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Nicola on Celebrity Master Chef

Recap by Contributor, Mandy Mulford

pic courtesy of Mr. Ian Wylie

Recap

Celebrity Masterchef is a UK reality programme which features local celebrities as contestants. For the current series, the three finalists are : actor, Nick Pickard; England rugby player, Phil Vickery and TV journalist Kirsty Wark. Their challenge this week was to cook lunch, on location, for the cast and crew of Spooks. The three contestants were asked to complete this task within 3 hours whilst working in a catering truck which did not give them too much room to move, and with equipment with which they were not familiar.

The programme started at 2:15 pm GMT and it was already half past two when thanks to Twitter I was told about this programme, specifically the Spooks connection in today’s episode and I immediately tuned in.

For all Spooks fans there was far too much time spent on showing the contestants cooking and not enough “behind the scenes” stuff, although we did manage an occasional glimpse of Simon Russell Beale (Home Secretary, William Towers) filming a scene in his office. Back outside, as filming wrapped up for lunch, we were lucky enough to spot Nicola Walker in the queue for the catering van. She was on the phone, engrossed in what looked like quite a serious conversation. Dishes available on today’s menu included Pork Belly, Vegetable Curry or Cod with a Parsley Sauce. In addition, cast and crew were able to have vegetables, cous cous, mash potatoes and tomato and fennel bake to go with their main course. For dessert, they had a choice of banana cake or caramalised pineapple.

Next time we see Nicola is at “the pass” ordering the Cod in parsley sauce with mash and carrots with a very big smile on her face. Max Brown (Dmitri Levandis) ordered the same. In the dining room, Nicola appeared to be thoroughly enjoying her meal, and actually wished her portion was larger. She also revealed, with a mischievous grin, that Max would have liked to order the Pork Belly but didn’t because he was “getting his kit off” later in the week and was therefore on a very strict diet in preparation for those scenes. Max responded with an embarrassed grin. Max said he didn’t like the fennel, thought it was quite tough. They then showed us Nicola’s empty plate and her very clean knife and fork. We never found out whether either Nicola or Max ordered any dessert.

pic courtesy of Mr. Ian Wylie

This episode of Celebrity Masterchef will be available on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven days, for those who have access to the iPlayer.

Screencaps

[screencaps provided courtesy of Lisa]

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Bad Memories

Nicola will be in a new radio play titled Bad Memories which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 7 January 2011 at 21:00 in the UK. Here is a description of the programme taken from the BBC Radio 4 website :

In 2004, a successful architect and his family mysteriously disappear from their home. Six years later five bodies are found in the cellar of their house. They are identified as Jonathan and Imogen Blake and their son, Matthew; Philip Gibson, who was on the missing person’s register and a woman, identity unknown. Forensics determine that not only were they murdered, but the time of death was 1926. Can audio files found with the bodies solve the mystery?

Cast:
Rachel Weir ….. Nicola Walker
Jim Marquez ….. Rupert Graves
Phillip Gibson ….. Steven Mackintosh
Jonathan Blake ….. Anthony Calf
Imogen Blake ….. Jana Carpenter
Matthew Blake ….. Oscar Richardson
Mary Marston ….. Imogen MCCurdy
Boy 1 …… Rohan Nijhawan
Boy 2 …… Ted Powell

Written and directed by Julian Simpson.

If you cannot catch this programme when it is first broadcast, you can always listen to it again via the BBC iPlayer. For fans who live outside the UK, please note that since the BBC iPlayer does not have any geographical restrictions where radio programmes are concerned, you can also listen and enjoy this programme. You do not need any special software to be able to access the BBC iPlayer. This programme will remain available on the BBC iPlayer website for 7 days after the initial broadcast date, i.e. until 14 January 2011.

Six degrees

Julian Simpson, the writer and director of this play, also directed Nicola in Episodes 409 and 410 of Spooks. Nicola last appeared in other Julian Simpson radio plays, The Listener (2008) and Fragments : Pleasant Green (2007). In fact, this programme is very similar to Fragments : Pleasant Green (2007). Both plays involved detectives trying to solve a murder by trying to reconstruct past events using fragments of an audio tape. Nicola has a more prominent role in Bad Memories than Fragments : Pleasant Green (2007).

Rupert Graves appeared in Episode 403 of Spooks and played the racist politician, William Sampson. He did not have any scenes with Nicola in that episode.

Steven Mackintosh is a regular cast member of Luther. Nicola appeared in Episode 104 of Luther. They did not have any scenes together.

Anthony Calf appeared in the stage play, Gethesame with Nicola (November 2008 to March 2009), though they did not share any scenes together.

Continued on …

Now that the programme has aired, please refer to our Guide page for Bad Memories for further updates on this programme. We will also close our comments section here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do so on the Bad Memories guide page.

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