‘IT BECOMES MORE INTENSE THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE’

Executive producer Rachel Bloomsdale ‘ Come Dine With Me is very reflective of what it is to be British. People here are obsessed with status and class and who’s better than who and who’s got what. There’s a very British sense of humour that runs through the show.

‘We’ve seen so many dinner parties and tactics. The worst thing is when contestants say they’re going to be better than everyone else. Even if they do a brilliant dinner, they’ll still lose points because of the way they behaved. Nobody likes a show-off.

‘People often over- complicate their menu. If you’re too involved in the kitchen, then you’re not hosting enough. The food is 60-70 per cent of the scoring and the rest is how good a night they’ve had. If you’re spending all your time with a piping bag, that’s not necessarily going to go down well.

‘Everyone thinks that they know what they’d do if they were on the show. But the reality is you’ve got a camera crew in your kitchen, you’re under pressure and you know you’re going to be scored by a bunch of strangers. It all becomes much more intense than you can ever imagine.’

‘We’ve had many great characters,’ adds series producer Henry Hainault. ‘There was a guy in Salisbury called Chris who served peppers stuffed with baked beans and watered down everyone’s wine to save money. A lady in Cumbria, Katy [who was also the first female winner of One Man and His Dog], had a shepherding display as her entertainment.’