She wants to get married, which is a good job because her parents are in the process of picking her husband for her. Even in dishwasher homes, washing- up wars persist: whether the machine is started before it is full, whether the plates are rinsed first, not to mention rows about unloading.And even in those societies in which utensils are cleaned with cold water and ash rather than hot water and Fairy Liquid, they probably laugh and joke about whether the karahi has been properly scoured. And no doubt they, too, are sometimes driven to thoughts of murder.’Washing Up Wars’ is the last in the series of ‘Picture This’, BBC2, to be shown on Tuesday at 8pm.. Anita has just graduated from university. She’s off on a round- the-world trip and then she fancies a job in marketing and sales. Washing up is concerned with making order out of chaos and that is why it is a highly ritualised social act.Perhaps this is why, despite us living in an age of disposable plates and cutlery, the arguments linger on.

In her book Purity and Danger, anthropologist Professor Mary Douglas argues that washing up is almost a microcosm of society itself – it is about putting things in their proper place. But no one says, once the dishes are gleaming on the rack: “Well, that was beautifully washed up.” And yet it remains an essential part of domestic life. Cleaning the dirt from other people’s plates is, after all, a menial task; and in any kitchen in a big hotel it is the plongeur who holds the lowliest job.Cooking and feeding, after all, is a giving act; it is creative and it is appreciated as such. “To me it means teenagers laughing and joking and closeness.” When asked in the Tesco survey, 68 per cent of washers-up reported to have sung and 67 per cent had been kissed over the dirty dishes For others, it is a time of hell. It was, it seemed, a good time.Indeed, washing up can be a good time It is when partners talk to each other. It might be a time, too, of close physical but low eye contact, making easier the conveying of such bombshells as, “Mum, I’m pregnant” or “Dad, I’m gay”.”I remember washing up as the best time of family life,” says one mother.

“I have a special system, and I like to do the washing up my way.”Certainly my partner and son had tremendous moments of male bonding over the washing up. After supper I would race out of the kitchen as they embarked on a conversational ritual of hilarious jokes A lot of water- fights and towel-flicking went on, too. Washing up is a way that men can win “new man” Brownie points without feeling feminised. “I feel it is one of the few domestic chores I can do without losing face, rather like packing the car,” says one man. And although, slaves to the takeaway, we wash up less than we used to, we still spend a great deal of time at the sink, having discussed whether to do it straight after a meal, whether it should be done in running or in stagnant water, which dishes deserve to be left to soak, and so on.
Although the vast majority of washing up is done by women, it is becoming increasingly male territory, rather like barbecuing, making the salad dressing or carving the joint. According to BBC2’s Washing Up Wars, only 15 per cent of households in England have resorted to the dishwasher, despite the fact that it is almost certainly more hygienic. This Sunday the nation’s last taboo is broken in a fly-on-the-wall documentary that shows people actually doing it Washing up, that is.