace presented sections look directly into camera. I’m used to seeing him shouting off to the side toward John Torode’s weird, staring golf ball eyes.

Mercifully, my little pea-brain didn’t have to readjust for too long because, before we knew it, Our Gregg was off beating the street and collaring people and asking them about their shopping habits and the like.

Now, for me, there’s only Gregg Wallace who can make a show about the effect of the recession on the British food economy engaging to watch. His language was plain, straight and unfussy. He didn’t dwell on blokes from banks saying things like ‘fiscal’ and the like. Instead, he hung around with a mum and sent her off to shop at the various big supermarkets, as well as hanging with the local traders.

What Wallace found out and relayed to us lot was… well… something surely we all knew already. That price and convenience is paramount when shopping. Most people who have busy lives (read: Run ragged by their children) are too frazzled to be even thinking about holding veg to see which is firmest, before skipping off to a fish monger to sniff the bass, only to repeat the process endlessly and lug it all home, ending up with arms like buff baboons. Shopping online is the way a lot of people are going because it frees up time with the little ones – and no back ache.

Still though, Gregg is a man who was genuinely interested and a man empathetic to the way people really lead their lives. As such, when addressing People In Suits, he probed and mused, giving pretty decent food for thought. And it’s on that terrible pun that I’ll end on.