NIGELLA LAWSON

The dimly lit flat, tucked below street level on Goldhawk Road in West London’s Shepherd’s Bush, was buzzing with people, each zipping from one job to the next. Cameras were set on tripods, cables were taped to the ground and huge film lights beamed down.

In the middle of this mayhem stood a statuesque brunette casually applying lipstick, pondering aloud what to wear for her on-screen debut: a white T-shirt, or something she’d purchased that morning from high-street store Whistles?

Perhaps the decision would have weighed a little heavier if Nigella Lawson had even the slightest inclination that she would soon be transformed from journalist, wife and mother of two to a global phenomena.

first aired in 1999, a cooking show dipping into the realms of reality television. Cameras followed Lawson on the school run, bathing her babies and then whipping up something delicious, but oh so simple, in the kitchen. She was a messy cook – proudly untrained, she regularly confessed to having appalling