The Shallow end

IT IS A number of years now since BBC television put out a ‘documentary’ about the spaghetti harvest in southern Italy. In the context of the heavy current affairs programme Panorama, presented by solid and solemn Richard Dimbleby, it was very convincing. Some viewers, seeing the peasants picking and bundling the smooth, long sticks, wondered if their supermarket pasta was some flour and water substitute for the real thing.