Yorkshire-born celebrity chef James Martin claims he was a victim of discrimination by the BBC, saying he was turned down for presenting jobs because producers disliked his Northern accent.
‘I didn’t get two jobs from the BBC because of my accent,’ he tells me.
‘I can’t say what jobs they were, but it was before I moved to ITV. It happened more than two years ago. I know because they told me [it was because of my accent].’
This revelation comes in the wake of BBC Breakfast presenter Steph McGovern’s claim that the Corporation pays posh people more than their working-class counterparts.
Yorkshire-born celebrity chef James Martin (pictured) claims he was a victim of discriminatio, from the BBC
Martin, 45, right, presented Saturday Kitchen on BBC1 for ten years. He left in 2016 to front Saturday Morning With James Martin on ITV.
He quit the Beeb shortly after producers axed the live audience on his show due to budget cuts.
Martin denies discrimination contributed to his departure. ‘That’s not the reason I left,’ Martin tells me at the Savoy 50 Greatest Restaurants party. ‘But you’d be wrong if you said they don’t discriminate against people because of their accents.’
Martin, who has a personal collection of around 20 cars including two Ferraris, was understood to have expressed an interest in fronting Top Gear before Chris Evans was named as lead host in 2015. It was reported that Martin didn’t land the role because producers were concerned shooting the show would clash with his Saturday morning filming for his cookery programme.
When Evans stepped down in 2016, Martin was tipped again as a successor. The role was eventually filled by American actor Matt LeBlanc.
A Corporation spokesman says: ‘The BBC has a huge variety of presenters with different accents and from different backgrounds.
‘The fact that James presented Saturday Kitchen, Home Comforts, Kitchen Invaders, Stately Suppers, Operation Meet the Street, Operation Hospital Food, Ready Steady Cook, The Box, The Real Italian Job and appeared in numerous other shows for the BBC shows that we have no problem with his accent.
Jane Garvey (pictured) is fed up of being called by her ex husband’s name
Clearly, there’s no love lost between Woman’s Hour presenter Jane Garvey and her ex-husband Adrian Chiles.
Asked on her podcast, Fortunately, by co-presenter Fi Glover if she still gets called Mrs Chiles, Garvey moans: ‘Every single year I get a Christmas card using that title and I don’t know who it’s from because I tear it into a million pieces. I’d love to know who sent it… it’s not difficult. It’s beyond that.’
Garvey, 53, was granted a divorce in 2009 after 11 years of marriage on the grounds of her husband’s admitted unreasonable behaviour.
The pair split amid rumours Chiles was more than ‘just good friends’ with Christine Bleakley, his co-host on The One Show, which they always denied.
BoJo dad’s secret for a happy marriage? Separate houses!
The Foreign Secretary’s father Stanley Johnson takes issue with Dame Joan Collins’s belief that the key to a successful marriage is separate bedrooms.
‘There is an idea that separate houses is the key,’ says Stanley, 77. ‘Separate houses and occasional meetings.’
Johnson, a father-of-six, has been married to second wife Jennifer since 1981. Maybe he can pass on some marital tips to his newlywed youngest son Max who eloped last week with his Brazilian bride, Gabriela Maia, to Indonesia.
‘Nobody was there [at the wedding] but we’ve seen the video which was brilliant,’ adds Stanley.
‘I think the time will come in a few weeks when they come over to London and we’ll throw them a big party.’
Lib Dem deputy Jo Swinson appears to be winning the battle for funding at the top of her party. Donations recorded by Swinson, 38, are outstripping her boss, Sir Vince Cable, by £20,000.The latest boost comes from the unlikely source of Thomas Goode — the luxury china supplier based in Mayfair — which has donated £10,000, according to the register of members’ financial interests.
Model Miranda Kerr has turned to crystals to keep the faith (stock photo)
Supermodel Miranda Kerr praises ‘power of crystals’
Doctors pour scorn on the alleged curative effects of crystals, but supermodel Miranda Kerr is keeping the faith. ‘I believe in the healing powers of crystals and use them daily for meditation, throughout my home, and in my skincare line, where we infuse all products with the soothing and healing energy of rose quartz,’ she says, posing with a lump of the mineral, right.
The 34-year-old wife of Snapchat boss Evan Spiegel, 27, adds: ‘Cleopatra was known to use rose quartz for its beauty and healing benefits.’
And look what happened to her…