TV review: I hope Jamie Oliver never stops making Christmas specials

This year he’s cooking for a Christmas party. I’ll never make his cheesy filo parcels with homemade cranberry sauce, but I sat there watching him do it and suddenly realised how much I like this time of year.

His cheesy cauliflower and leek lasagne is like a Christmas present for your vegetarian friends. No one else will eat it at your party but still, I was glued to the way he made his own pasta sheets. (Wasn’t mad about the way he said they were like silk handkerchiefs though – no one wants to eat a hanky.)

I nearly ate the screen when he presented his sticky toffee-coffee-walnut sponge thingy. It’s a shame in a way that this airs in mid-December. All this greedy luxurious food porn makes me hungry and I just end up eating a tub of Celebrations.

I was nearly on to the second tub of Celebrations when he started making chicken skewers with roasted root veg. There was rum and vinegar in the Jerk marinade and a Jamie trick for making a concertina of the parsnip so the rub gets into all the nooks and crannies.

The trick is to fool yourself into thinking you’ll actually make these dishes for your friends and family over Christmas, when we all know you’re going to crack open six packets of finger food from Marks and Spencer. I don’t care.

It’s a balm watching Jamie playing with food in his man shed, uninterrupted by his many kids. This is all part of the fantasy. Then his friends arrive for the party and we get into some hard-core people watching. I’ll never get invited to one of Jamie’s get-togethers and neither will you, but for a hour in mid-winter, he makes you feel like his best friend in the world.

It ends with Jamie hugging his wife Jools after a plate of sticky toffee coffee sponge. They’re another year older, like the rest of us. I hope Jamie never stops his take on Christmas.