Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat

Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat
Genre	Satire, documentary
Based on	A Modest Proposal
Written by	Matt Edmonds
Directed by	Tom Kingsley
Presented by	Gregg Wallace Michelle Ackerley
Starring	Claire Ashton Stephen Chapman Joan Hodges Julianna Kurokawa Michel Albert Roux
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
Production
Executive producer	Jack Kennedy
Producer	Jonathan Levene
Cinematography	Jakob Cizic
Editor	Jon Dean
Running time	23 minutes
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	24 July 2023 (2023-07-24)

Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat is a satirical documentary written by Matt Edmonds and presented by Gregg Wallace,^[1] and co-presented by Michelle Ackerley.^[2] It was first broadcast on 24 July 2023 on the British television channel, Channel 4.^[3] It depicts the development in food technology by which a British industry produces a large amount of genetically engineered human meat. It was later revealed as a mockumentary based on a satirical essay, A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift in 1729 that urged poor Irish people to sell their children to the rich as food.^[4] The Guardian reported it as "one of the best hoaxes in media history",^[5] and as Barbara Ellen described, "[It was] a sociopolitical mockumentary, a straight-faced, grimly cannibalistic satire on the cost of living crisis."^[6]

Summary

Channel 4 describes the theme of the film: "With food prices soaring, Gregg Wallace investigates a controversial new lab-grown meat product that its makers claim could provide a solution to the cost-of-living crisis."^[3] In a format similar to the series Inside the Factory (also presented by Wallace), the documentary features a tour of Good Harvest, a secret food industry in Lincolnshire that had succeeded in making cheap and fresh meat that will cut down the cost of living. The meats were made from human tissues in the form of cakes. The donors were paid "two weeks' worth of energy bills" for about a pound of flesh they gave,^[5] more specifically, £250 for a single buttock, double is £400.^[7] The CEO of the company, Tamara Ennett, explained the procedure of collecting the flesh as "pain-subjective".^[2]

The meat samples were grown in the laboratory, and genetically modified using the flesh cells to produce large pieces of meat. Wallace remarked: "under EU law, we couldn't possibly operate machines like this due to legislation. But now [after Brexit] we can harvest people and pay them for their flesh," and concludes the film: "So it's no surprise eating children seems a more likely path for our country."^[3]

Wallace then travels to London for a taste test at Le Gavroche with Michel Roux Jr.^[3] Trying out three different samples of meat,^[2] they agree that the best was the "premium",^[6] later revealed to be from children under age seven^[3] who had just played to relax their muscles,^[6] as Wallace explained: "Like livestock on the way to the abattoir, any stress could affect the quality of their meat."^[2]

Revelation and reactions

It was later revealed that the documentary was a parody based on Jonathan Swift's satirical essay, A Modest Proposal, written in 1729. Swift had suggested that poor Irish people should sell their children to the rich as food. The essay was also shown in the credits.^[4] Wallace wrote in Instagram a day after the broadcast: "Thank you for watching. I really enjoyed my first acting job!"^[8] Good Harvest was a fake factory.^[3] The director, Tom Kingsley explained, "Our intention wasn't to create a hoax – it was just that we felt the satire would be more powerful if it caught people by surprise."^[4] It provoked alarmed reactions on social media, notably Twitter, by viewers that had taken the programme to be real.^[9][10] It received 400 complaints to Ofcom.^[11]

In a review in The Guardian, Lucy Mangan described it as "cleverly executed" and expressed her initial surprise, "It took a shamefully long time for me to work out what was going on... But for anyone even more gullible than I am, and especially if they have read their Swift, the next twist leaves no room for doubt about what is – quite unexpectedly on a weekday evening from mischievous Channel 4 and writer Matt Edmonds – actually happening."^[2] Susan Fitzmaurice in The Conversation commented, saying, "It succeeded in generating the heat because it tapped into the anger and passion that people feel about the current state of affairs. It was savage satire."^[12] Neil Armstrong of BBC Culture, compared the mockumentary to the 1992 horror mockumentary Ghostwatch, Chris Morris's Brass Eye satire series of the 1990s, and The Great Donor Show which shocked the Netherlands in 2007.^[13]

Anita Singh reviewed in The Telegraph with a critical comment, saying, "It would have worked far better as an advert for vegetarianism. Instead it played out like a Black Mirror episode stripped of cleverness and subtlety."^[14] Armstrong on BBC Culture also noted that "a couple of members of Parliament condemned it and some who watched insisted that, even as satire, it had been – forgive the pun – in poor taste."^[4] Michael Odell in the Evening Standard also criticised, remarking, "Just as I was about to ring family living up North [as Wallace's team would like to taste people from the region] and tell them to lock all doors or shoot Wallace on sight (to be honest, some are already prepared for the latter) the 'mockumentary’' lost its satirical power.^[15]

References

1. Heritage, Stuart (2023-07-25). "'The anger of it will linger for years' – is The British Miracle Meat the most disturbing TV satire ever?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
2. Mangan, Lucy (2023-07-24). "Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat review – this look at eating human flesh is a total curveball". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
3. Lewis, Isobel (2023-07-27). "Channel 4 viewers bamboozled by Gregg Wallace mockumentary about 'eating human meat'". The Independent. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
4. Armstrong, Neil (2023-07-28). "The hoax 'documentary' about human flesh-eating that shocked the UK". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
5. Rose, Steve (2023-07-26). "The British Miracle Meat: the story behind one of the best TV hoaxes in history". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
6. Ellen, Barbara (2023-07-30). "The week in television: Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat; Reframed: Marilyn Monroe; Dreaming Whilst Black; Special Ops: Lioness – review". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2023-07-31.
7. Lawes, Ruth (2023-07-27). "Gregg Wallace's 'human meat' documentary is not as barbaric as it sounds". Metro. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
8. Harrison, Ellie (2023-07-25). "Gregg Wallace jokes he really enjoyed his first acting job in Channel 4 mockumentary". The Independent. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
9. "Gregg Wallace's Cannibalism Mockumentary Sparks Ofcom Complaints". HuffPost UK. 2023-07-26. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
10. "Under 500 Ofcom complaints for Gregg Wallace's controversial 'human meat' mockumentary". ITV News. 26 July 2023.
11. "Gregg Wallace's fake Channel 4 documentary gets hundreds of Ofcom complaints". Digital Spy. 2023-07-27. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
12. Fitzmaurice, Susan (2023-07-28). "Channel 4's shocking Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat owes much to Swift and his gruesome satire". The Conversation. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
13. "The TV hoax that shocked the UK". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
14. Singh, Anita (2023-07-24). "Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat, review: if Black Mirror were starved of subtlety". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
15. Odell, Michael (2023-07-26). "The British Miracle Meat – Gregg Wallace cannibal satire is overcooked". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2023-08-02.