Jamie Oliver defends 'Ministry Of Food'

Jamie Oliver has praised the people of Rotherham a week after a local politician accused him of portraying them as "thickos".

John Gilding, the leader of Rotherham Council's Tory group, said Oliver showed the town's people in a bad light in his new Channel 4 show Ministry Of Food. The programme featured a mum-of-two feeding her children on fast food.

Oliver told GMTV: "Rotherham's a great place, the people are amazing, and it's actually statistically the most normal town in Great Britain so in theory if anything works there, it could work anywhere in the country.

"I want people from Rotherham to think they've been put on the map, they're wonderful people.

"And actually what they've got to realise is what we do in this programme could affect the way that policy and the public react, not just in this country but in other countries."