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“Recipes,” available to stream on Acorn TV in the United States and other international territories on Monday, is based on the first of the Tannie Maria books by Sally Andrew.

But the only thing that has been massacred is a watermelon — a snack for the chicken, who pecks at it as Tannie Maria, the show’s heroine, played by the Irish actress Maria Doyle Kennedy, prepares an ostrich mince pie to take into the office.

But there is much that differs from the books, starting with the identity of Tannie Maria, who, in the novels, is South African; in the TV series, she has a South African mother and a Scottish father, and grew up in Scotland before moving to a house in the Karoo, inherited from an aunt.

From schoolchildren to veterans, they all call her 'Tannie Ans' -- Auntie Ans in Afrikaans.

"Wayde really loves to be in the group because they're like a family. When he has to train on his own, he always complains 'Tannie, I'm alone, I want my friends, my other athletes here with me.'"