Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
It’s going to be a very Mary Chrıstmas!
Mary Berry fans are in for a treat this year as she has two festive shows on – and one reunites her with Mel and Sue
Even the most diehard Mary Berry fan should be satisfied with the feast she’s serving up this year, as the former Bake Off judge has not one but two shows on TV in the run-up to Christmas. First up is Mary Berry’s Christmas Party, in which she invites various celebrities into her kitchen to cook Christmas dinner and have a bit of a sing-along. Then there’s Mary, Mel And Sue’s Big Christmas Thank You, which reunites Mary with her former Bake Off pals Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins for a show that sees them drop in on a deprived community to help reinvigorate it.
The Big Christmas Thank You has a touch of the DIY SOS about it, and has the potential to become a full series. ‘I wanted to do something with Mel and Sue because we’ve had so much fun over the years,’ says Mary. ‘We also like helping people and sorting things out and hopefully giving pleasure to people, and that’s exactly what we do in this programme.’
The trio surprise the deprived community of Pentre in the Rhondda Valley by showing up unannounced to give them a Christmas party they’ll never forget. In recent years the small town’s school and post office have closed, and their run-down community centre is the only thing that binds them together. ‘They’ve had a really difficult time,’ says Mary. ‘Their factories, primary schools, shops and other amenities have been closing down and it’s been tough for them so they started a community centre. Everyone has put their heart and soul into it and it’s become the centre of the town.’
The heartwarming film shows Mel and Sue surprise the community centre volunteers when they’re discussing their Christmas party food – last year it was turkey baps. When Mel and Sue announce that Mary Berry will be helping to cook dinner for them there are tears of joy. For three days Mary helps prepare a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings while Mel and Sue make crackers and create a musical revue for them. Finally they give the community centre a facelift.
‘The cooking was challenging for them because some of them had never cooked before, but they enjoyed it all and they did it very well,’ says Mary. ‘We also painted the community centre, put in a new cooker and just brightened up the whole place. It was a bit like our Christmas present to the community and everybody was thrilled. Christmas is about getting everyone together, and this shows what can be done when a community works together.’
The people of Pentre weren’t the only ones to get something out of the experience. ‘They are totally and utterly some of the nicest people we could have had the good fortune to spend three days with,’ says Mel. ‘It was genuinely sad to say goodbye to everyone.’ While Sue adds, ‘We hope it makes people realise they can take their futures into their own hands. You need some pretty special people to lead and inspire a group, though. Most communities already have those peo-
Mary back with her old Bake Off pals Sue and Mel ple and they should be praised from the mountain tops daily.’
Mary’s other Christmas outing, Mary Berry’s Christmas Party, is a very different beast. In the show she opens up her own kitchen to presenters Alex Jones and Fearne Cotton, Strictly Come Dancing judge Darcey Bussell and Citizen Khan’s Adil Ray to cook another Christmas dinner – this time for a party for her family and friends which will include a sing-along with Myleene Klass at the piano. This is more of a traditional cookery show with each celebrity cooking dishes that have special meaning to them. The One Show’s Alex Jones admits she isn’t much of a cook but surprises Mary when she says she wants to try rissoles, small cro- quettes rolled in breadcrumbs. ‘Alex is hilarious,’ laughs Mary. ‘She’d be the first to say she’s not a cook as such. My heart sank when she said she wanted to make rissoles. I thought, “Oh no, not a wartime recipe!” The main ingredient is corned beef which is of course very wartime, but it’s also very Welsh. Alex was pretty nervous they wouldn’t work but I was very impressed with them. They’re a lovely variation on corned beef hash and they were a big hit with my godchildren.’
Former ballerina Darcey makes her first Pavlova, the meringue dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova. ‘Darcey does cook a little but she hadn’t made a Pavlova before and so she was a little apprehensive but very determined,’ says Mary. ‘We made a gorgeous pear, hazelnut and chocolate Pavlova which Darcey called the Mary Bussell. It was as beautiful as she is.’
Meanwhile vegetarian Fearne Cotton, who’s brought out a couple of cookbooks of her own, shares her recipe for something she calls Cosy Christmas Squash – butternut squash filled with quinoa and pesto vegetables and topped with goat’s cheese. She follows that by baking, with Mary, a Christmas chocolate roulade filled with ‘boozy cream’. But it was Adil, who created the hit sitcom Citizen Khan – one of Mary’s favourite shows, apparently – who was her star cook. ‘I’d say he’s the most confident,’ she says. ‘He makes a ginger cake every Christmas and we cooked my version of it for the party. It was a real hit.’
Mary says Christmas is her favourite time of year, and even though she’s not at home this year she’ll still be cooking. ‘This year we’re going to my daughter Annabel’s for lunch, there’ll be 20 of us altogether. But I’ll cook the bird to perfection here at home by 11.30am. Then I’ll rest it by putting it in a clean dish wrapped in foil and covered with lots of towels and we’ll drive to Annabel’s. I’ll make the gravy and cranberry sauce while she does the roast potatoes and all the veg. Someone else is bringing the Christmas pudding, another the trifle and another is looking after drinks. The important thing at Christmas is being together; all your loved ones around one table.’
And after all the Christmas food – and parties – who’d blame her if she sat down for a seasonal snooze?
‘Darcey called her gorgeous Pavlova the Mary Bussell’