The Eighties

Restaurant critic Giles Coren and writer and comedian Sue Perkins experience the food culture of years gone by.

In this programme they go back to the 1980s, the years of their adolescence. Living in a converted loft on the Thames, they sample the high life of a couple of yuppies. To a soundtrack of 80s classics including the Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, ABC and Billy Bragg, they power-lunch their way through the decade, knocking back champagne while talking loudly into their oversized mobile phones.

With Margaret Thatcher running the country, they have a Tory meal with Norman Tebbit and Jeffrey Archer at Shepherd's restaurant in Westminster. Sue tries to find her inner Sloane by sampling Princess Diana's wedding breakfast, while Giles tries out the most expensive champagne at the Stock Exchange. After a week of nouvelle cuisine, the F-Plan, and New Romantic cocktails, the 1980s ends with Black Monday and a foodie dinner party with guests Ken Livingstone, Carol Decker, Lynne Franks and Toby Young.