The Big Time (TV series)

In 1976, a housewife in Devon, Gwen Troake, won a competition called "Cook of the Realm", leading to The Big Time inviting her to organise a banquet to be attended by Edward Heath, Lord Mountbatten and other VIPs. The BBC filmed the result as part of The Big Time, and asked Fanny Cradock, by then a tax exile in Ireland, to act as one of a number of experts giving Troake advice on her menu. The result brought the end of Fanny Cradock's television career. Fanny wrote a letter of apology to Mrs Troake, but it was too late, the BBC terminated her contract two weeks after the programme was broadcast. She never presented a cookery programme again on the BBC. (Mrs Troake, by contrast, published A Country Cookbook the following year.) Speaking about the incident in 1999, Rantzen described Cradock as "hell on wheels", and that she had "reduced this poor little lady [Troake] to nothing". ==Episodes==

Series 1 Broadcast Thursday evenings on BBC1 at 9:25pm Series 2 Broadcast Thursday evenings on BBC1 at 9:25pm Series 3 Broadcast Wednesday evenings on BBC1 at 8:10pm ==In at the Deep End==

An almost identical series followed in 1982 entitled In at the Deep End, which followed the same format as The Big Time only using two celebrities, Chris Serle and Paul Heiney, as they undertook various tasks as complete beginners in professional roles. Challenges included Serle taking part in a ballroom dancing competition and becoming a snooker player partnering World champion Steve Davis in a mixed-doubles event and Heiney becoming a chef at Langhan's Brasserie, a dress designer for a catwalk show, a celebrity hairdresser (where he cut Jilly Cooper's hair), directing Bananarama's video for "A Trick of the Night" and an actor in a Michael Caine movie. Series 1 Broadcast Tuesday evenings on BBC1 at 7:45pm Series 2 Broadcast Wednesday evenings on BBC1 at 9:25pm Series 3 ==References==