Mary Berry by A.S. Dagnell

Author:A.S. Dagnell [A. S. Dagnell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782193746
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2013-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

FROM BAKING TO BROADCASTING

By the late 1970s, Mary had positioned herself as a formidable cookery writer. The Hamlyn All Colour Cook Book had become a best-seller and she had released a handful of other titles which were also flying off the shelves. Mary was being spoken about as the next big thing in cooking. And as the buzz surrounding her and her work grew, TV producers started to notice her too. Constantly on the lookout for the next cook to appear on their shows, they started to compete to try to sign her up for their programmes. The first that came calling was the ITV show Afternoon Plus – a teatime chat show fronted by Judith Chalmers OBE. Judith, then in her forties, was breaking through as a major TV presenter. She had already presented the ballroom dancing competition programme Come Dancing for the BBC from 1961 to 1965. This was a huge primetime hit that would later be reinvented with a celebrity twist as Strictly Come Dancing nearly forty years later. She had also become a star on the radio, presenting two major BBC radio shows, Family Favourites and Woman’s Hour. Judith would later become best known for presenting the holiday getaway show Wish You Were Here…? during the 1980s on ITV. The programme saw her jetting around the globe to seek out the best deals on vacations. Judith herself was often featured in the papers for her habit of wearing bikinis as she fronted the hit show. But for the time being she had broken through to the popular daytime market, and was already getting good ratings with her new show.

Afternoon Plus had a magazine format that mixed interviews with lifestyle segments including gardening, fashion tips – and cookery. Thames Television, who produced the show, have often been seen as having changed the face of daytime TV with the programme, by bringing what one commentator called ‘the art of intelligent interviewing to a wide and growing audience’. Afternoon Plus was seen by some as a smarter alternative to the BBC’s more accessible Pebble Mill at One, which was nevertheless hugely popular with the target audience of housewives, students and those recovering from illness in bed at home, and would often get viewing figures of 6 million – a huge coup for a lunchtime show. But Afternoon Plus came out punching, determined to be a viable rival. Impressively, the show managed to secure a string of A-list stars to appear on the studio sofa, including actresses Sophia Loren and Helen Mirren, as well as the hugely successful soul diva Nina Simone.

But now the people behind Afternoon Plus wanted a regular guest to appear on the show to discuss cookery. If they were to capture the housewives’ market, it was vital that a segment be dedicated to the kitchen. And Mary seemed like the perfect solution. She was to share her culinary secrets – her dos and don’ts for the kitchen – and respond to viewer questions about recipes on a regular basis.

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