Name/TitleFanny Cradock Invites...
MakerCradock, Fanny and Johnnie
About this objectBooklet titled 'Fanny Cradock Invites... by Fanny and Johnnie Cradock ~ BBC TV', complementing thirteen cookery programmes first broadcast on BBC2. The introductory text states: 'In the television series I am inviting you to share with me the cooking and presentation of a series of informal parties. Johnnie recommends and discusses suitable wines for these occasions.' It continues: ' in planning this series for you we have taken into account the fact that you too will have to work without assistance. We have also taken into account files containing innumerable viewer's requests and from those - not just because we thought you might like them - we have chosen six types of informal parties which head the current popularity lists.' The publication contains recipes based on the following topics:
1. Cheese and Wine Party
2. Cold Sunday Brunch
3. A Teenagers' Party
4. Simple Saturday Dinner
5. A Television Meal
6. A Hot Buffet Party
Fully digitised (36 pages)
Medium and MaterialsOrganic, paper
MeasurementsH: 220 x W: 147 mm
Date Made1970
Period1970s
Place MadeEngland, London
Place NotesBritish Broadcasting Corporation, 35 Marylebone High Street, London W1M 4AA
PublisherBritish Broadcasting Corporation
Publication Date1970
Publication PlaceEngland, London
Series TitleBBC Publications
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Cradock:
Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television chef and writer. She frequently appeared on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with her fourth husband Major Johnnie Cradock who played the part of a slightly bumbling hen-pecked husband.
TV personality: In 1955 Cradock recorded a pilot for what became a very successful BBC television series on cookery. Each year the BBC published a booklet giving a detailed account of every recipe Fanny demonstrated, allowing her to frequently say in later years, "You'll find that recipe in the booklet, so I won't show you now." Fanny advocated bringing Escoffier-standard food into the British home and gave every recipe a French name. Her food looked extravagant, but was generally cost-effective, and Fanny seemed to care about her audience. Her catchphrases included "This won't break you", "This is perfectly economical", and "This won't stretch your purse". When presenting her Christmas cake recipe she once justified the cost of ingredients, saying "But on the other hand, we do want one piece of decent cake in the year."
As time went by, however, her food began to seem outdated, with her love of the piping bag and vegetable dyes. As she grew older, she applied more and more make-up and wore vast chiffon ballgowns on screen. Cradock had always included relatives and friends in her television shows. Johnnie suffered a minor heart attack in the early 1970s and was replaced with the daughter of a friend, Jayne. Another assistant was Sarah, and there was a series of young men who did not last long.
Throughout her television career, the Cradocks also worked for the British Gas Council, appearing at trade shows such as the Ideal Home Exhibition and making many "infomercials", instructing cooks, usually newlywed women, on how to use gas cookers for basic dishes. Despite the BBC's ban on advertising, Cradock used only gas stoves in her television shows and often stated that she "hated" electric stoves and ovens.
Her series Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas is the only one of several she made to have survived in the TV archives and to have been repeated in recent years, on the UK digital television channels BBC Four, Good Food and Food Network UK, usually in the run-up to Christmas. Good Food also occasionally broadcasts Fanny Cradock Invites You to a Cheese and Wine Party, one of a few surviving stand-alone episodes from other series. Cradock appeared in twenty-four television series between 1955 and 1975.
Subject and Association Keywordscookery, cooking, recipes
Subject and Association KeywordsTV personality
Object TypeBooklet
ISBN/ISSN563 09374 9
Object numberGWL-2023-17-2
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved