Here I am, yet again, thinking about air fryers and pondering how they have managed to permeate the collective consciousness to become so highly coveted, with it estimated that almost half of all UK households now own one.

The author and TV presenter Richard Osman recently posted on X (formerly Twitter): “There are currently 7 books in the UK top 20 about cooking with air fryers. I'll tell you this for nothing, Joyce is going to get an air fryer in the next Thursday Murder Club book.”

He makes an excellent point. It really is quite something. I can’t remember ever giving this much thought to the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine circa the late 1990s and early 2000s, or the vegetable spiralizers that were all the rage through the mid-2010s.

Possibly the last gadget to have lived this rent-free in my head was the hallowed SodaStream in the 1980s.

To be honest, though, I thought we had hit peak air fryer yonks ago. They feel a bit, well, 2022? By this stage, I imagined we would have moved on to some new-fangled, must-have culinary wizardry in the kitchen appliance stakes.

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But nope, it seems we are still firmly in our air fryer era. Certainly, at least, in the world of TV commissioning. Already this year, on Channel 5 alone, we’ve had a barrage of programming about all matters air fryer related.

The IMDB page of presenter and consumer rights champion Alexis Conran, who more typically covers subject matter such as smart meters and holiday scams, reads like an ode to air fryers.

Since January, he has variously hosted Air Fryers: Do You Know What You’re Missing?, Air Fryers: An Easy Way To Lose Weight?, Air Fryers: Do You Have The Right One? and the newly aired series Air Fryers Made Easy.

Channel 4, meanwhile, is rolling out the big guns with Jamie’s Air Fryer Meals. The two-part special, which concludes on Monday, is presented by chef Jamie Oliver and made in association with Tefal (no prizes for guessing what make of air fryer is front and centre).

I have nothing against Oliver. I was a big fan of his early career. His timesaving, cheap and cheerful meal plans were a revelation. Oliver brought comfort food back into vogue. He has championed healthier eating for all.

Now? Well, there is something about Oliver jumping on the air fryer bandwagon that just doesn’t sit right. It’s a bit like when a former boy band member switches from bubble-gum pop to grime in an attempt to stay relevant or edgy.

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The beauty of an air fryer is it doesn’t need hours of TV devoted to it. It isn’t rocket science. The whole premise is incredibly straightforward.

We are talking about a small, convection-style oven with a basket that you put food in. As the hot air circulates round inside, it makes things marvellously crispy without you having to resort to artery-clogging deep-frying. Voila. Job’s a good ‘un.

Seeing someone give an air fryer basket a shoogle is the cooking equivalent of watching paint dry. If I’m spending a chunk of time in front of the telly, there at least needs to be a decent plot twist.

Instead, we had Oliver promising a “brilliant little hack”, which turned out to be taking a handful of pre-washed spinach straight from the bag and popping it in the air fryer for 40 seconds to make it wilt.

Perhaps it was the partnership with Tefal, but there were moments where, as Oliver continually waxed lyrical about the convenience and wonder of air fryers, I had a sudden flashback to watching QVC in the wee small hours. Except, in this case, I wasn’t in the mood for buying.