GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER?
John and Gregg are back to give a new band of hapless celebrities the legendary MasterChef grilling
Winning Olympic gold; raising a Wimbledon champion; shimmying down the wing for England and scoring against Brazil at the Maracana. They’re all amazing achievements, but now rower Sir Matthew Pinsent, tennis coach Judy Murray and Liverpool legend John Barnes must find out if they can make it in the most demanding arena of all: the MasterChef kitchen.
The trio are among this year’s showbiz and sports stars who are swapping their mics and rackets for whisks and tin-openers and preparing to face the merciless verdict of the two judges.
John Torode and Gregg Wallace (right) are the most disarmingly frank duo in the business. Wallace in particular has a range of facial expressions that instantly betray his delight or disgust before he’s even finished a mouthful.
The format remains the same as in previous years: each week on Wednesday five contestants must first battle it out before one is humiliatingly ejected, and then on the Friday the remaining quartet are whittled down to a single contestant who will triumphantly go through to the semi-final.
The joy of the celebrity format is always the tantalising possibility that superstars taken out of their comfort zone will reveal themselves to be reassuringly fallible – while others disclose a surprising cordon bleu expertise.
First up are Barnes, comedian and Loose Women regular Judi Love, singer Myles Stephenson of X Factor winners Rak-Su, Death In Paradise actress Shyko Amos and motormouth Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner.
In future weeks we can look forward to Quadrophenia star
Phil Daniels, Fake Britain’s
Dom Littlewood, Crissy Rock from Benidorm, Olympic hockey champion Sam Quek and Kingdom Choir conductor Karen Gibson. Plus, travel presenter Amar
Latif makes history as the first ever blind contestant in the history of the show.
And thanks to the series being filmed before lockdown, we can savour the shocking normality of the judges and contestants passing food around without any alarm.