Fanny Cradock was the original celebrity chef who taught a generation of Brits to cook. But when she died alone and penniless, the industry she once ruled turned its back
Fanny Cradock was once Britain’s undisputed culinary monarch – theatrical, intimidating, and utterly commanding.
Yet decades after she dominated BBC screens draped in evening gowns and pearls, the pioneering celebrity chef passed away destitute, isolated in a squalid bedsit, and abandoned by the very industry she had once ruled.
Armed with her signature hectoring tone and an arsenal of flowing chiffon, Fanny became television’s first genuine kitchen sensation.
She whipped up flambéed calf brains and emerald-tinted spuds, all whilst bellowing commands at her monocled spouse Johnnie, who remained loyally positioned beside her, glass of wine perpetually in grasp.
This comes after other well known faces also passed away allegedly penniless such as former BBC News host George Alagiah and Coronation Street actor Peter Adamson.
During her heyday, Fanny seemed invincible, reports the Express.
She owned a Rolls-Royce, kept a yacht moored in Cannes, and threw lavish soirées at her South London residence – which she allegedly urged society writers to brand as “Hollywood style.”
Yet beneath the powder compact and drawn-on brows, her personal existence was considerably more chaotic.
She wasn’t actually wed to Johnnie throughout most of their partnership – her second spouse, Arthur Chapman, steadfastly refused to grant her a divorce.
Fanny had deserted their child and escaped to London, eventually remarrying covertly before that union was also dissolved.
Only in 1977, following Arthur’s death, could she finally legitimately marry Johnnie.
By this point, they had already forged their television partnership – with her firmly at the helm and him relegated to her obedient assistant.
Her behaviour away from the cameras generated headlines – though rarely flattering ones.
One assistant remembered her shrieking at Johnnie between takes: “Don’t you ever speak to me like that again.
“You’ll be back where you came from so fast you won’t know what’s hit you I am Fanny Cradock and don’t you forget that.”
She labelled the Duchess of York a “trollop”, dismissed Margaret Thatcher as “cheap”, and slated Les Dawson as “an awful lump of lard who pulls funny faces. He’s greasy, horrible and disgusting. I hate him.”
Fanny’s hubris ultimately caused her spectacular downfall.
In 1976, she publicly shamed a Devon housewife on BBC’s The Big Time, ridiculing her menu and feigning retching for the cameras. The audience was outraged. Fanny was axed within weeks.
By the time Johnnie succumbed to cancer in 1987, Fanny’s career had already collapsed. She declined to attend his funeral and found herself completely isolated – having severed ties with both her sons and much of the entertainment world.
When longtime pal Phil Bradford called on Fanny at her squalid, cramped bedsit in Chichester, West Sussex, in 1991, he worried the lonely widow might take her own life.
She passed away in 1994, aged 85, following a stroke, residing in a “filthy, tiny flat” in Chichester. Her funeral attracted few mourners.
Despite the turmoil, her influence lives on. Now, over four decades since her dramatic and very public disgrace, the BBC has made her programmes available online to acquaint a fresh generation with her vibrant culinary creations.
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