WE’LLQUIT BEEB..IF THEPRICE ISRIGHT
John Torode and Gregg Wallace are part of the furniture at the BBC.. or the kitchen units at least. And, despite MasterChef returning for a 15th year, the pair are not bound by loyalty
BY NICOLA METHVEN reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk to wait for the next adventure to come along, that’ll be great.”
From next week, the cookery juggernaut will be on three times a week on BBC1 – moving to the prime 9pm slot, where it will do battle with big dramas including Cold Feet and Grantchester.
Despite this, Gregg says they don’t feel much love from BBC bosses.
He said: “I find it difficult after 15 years to see the BBC as one entity. It’s so big it’s really hard to know who it is that’s running each bit.
“I’m not even sure which department we’re in. Our relationship is here with the production company, the people who make it.”
Speaking in 2016, ITV boss Kevin Lygo said the channel was lacking a great cookery show and called for ideas to compete with The Great British Bake Off and MasterChef.
Both Gregg, 54, and 53-year-old Aussie John still very much enjoy making the series, which champions home cooks. “I think I’ve always had a nice time,” John said.
His sidekick, who also makes Inside the Factor and Eat Well for Less for the BBC, agrees.
He said: “I still very much enjoy it because it’s all about the people and they’re all going to have different emotions and cook differently.
“The more TV you do, the more you appreciate MasterChef. It’s such a comfortable place with people who you’ve worked with for a long time.” food. It’s their personalities on a plate. It’s about them and what they can achieve themselves. In that sense it’s stayed the same.”
He is not convinced that the series, which airs in 60 countries, would be as successful if it were launching as a brand-new show today – because people are more interested in eating out than cooking themselves.
John added: “I do wonder, in the modern world, whether it would take off the way it did. I wonder if it’s now become an institution in Great Britain and around the world where MasterChef is just part of the daily life, like The Apprentice.”
With a third child on the way – a son they have already decided to name Sid – Gregg admits he won’t be pureeing baby food. Asked whether he will be mashing up food again, Gregg said plans had already b e e n set out.
He said: “I have looked at this. I’ve got my wife and my mother-in-law and my father-in-law at home.
“We’ve had the chat about what is expected of us because our life is about to change. It’s really good to have that chat.
“When I’m home, bear in mind during the month of January I got home once, for one day... I want to do bath time, feeding, nappy changing, the whole lot as much as I can.
“The reality is I’m not there... So we decided my role was provider.”
And as provider, he already has his eye on other money-making schemes. One idea is to promote himself as a role model for older men who want to get fit, having successfully lost three stone in the last couple of years. Gregg said: “Honestly, I think if I can keep this fitness into my sixties I reckon I could make some money out of it.
“I’ll be 60 and fit and well and there must be other people who think ‘hang on, I could be like him’. As opposed to a footballer or a model I could be this 60-year-old bloke who likes puddings and curries.”
John, meanwhile, is looking forward to getting married to his long-term girlfriend Lisa Faulkner, who he met after she appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2010.
He said: “Lisa’s a lovely, lovely, lovely person and I’m very lucky.
“I’ve been doing This Morning for 21 years and Lisa maintained she was in the studio the first time I ever cooked for them, at Liverpool Docks.
“I went, ‘Complete bollocks, I don’t believe you’. So the editor pulled out the footage and there she is doing an interview on the sofa about Brookside or Holby and then the camera comes across to me.
“So I’d met her 21 years ago and had no idea – she was really upset that I didn’t remember her.”
MasterChef returns to BBC1 on Monday at 9pm.
JOHN TORODE REVEALS HIS CAREER IS MORE ABOUT OPPORTUNISM THAN PLANS