''Living on the Veg'' is a British

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

cookery programme that first aired in 2020 on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. It is hosted by the cookery writers and bloggers Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, a duo known as

BOSH! BOSH! is a duo of British vegan chefs from Sheffield consisting of Henry Firth and Ian Theasby. They rose to fame in 2016 with the launch of their YouTube channel, and have gone on to host the ITV1 television programme ''Living on the Veg'' and au ...

. Each episode features a series of recipes cooked by Firth and Theasby, and a guest who talks with the hosts about food and their work. It is produced by produced by Rock Oyster Media and distributed by

Cineflix Rights Cineflix Media is a Canadian global media production and distribution company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, it has branches in Toronto, New York City, London, and Dublin. Subsidiaries include United Kingdom-based Cineflix Rights, ...

. ''Living on the Veg'' is

's first vegan cooking programme.

Production

Firth and Theasby met at

High Storrs School High Storrs School is a mixed secondary school and sixth form college with academy status located on the south-western outskirts of Sheffield, England. The main school building is Grade II listed. It moved to its current site in 1933. The sch ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

as children and became friends. The pair became vegan in 2015; Theasby first, with Firth following after seeing '' Cowspiracy''. They then formed

, producing vegan cookery videos for

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and social media, garnering over a billion views. They authored a series of successful cookery books, as well as ''How to Live Vegan'', a book about living as a vegan in a non-vegan world. As early as 2017, Firth and Theasby hoped to host the first vegan cookery show. They pitched the idea to a range of production companies, but had no initial success. They were then approached by

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

-based production company Rock Oyster Media, who asked if the pair had considered producing a vegan cookery programme. In producing ''Living on the Veg'', Firth and Theasby hoped to appeal beyond the vegan market, to

flexitarian Flexitarianism or Flexitarism is a semi-vegetarian diet in which people do not eat meat one or more days a week. A semi-vegetarian diet (SVD), also called a flexitarian, is one that is centered on plant foods with the occasional inclusion of m ...

and even meat-eating audiences. The first episode, which was aired on 12 January 2020, featured sponsorship from the supermarket

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

, along with ITV's other Sunday morning cookery programming. This led to a backlash from vegans, as the Waitrose adverts featured non-vegan products and footage of farmed animals. Spokespersons from The Vegan Society and

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

argued that Waitrose could have used the adverts to showcase their plant-based products. Waitrose apologised, explaining that they were not aware of the content of ''Living on the Veg'' in advance, and explained that they were speaking to ITV to "make sure that all foods featured in the future are more matched to the topics in the show".

Format

The first series was made up of ten one-hour episodes, airing weekly on Sunday mornings. On the programme, Firth and Theasby produce a series of vegan foods, for a range of meals, including "pizzas, burgers, curries, pies, big breakfasts, nddecadent desserts". They aim to walk viewers "through a new weekly menu every episode". Every episode features a guest. The tone is light-hearted, featuring back-and-forth between Firth and Theasby.

Episodes

References

External links

BOSH! official site''Life on the Veg''
on ITV * {{Vegetarianism, state=collapsed British cooking television shows 2020 British television series debuts 2020 British television series endings Plant-based diets

Production

Format

Episodes

See also

References

External links