‘I was genuinely hungry’: Drakeford explains cheese response that delighted meme-makers

Mark Drakeford has explained his response to a question about his favourite cheese which went viral on social media last year and spawned a large number of memes.

A clip showing the First Minister’s unexpected enthusiasm when asked about cheese lit up social media in July.

With delight etched across his face he answered that it was “probably the hardest question I’ve had so far because I really like cheese and always have”.

“But actually there’s a lot of cheese I like and I will be eating some of it over this weekend. So thank you for that question!”

Mark Drakeford explained to ITV’s Adrian Masters that his expression of pure desire was down to not having eaten anything all day.

He was asked: “You were being made fun of there, did it upset you?”

“No no no, absolutely not at all. Because I think on the whole it was gentle humour,” he said.

“I remember it well because it was one of those days. I’d arrived in the office at 7am to do a round of early morning interviews.

“I’d gone right through the day – I hadn’t eaten anything. From the minute I left home until 5pm in the evening when I was doing a Facebook Live.

“And Facebook Live is very intense, you know – questions come at you! And suddenly someone asked me about cheese.

“And I think I was just genuinely so hungry. Ha! It was the nicest question I’d had that afternoon.”

‘Excited’

The meme was created when Mark Drakeford was answering questions about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic on Facebook, during which one user called Joe Bangles asked him what his favourite cheese was.

The account seemed to be on a mission to ask celebrities about their favourite cheese, having already elicited responses from numerous celebs including George Foreman, Pink and John Cleese.

Twitter user Owen Williams later created a supercut of the video which showed the First Minister reacting with barely suppressed delight to the question.

Mark Drakeford *really* likes cheese (megamix) pic.twitter.com/QmPjuSjOZe

— Owen Williams 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@OwsWills) July 6, 2020

Mark Drakeford as Welsh cheese

A thread pic.twitter.com/YSiKySHAaZ

— Ben Evans (@benevans) July 7, 2020

Other Twitter users compared the First Minister to the Aardman Animations claymation character Wallace and Gromit and the former’s obsessive love of cheese.

The memes culminated in a music video of Mark Drakeford declaring his love for cheese.

WelshGuv would like to thank our constituents and global correspondants for so thoroughly bringing this key statement to our attention yesterday.

We have taken immediate action to treat the situation with the seriousness it deserves. pic.twitter.com/GPjSbWZBJi

— WelshGuv🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@WelshGuv) July 8, 2020

“If possible, I’d probably vote for Mark Drakeford at every election I could based on his love of cheese,” the Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast, Cllr Peter McReynolds, tweeted.

“The day the FM stands down, I want this clip in all the look back reports. It is amazing,” ITV Wales correspondent Rob Osborne added.

“I have never been as excited about anything as much as Mark Drakeford is excited about cheese,” Emlyn Pratt said.

“Drakeford liking cheese is not cute or endearing in any way,” Twitter user Joey Calzone said. “Get a grip of yourselves, have some dignity”