In tonight’s second programme Gordon tackles a pub for the first time, getting to grips with The Fenwick Arms in rural Lancashire. The pub is run by landlord Brian who, after thirty years in the business and a quadruple heart-bypass, still puts in 120 hours a week and insists on laying down the law in the kitchen. Despite their best endeavours Brian and his partner Elaine are £250k in debt, losing £1500 a week and facing bankruptcy within three months unless there’s a drastic reversal in their fortunes.

This is a pub with ideas way above its station: the tables in the restaurant are set as if the Queen is about to arrive for lunch, and the complex menu boasts ostentatious dishes galore, all coated with Brian’s cloying signature sauces, or gravy only fit for filling potholes in the pub car park. In the cramped kitchen, stuffed full of Brian’s world-class collection of novelty dinner plates and appliances bought from eBay, the head chef is only allowed to dress the food. There’s an urgent need to get back to basics, galvanize the staff and produce great, simple food to bring the punters back before it’s too late. Can Gordon get Brian out of the kitchen for long enough to allow his Campaign for Real Gravy to turn things around? Or will a curmudgeonly Brian call time on Gordon’s attempts to save his business?