There’s no denying that Giles Coren and Sue Perkins have set themselves some arduous challenges in the current series of Supersizers. Whether it’s living the medieval lifestyle, consuming gargantuan banquets a la last week’s French Revolutionary diet or simply, in the case of the 1980s edition, keeping those shoulder pads firmly in place, there’s no denying it’s made for enthralling viewing – with, it has to be said, a certain sense of thankfulness that it’s them working their way through all those frequently unappetising menus and not you.

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By this stage of the series, you begin to sense the pair need a bit of a treat – and so it came in the shape of tonight’s edition, which took Giles and Sue back to the 1920s, the era of flappers, Charlestons, cocktail hours and post-war, pre-Depression hedonism (the so-called ‘Bright Young Things’ whose partying skills would put some of the biggest headline grabbers of the 21st Century to shame).

Actually if we’re being honest this one was more of a treat for Giles than it was for Sue – for in keeping with the general inequalities of previous eras covered in this series he was the one who got to tuck in while she got lumbered with the 1920s obsession with calorie counting and general twiggyness – and while he kicked off the week with such delicacies as potted shrimp and hot buttered toast for breakfast she was left with merely a handful of laxatives and some hot water with lemon to wash them down. It was much the same story last week, wasn’t it? Giles feasting on entire chickens while she was left with a bit of old broth? Thought so.

Anyhow, this being the era that recognisable convenience foods began to find their way on to the British table, the rest of the week saw such highlights as creating a peach melba without any actual peach (rather some instant custard instead), the result being something orange and vile looking that looked as if it would have been better served painting walls, some antiquated looking Kelloggs Cornflakes and other assorted goodies.

But it wasn’t all pre-packaged cereals and body cleansing, there were plenty of hearty meals too, some of which – such as the post-motor racing lunch of roast beef, cabbage and potatoes followed by treacle tart – which wouldn’t be out of place on a modern-day dinner table. And despite my just recovering from a nasty virus which has all but put paid to my appetite for the best part of a week now, the strawberry pavlova served at the final meal still looked enormously tempting.

Like the era itself, this week’s episode was a jolly, frivolous affair, washed down with literally gallons of booze – red wine, champagne and a particularly potent cocktail hour in which Giles didn’t take too much persuasion to work his way through a series of brightly coloured 1920s beverages. The accompanying history lesson was similarly absorbing – and apart from a few ‘amusing’ asides (the psychiatry ‘sketch’ for example) which seemed oddly out of place in a show primarily about food, this is still shaping up to be one of the best things on TV at the moment.

And next week we get to see the 1950s episode that got shelved due to the tennis….