I'm sick to death of television shows showing twatty Englishmen planning to build their dreadful middle-class 'bolt-holes' in idyllic surrounds in France, or Italy, Greece or Siberia.

But one show, French Leave, soars above this cruddy pack.

This is a 'new lifestyle' show similar to the others -- you'll have seen the garbage shows I mean -- but with a real difference.

For a start, the key person, London Michelin-starred chef John Burton Race, is articulate and intelligent. That marks this show apart right away.

Secondly, because he is a master-chef, the program becomes a casual, easy cooking-program, combining lifestyle and food in an irresistible way. It's just totally yummy. John Burton Race joins Jamie Oliver and the eminently edible Nigella Lawson as my favourite cathode-ray cooks.

There are 10 episodes in French Leave, and we start off by seeing John hard at work in his London restaurant. He's tight, drawn and exhausted, and looking as if on the verge of a complete physical, and possibly mental, collapse.

When he says he needs to break away for a time to save his family and himself, we totally believe him. He heads into South-West France (a region I stayed in only a couple of months back), dragging a fairly reluctant wife and six children plus Labrador pup with him -- and lands in Paradise.

There's no false dramas here about coping with unruly natives and customs. From the start he becomes enmeshed in the life and food of the region. And as he experiences the seasons and the local cuisine, we join him on an adventurous journey into apple crepes, cassoulet, pissaladiere, aligot, truffled chicken and other luscious gourmand delights.

There is some family drama -- his wife is not all that happy with the move, and neither are some of the kids. And one episode features a truly remarkable visitor from hell in the shape of the Mother-in-Law.

Back in England, she has heard to her horror that her grand-children have been forced to eat country-baked bread, regional cheeses, sausages and duck and other ghastly stuff. She arrives with a suitcase crammed with sliced white bread, Mars bars, Smarties, every bit of plastic convenience food she can bring, and proceeds to try to destroy everything John Burton Race has accomplished.

But the wicked witch is quickly despatched home, and Race rules. By the end of the series, when the family is ready to return to England, Race's wife and children are in fact quite sad about departing. They've spent a year in paradise -- no doubt they, like us, will be waiting for the sequel...

Great widescreen anamorphic transfer which brings us all we saw in regular broadcast, and more. Colours glow, with fantastic images of the French countryside which make me just want to get up and go.....

Sound is standard stereo, but nothing more is needed and everything is crystal-clear. There are no extras of any kind. The only extra which would have been worthwhile would have been some sort of postscript to show how well -- or badly -- the family had settled back into their old life.

And has the mother-in-law from hell been poisoned yet? I've always believed the only good mother-in-law is a dead mother-in-law.....

Buy this DVD for yourself, or as a present for anyone interested in great food and who loves the beauty of European countryside. Just don't let your mother-in-law see it.