Channel 4 Mockumentary Sees Gregg Wallace Try Britain's 'Miracle Meat'

With food prices rising at their highest rate in years, Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat on Channel 4 led viewers to believe they were about to watch Gregg explore a new ‘Miracle Meat’ from food company, ‘Good Harvest’, claiming to be cheaper and tastier than any of its competitors. The answer? Engineered human meat. And it’s harvested from the poor.

Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat was presented to Channel 4 viewers as a documentary special hosted by Gregg Wallace. In fact, it was a mischievous and poignant mockumentary satire, inspired by Jonathan Swift’s 1729 essay, A Modest Proposal.

As a sinister narrative grew across the show, Gregg learnt that the cell-removal procedure involves taking off a chunk of flesh from the donor in a painful process. The people giving their samples were from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds, and doing so for the cash. In a gruesome finale, Gregg found out that ‘Good Harvest’ were creating a premium range of higher quality meat from children donors. Just like A Modest Proposal, the ’mockumentary’ satire targets the elite establishment and its disregard of Britain’s poor as well as taking aim at the people behind big corporations that are profiteering from the cost of living crisis.

The special was commissioned by Tim Hancock, commissioning editor, Factual Entertainment at Channel 4, exec produced by Jack Kennedy and produced by Jonathan Levene at Untold Studios, written by Matt Edmonds and directed by Tom Kingsley.

Due to the sensitive nature of the show, Untold Studios worked closely with Kerry Hudson, a British writer and author of a number of books, most recently: “Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns” to inform the approach of using satire as a medium to get across an important message.

Matt Edmonds, Writer, Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat explains, “Satire can go places serious discourse can't. The British Miracle Meat gave us a chance to deliver a sharp, stomach-churning truth in a palatable package of a features show, fronted by possibly this generation's greatest satirist, Gregg Wallace.”

Jack Kennedy, executive producer, Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat explains, “We applaud Channel 4 for bravely allowing us to use scheduling misdirection to create an attention-grabbing satire. The grotesqueness of cannibalism feels like a fitting metaphor for the current state of the nation.”

Tim Hancock, Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment at Channel 4 explains, “This programme epitomises what Channel 4 does best by using humour to highlight one of the biggest issues in Britain today. It was a thrill to watch Gregg, Michel and the cast fully throw themselves into the satire – and the result is an extremely powerful, and unique show.”