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Great British Menu will pay homage to classic shows in new series

Andi Oliver will return to host Great British Menu credit:Bang Showbiz
Andi Oliver will return to host Great British Menu credit:Bang Showbiz

Classic shows 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Crystal Maze' will be celebrated in the new 'Great British Menu' series.

The BBC cookery show sees four chefs representing a nation or region compete against each other each week to cook a four-course meal, and the theme for series 17, which will commence on February 1st on BBC Two, will celebrate 100 Years of Great British Broadcasting after the BBC took to the airwaves with a radio broadcast in 1922.

Professional chefs will cook up nostalgic dishes to pay homage to entertainment programmes like ‘dinnerladies', ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Monty Python’ as well as current entertainment like ‘EastEnders’.

Andi Oliver will reprise her role as host, and Ed Gamble, Nisha Katona and Tom Kerridge will feature on a new-look judging panel.

Andi said: "I feel really proud to be able to support our chefs and help guide them through the competition.

"Being able to be there to help them cope with how challenging the competition can be, and watch them develop their dishes – and their mental and culinary agility - is a sight to behold. It’s something extraordinary to see."

Tom added: “I’ve been involved with the show in some respect now for 12/13 years and I know how much it means, not just to the chefs that compete, but also the British food scene in general. It has been hugely influential, in terms of letting everybody know how great chefs and cooking is up and down the country, in all the nations and regions."

Ed - who hosts popular podcast ‘Off Menu’ - joked he now knows more than chefs Tom and Nisha thanks to his podcast.

He quipped: “Doing my food podcast for so long means that I am very qualified for this job and I know way more than Tom and Nisha who both kept complaining that nobody served chicken nuggets. (They might have edited that out).

"I can’t wait for people to see what the chefs have made this series - the brief is incredible and they really rose to the challenge. And I rose to my difficult challenge of stuffing my greedy face.”