The British Miracle Meat thoroughly disturbed TV fans when it aired on Monday night, with many comparing the mockumentary to Black Mirror.
It's easy to see why, as the Gregg Wallace-fronted programme focused on "miracle" meat, the kind of delicacy you'd find on your plate if Hannibal Lecter invited you over for dinner.
The synopsis teased: "With food prices soaring, Gregg Wallace investigates a controversial new lab-grown meat product that its makers claim could provide a solution to the cost-of-living crisis."
It doesn't take a genius to work out what this "controversial" solution is: we're talking about human meat here. Naturally, it was a stomach-churning watch for many viewers at home. Not only that, it felt scarily real!
Throughout the mockumentary, which was directed by Ghosts' Tom Kingsley, we follow Gregg as he learns more about this meat product that could be the nation's answer to rising food costs.
The cutting programme has definitely tricked the nation, billed as a new food show featuring MasterChef's Gregg Wallace, but instead throws us into a horrible dystopian future where humans are being killed for their meat.
It features a fake company called Good Harvest and sees Gregg travelling to a "human meat-harvesting plant" where he goes behind the scenes and learns people are being "paid to donate their flesh".
It gets weirder when Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jr. appears too, meeting with Gregg to "taste" the produce on offer, with the hopes he can serve it in his restaurant. It's enough to put anyone off their dinner, quite frankly.
And if you think it couldn't get worse, it does, with one shocking scene explaining that children under the age of seven can be volunteered by their families. Following this, Gregg is then offered some “toddler tartare”.
Taking to Twitter, fans were quick to compare it to Charlie Brooker's hit anthology series and it's easy to see why!
Haven’t posted in a while but wtf is the miracle meat episode. A live black mirror episode , thought it was real and only realised near the end of the episode that it was a satire #miraclemeat @GrowthHarvestJuly 24, 2023
Just watched #Miraclemeat on @Channel4 - bravo guys! You rekindled the spirit of Brass Eye and Black Mirror at its very best, and it was absolutely scathing! 👌🏽👏🏽🍖😅July 24, 2023
#miraclemeat since when did Gregg Wallace go all Black mirror on us?!July 24, 2023
To anyone in the UK right now, Channel 4 has successfully made a scary & hilarious Black Mirror episode set in real life starring Gregg Wallace about human meat?! 😂 #MiracleMeat pic.twitter.com/Pkac6OwVaeJuly 24, 2023
This show on C4 is giving me blackmirror vibes😂 #miraclemeatJuly 24, 2023
Watched the 'good harvest' mockumentry. Bravo #gregwallace I didnt twig until the kids, even then I was not sure what I had seen. An interesting thought, how far people would go to get food on the table. It got me and my hubby talking for ages about it. Well done #channel4July 25, 2023
Thankfully, this is all just fictional, but the programme aims to shed light on some of the struggles the nation is facing right now.
The episode's ending features Gregg saying: "The Trussell Trust says a future without food banks requires a benefits system that works for all and secure incomes so people can afford essentials. So it’s no surprise eating children seems a more likely path for our country."
So it's heavy stuff, and not for the faint hearted, but it looks like the mockumentary has done its job and has got everyone talking.
The British Miracle Meat is available on demand via Channel 4.
