This weekly afternoon cookery series from Yorkshire Television aired on the ITV network from 1971 until 1990.
The matronly Dorothy Sleightholme hosted Farmhouse Kitchen for 12 years and 160 programmes. Scots-born Grace Mulligan took over in the Autumn of 1982 when Sleightholme retired due to ill health.
The show presented demonstrations of old-fashioned British cookery (Yeomanry Pudding, Yorkshire Parkin, Hampshire Gipsy Bread or Stone Cream, anyone?) and thrifty ways to feed a family on a budget. Viewers were invited to send in their own recipes to be cooked onscreen.
Guests on the programme included Mary Berry, Rick Stein. Marguerite Patten, Arthur Francis, Nan Moran, Sybil Norcott, and Margaret Heywood.
In the light of today’s ultra-slick celebrity cooking shows, Dorothy’s assortment of beige-coloured dishes seems rather lacklustre, and the filmmaking a little rough and ready (the camera keeps on rolling when Dorothy clears her throat or struggles to suppress a cough) but the series was incredibly popular and Yorkshire Television published several cookbooks containing recipes from the show.
The vibraphone-heavy theme music was Fruity Flutes by Reg Wale.
