Latest news with #MasterChef
Daily Mirror
35 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
MasterChef bosses decide BBC show fate for coming years after show scandal
BBC bosses appear committed to MasterChef for the coming years despite the show scandal of recent weeks MasterChef is safe on the BBC until at least 2028, TV experts have insisted, despite it currently having a recipe for disaster. The hit cooking show has had several weeks of controversy with first Gregg Wallace and then co-host John Torode both being axed from the series following an independent report into their behaviour. Production company Banijay and the BBC have two series of the show completed and there have been many questions about if they will air. Industry website Deadline says the current contract with Banijay until 2028 will continue and bosses are keen to keep the show as it has a young audience they would struggle to capture with a newly launch show. A second source told the Mirror they are confident the MasterChef brand is here to stay "for the long term" on the BBC. Insiders also insist they will do everything they can to screen the competitions which have already taken place, one series with both Wallace and Torode and a celeb version with Torode and Grace Dent. 'Having a civilian MasterChef in the can is the absolute worst position for them to be in,' a senior producer source who used to work on the show told Deadline. Behind closed doors, the BBC is said to be balancing a number of factors: the welfare of those who made allegations, the expectations of chefs who competed in Season 21, and audience appetite for the cooking contest. They could also face legal challenges from competitors if the show does not air. The report also hit back at claims Torode was 'blindsided' with his sacking, as discussions are said to have been going on for weeks. The Times and other reports on Thursday night claimed Torode was fired after he used the 'N word'. Production company Banijay said on Tuesday that an investigation into his co-star Gregg Wallace's behaviour by firm Lewis Silkin had "substantiated an accusation of highly offensive racist language against" John, 59. John however said in a statement: "I have no recollection of what I'm accused of.' It's now been suggested that John, who had co-hosted the cooking show since 2005, used the N-word twice. John is said to vehemently deny ever using the racial slur. Earlier this week John came forward as the person alleged to have used racist language, after the allegation was upheld in a report into John's colleague Gregg Wallace's behaviour. Deadline also discussed the possibility of new hosts for the show, with stand-in Grace Dent obviously in pole position for one slot. The show is filmed in Birmingham which would make drummer Alison Hammond a good fit. Food podcaster and comedian Ed Gamble has been a guest on the show or Matt Tebbutt from Saturday Kitchen were also described as the type of people who could star alongside Grace in possible new line ups.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
John Torode's sacking ‘over a rap lyric' puts all middle-aged men like me at risk
To my unoffendable sensibilities (just don't say toilet, moist, perfume, vomit, diarrhoea, lounge or couch) John Torode's alleged crime, for which he was sacked from MasterChef where we worked together, appears to be that he was in a bar singing along to a Kanye West hit. The tune in question by the US rapper features the actor Jamie Foxx singing a refrain ('I got a woman') originally written by Ray Charles in 1954. It's a clever, mesmerising record and rather than discuss its provenance (which may have been more sensible), Torode is said to have been singing along. The song is called Gold Digger so you can see why its rhyming nature might have got him into trouble. I say 'singing' but it's actually rapping. And, to my mind, the idea of a middle-aged man in a bar rapping along to Kanye West is a crime worth a sacking. Get your quote-hungry teeth into that one, Downing Street. The likes of near-60-something Torode should be safely at home after work with some Puccini playing in the background. Or, if he insists, doing karaoke in his shed with headphones on. And don't I know it, because some of us middle-aged blokes grew up with the greatest, most violently lyrical rappers in history. And God forbid they pop up in the queue at the karaoke when it's our turn. NWA long being one of my favourite late Eighties and Nineties hip-hop groups. The lyrics are tricky stepping stones across the fruitiest nuggets of the English language and don't ask what their name stands for. But their songs aren't my fault. Someone put them out into the ether in Compton, south Los Angeles. Perhaps it was the contrast that partly excited me, lying in the spring sunshine on the south front of my grandfather Sacheverell's home of Weston Hall, Towcester, Northamptonshire, my headphones filled with the verbiage of Dr Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube and MC Ren spoken from some of the most violent streets in America. 'It's a treatise on excessive policing, Mother,' was how I dealt with inquiries. But little did I know of the dangerous end that this path could bring. The genre of hip-hop practically celebrates the use of foul, culturally sensitive language yet spoken from the mouths of artists this parlance is par for the course. From the lips of a middle-aged bloke, a TV presenter no less, and it becomes a crime for which the penalty is the loss of a job and a very public rinsing. And it's a very clear example of cultural two-tier policing. Which was once highlighted, brilliantly, in 2020 by the US comedian Tom Cotter who contrasted the cultural cancelling of the 1940s song Baby It's Cold Outside (offending, toxic masculinity-soaked lyrics include 'My mother will start to worry/Beautiful, what's your hurry?') with the then number-one hit WAP (Wet-A-- P---y). Now these songs, and those by NWA, Kanye West, 50 Cent and thousands more, are not banned. We don't do that anymore. Broadcasters and governments know that if you want to see a song race up the charts you just need to ban it. Which, famously, was the case in 1984 when Radio One DJ Mike Read persuaded the BBC to ban Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and it promptly became one of the biggest-selling singles in the UK. So bars, pubs and clubs pump this stuff out, wooing the after-work crowd and the likes of John Torode and TV crew looking for distraction after another day of tasting parfaits of venison liver and self-saucing chocolate fondants. As the music thumps and pulsates, drinks are sipped, the feet start to tap and the middle-aged chap attempts to impress the young folk around him as he sings along to the purposefully confrontational lyrics. The hangover is bad enough, but imagine waking up to discover – or being alerted to the fact some seven years later – that the undercover lyrics police were patrolling that night and noting down which dastardly fools had the temerity to sing along to Gold Digger.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Who is Andi Oliver, the frontrunner to save MasterChef?
With John Torode having been taken down by the shrapnel from Gregg Wallace's spectacular BBC-career implosion, the Corporation, along with MasterChef production company Banijay, is already mulling over candidates to replace him. An inquiry ordered by Banijay into Wallace's on-set behaviour found 83 allegations made against him, mainly relating to inappropriate sexual language and humour, of which 45 were upheld. Wallace has been sacked and, this year, was replaced as co-host of Celebrity MasterChef by Grace Dent. However, the inquiry also uncovered an allegation made against Torode – that he used 'an extremely offensive racist term' during a social occasion in 2018 or 2019. Despite Torode stating he had 'no recollection' of the incident, the complaint was upheld and Banijay and the BBC have agreed that Torode's contract will not be renewed. And if the bookies are to be trusted, it seems they have already found a perfect replacement in Great British Menu host Andi Oliver. Oliver is an unmistakable presence on British television. The 62-year-old chef is renowned for her vivid frocks, enormous black-rimmed glasses, shaven head and arguably Britain's most famous diastema since Terry-Thomas. Her idiosyncratic background, natural exuberance and professional experience mark her out as a no-brainer for the MasterChef gig. Ironically, it is something that she has in common with the disgraced Wallace that puts her ahead of the other candidates – she is a true one-off. Wallace's unguarded barrow boy patter and costermonger earthiness was unfeigned and untaught – love him or loathe him, Wallace brought his true self to the screen. As does Oliver. Both stand in stark contrast to many of their overly media-trained peers on Saturday Kitchen. Like Wallace, Oliver's route to culinary stardom was hardly typical. Born in London in 1963 to Antiguan parents, Oliver had a peripatetic childhood thanks to her father's role in the RAF. After stints in Kent and Cyprus, where Oliver first found her love of cooking, the family moved to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, where the chef suffered racism from children and teachers, as well as bullying and violence in the playground. Oliver left school aged 16 before sitting her O-levels, and moved to an east London squat where she fell in with a bohemian crowd. Ultimately, she joined the post-punk band Rip Rig + Panic, whose members included her brother, Sean and Swedish singer Neneh Cherry, who would become a lifelong friend (and cooking partner). Early culinary adventures included cooking for the band, with Cherry, and at a nightclub off Powis Square in west London. At 20, Oliver had her daughter – the former Pop World presenter Miquita Oliver – and, with the father nowhere in sight, moved to Ladbroke Grove, where her contemporaries included Alison Owen, mother of pop star and actress Lily Allen, who now hosts the popular warts-and-all Miss Me? podcast with Miquita (the podcast's radical honesty means we now know that Miquita was conceived on Hampstead Heath). It is in the media where Oliver first made waves, with stints hosting late-night Channel 4 shows, leading to her own arts and entertainment programme on Greater London Radio. At the same time, she was building a burgeoning career in the restaurant trade, running the 'ephemeral' pop-up The Moveable Feast, before going on to be the creative director at The Birdcage pub on east London's trendy Colombia Road, and launching her own restaurants, first at the Jackdaw and Star in Homerton, then Andi's in Stoke Newington. More recently, she opened Wadadli Kitchen in the Olympics-regenerated Hackney Wick, which specialises in Antiguan cuisine. Guest appearances on TV staples such as Saturday Kitchen, as well as a regular gig on Radio 4's enduring The Kitchen Cabinet, ultimately lead Oliver to the role she is best known for today. She joined BBC Two's Great British Menu, a sort-of souped-up FA Cup for UK chefs, firstly as a judge in 2017 (replacing Prue Leith), before taking on hosting duties in 2020 (replacing Susan Calman). Her charisma and idiosyncrasies – the booming laugh, the flamboyant dress sense, the refusal to play the part of the cold head chef – have proved a boon for the BBC, who have been keen to champion this later-life rising star. Oliver is where she is on merit, but the BBC is quite rightly pleased to promote a black, middle-aged woman in their primetime schedules. Few TV chefs look like Oliver ('I would struggle to name another black woman in the position as me – I know my visibility is important,' she said in 2022), and she can be given credit for helping to inspire a diverse new generation of chefs, from Big Zuu to last year's MasterChef champion Brin Pirathpan. Recent Oliver-fronted series have included The Caribbean with Andi and Miquita, in which the pair reconnected with their heritage, and Andi Oliver's Fabulous Feasts. It is the latter of these that perhaps gives us a clue as to how Oliver might approach MasterChef. With food critic Grace Dent in pole position to replace Wallace in the 'everyman' role (Dent co-hosted the most recent series of Celebrity MasterChef with Torode), the BBC needs a chef alongside her. Fabulous Feasts was a joyous and heartwarming celebration of British cookery, with Oliver travelling the country, throwing parties for communities in need of one. Oliver is a far cry from the typical model of the stern, exacting, stickler-for-perfection head chef (as favoured by white men of a certain vintage), yet her warmth is matched by her depth of knowledge. The BBC will certainly want to move MasterChef as far away from Wallace and Torode as possible, and will see Oliver as the antidote to the sexism and racism storms. In a recent piece with The Guardian, Oliver treated the interviewer to some soup, telling him that doing so was 'giving yourself the care you need. And sharing it with other people doesn't just fix you, but briefly, the world around you'. Wallace, famously, confessed he cooked for his family only once a week. Oliver wishes to nourish those around her. The same could hardly be said for Wallace. In the same interview, Oliver touched upon the Wallace allegations, saying she was not surprised by them, though she did not know him personally. 'I heard stuff. Everyone did', she said. She warned that real change won't come about via a 'media outcry', and that it will require real systemic change: 'Thousands of people shouting about Gregg Wallace on Twitter doesn't interest me. What does is whether we remember this in six months, or will there be more fake shock and outrage when it happens all over again.' Six months on from saying those words, it looks as if Oliver might embody the change needed. Are there, however, any skeletons in her closet that BBC execs should be nervous about? Unlikely. The closest thing would be the hosting of Channel 4's Baadasss TV, a 1994 black-culture show she hosted with rapper Ice-T. While the show was criticised at the time for stereotyping and 'ghetto broadcasting', and the content including everything from rapping dwarves to softcore pornography (it was, after all, produced by the same company who made Eurotrash), it was an honest attempt to bring black culture to British television when there was vanishingly little seen elsewhere. Indeed, Baadasss TV can be seen as indicative of Oliver's unique, nomadic career that has always sought to celebrate people as much as the food they eat. If she gets the MasterChef gig, the BBC will be confident it is a step in the right direction – most importantly, it is a step that distances them from the poisoned reputations of the two men who made modern MasterChef what it is today. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
BBC facing questions about Jamie Borthwick's EastEnders future in aftermath of John Torode's sacking from MasterChef
BBC bosses are facing questions about EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick's future on the soap in the aftermath of John Torode's MasterChef sacking. The actor - who plays Jay Brown in the BBC soap - was Advertisement 2 Jamie was suspended by EastEnders bosses after his use of the sickening slur emerged Credit: Getty 2 John Torode was sacked from his role on MasterChef after an investigation Credit: BBC But now with MasterChef host John being sacked after an investigation found he had used future on the BBC soap and the difference in treatment. A source said: "The difference in treatment between John and Jamie - for very similar incidents - has left questions to be answered. 'The BBC have tied themselves into knots with this - for them both stars appear to have used unacceptable and offensive language but only one has been sacked while another has kept his lucrative salary and got away with just a suspension. 'There doesn't appear to be any rhyme nor reason with how the BBC chooses to implement its own rules and people are questioning why. Advertisement Read more on MasterChef 'Disabled colleagues have been left wondering why incidents of ableist slurs seemingly aren't being taken as seriously as racist language and there are no clear answers coming from bosses.' Last night a spokeswoman for the BBC said: 'Whilst we do not comment on any individual matter, each case is always considered on its own facts. 'We are very clear on our expectations that inappropriate behaviour and language will not be tolerated.' Last month Advertisement Most read in News TV The EastEnders star, who joined the soap in 2006, said in a public apology: 'I am deeply sorry for any offence and upset my words and actions have caused. 'It is no excuse, but I did not fully understand the derogatory term I used and its meaning. EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick sensationally SUSPENDED by BBC for using sick disabled slur on Strictly set 'That is on me completely. Now I am aware, I am deeply embarrassed to have used the term and directed it in the way I did. It was wrong. 'When I made the video, I was excited and caught up in the moment. Again, that is no excuse. But my regrettable actions are not a true reflection of my views, or who I am. Advertisement 'I enjoyed every minute of my time in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom and the town itself. "The people of Blackpool have always been amazing with the Strictly crew, dancers and cast members. I know they will be again for this year's show and those in years to come. I am truly sorry.' MasterChef facts MASTERCHEF has been a staple BBC series for years - but what are the key details? MasterChef launched on BBC One back in 1990 It ran until 2001, then was revived in 2005 as MasterChef Goes Large John Torode joined the revamped series in 2005, where he teamed up with Gregg Wallace as hosts Controversial moments? In March 2018, Gregg refused to judge Zaleha Kadir Olpin's stewed chicken rendang dish as he claimed it was 'not crispy enough and could not be eaten.' Disability charity Scope told The Sun Borthwick should reflect on what he said and educate himself. Advertisement "We hope he takes the opportunity to get to know the reality of disabled people's lives,' said the organisation's media manager Warren Kirwan.
Scottish Sun
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
BBC facing questions about Jamie Borthwick's EastEnders future in aftermath of John Torode's sacking from MasterChef
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BBC bosses are facing questions about EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick's future on the soap in the aftermath of John Torode's MasterChef sacking. The actor - who plays Jay Brown in the BBC soap - was suspended by bosses after The Sun revealed he had used a derogatory slur about disabled people while on Strictly Come Dancing last year. 2 Jamie was suspended by EastEnders bosses after his use of the sickening slur emerged Credit: Getty 2 John Torode was sacked from his role on MasterChef after an investigation Credit: BBC But now with MasterChef host John being sacked after an investigation found he had used racist language while repeating lines from Kanye West's Golddigger - something he denies - questions are being raised about Jamie's future on the BBC soap and the difference in treatment. A source said: "The difference in treatment between John and Jamie - for very similar incidents - has left questions to be answered. 'The BBC have tied themselves into knots with this - for them both stars appear to have used unacceptable and offensive language but only one has been sacked while another has kept his lucrative salary and got away with just a suspension. 'There doesn't appear to be any rhyme nor reason with how the BBC chooses to implement its own rules and people are questioning why. 'Disabled colleagues have been left wondering why incidents of ableist slurs seemingly aren't being taken as seriously as racist language and there are no clear answers coming from bosses.' Last night a spokeswoman for the BBC said: 'Whilst we do not comment on any individual matter, each case is always considered on its own facts. 'We are very clear on our expectations that inappropriate behaviour and language will not be tolerated.' Last month Jamie launched a last ditch bid to save his job. The EastEnders star, who joined the soap in 2006, said in a public apology: 'I am deeply sorry for any offence and upset my words and actions have caused. 'It is no excuse, but I did not fully understand the derogatory term I used and its meaning. EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick sensationally SUSPENDED by BBC for using sick disabled slur on Strictly set 'That is on me completely. Now I am aware, I am deeply embarrassed to have used the term and directed it in the way I did. It was wrong. 'When I made the video, I was excited and caught up in the moment. Again, that is no excuse. But my regrettable actions are not a true reflection of my views, or who I am. 'I enjoyed every minute of my time in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom and the town itself. "The people of Blackpool have always been amazing with the Strictly crew, dancers and cast members. I know they will be again for this year's show and those in years to come. I am truly sorry.' MasterChef facts MASTERCHEF has been a staple BBC series for years - but what are the key details? MasterChef launched on BBC One back in 1990 It ran until 2001, then was revived in 2005 as MasterChef Goes Large John Torode joined the revamped series in 2005, where he teamed up with Gregg Wallace as hosts Controversial moments? In March 2018, Gregg refused to judge Zaleha Kadir Olpin's stewed chicken rendang dish as he claimed it was 'not crispy enough and could not be eaten.' The BBC said his language was 'entirely unacceptable and in no way reflects the values or standards we hold and expect'. Disability charity Scope told The Sun Borthwick should reflect on what he said and educate himself. "We hope he takes the opportunity to get to know the reality of disabled people's lives,' said the organisation's media manager Warren Kirwan.
