Rev Richard Pechey (with image, tweet) · yateley_history · Storify No.1 Rev Richard F Pechey Rev Pechey was Yateley's longest serving Vicar in the 20th century, retiring aged 73 at the end of World War 2. He had succeeded Rev A J Howell, taking his first christening at St Peter's on 7 July 1929. The child baptised was Brian Alan Harold Maybanks, son of Harold George & Gladys Myrtle Maybanks. Harold was a gardener, of The Garage, Firgrove Manor, Eversley. When the Rev Pechey arrived in Yateley the Vicarage was on Vicarage Road. It's now called Glebe House. In the early 1930s he moved to the house at Church End then called St Peter’s Cottage. Now it's called The Old Vicarage. In 1933 Rev Pechey's wife, Mabel Rose Salisbury Pechey died aged 56. The sad loss of his wife may have prompted him to move to the smaller house near the church.

Richard Francis Pechey was born 28 Feb 1872 in Leytonstone the son of John Thomas Primrose Pechey, a corn merchant born in Biggleswade. In 1881 the 9 year old Richard was living in Fillebrook Road, Leyton with his father and mother, his 5 year old sister Adeline, his 4 year old brother Archibald Thomas, his mother's brother, and three servants: a cook, a nurse and a housemaid. By census day 1901 he was a clergyman living in Halifax, having just a few months before married Mabel Rose Salisbury Churchill. Mabel Rose was the daughter of Frederick Churchill, a surgeon of Cranley Gardens in Kensington. The family employed 6 servants including a butler. Rev Pechey and his wife Mabel had five daughters: Mabel Primrose born in Nov 1901, Alice Katherine Primrose in 1903, Dorothy Primrose in 1905, Evelyn Mary Primrose (1912), and the youngest, Rosemary Valentine Primrose in 1918.

The daughter always known as Bobby by family and friends was Evelyn Mary Primrose Pechey. Valerie Kerslake wrote about Bobby in her article [in the Parish Magazine] on the origins of the Primrose Club. It seems that all the primroses stemmed from the Pechey side of the family, and that Primrose Pechey was practically a double-barrelled surname. The brother of Yateley's vicar was Archibald Thomas Pechey, author, playwright and lyricist. The most famous show with which he was associated as one of the lyricists was Maid of the Mountains, the second longest running show (after Chu Chin Chow) in the dark days of the First World War. Archibald Pechey was part author of Cinderella at the Hippodrome, and numerous other pantomimes. He wrote many crime novels under the nom de plume Mark Cross, right up till his death in 1961. His other pen name was Valentine (his mother's surname).

If the Rev Richard Pechey was anything like his younger brother it is no wonder that he was "renowned for his sermons which filled the church pews." That quote is from Doug Gibbs, son of the Yateley's schoolmaster at that time. Doug also tells me that two of Rev Pechey's "grown-up daughters were known for frolics and antics." I pressed him to give me some examples. Before he replied from Essex, I asked Muriel Brent. She sagely replied that "people liked to talk in those days." Doug wrote back giving me several examples of "frolics and antics" one of which occurred at the Yateley Carnival just before WW2. Bobby Pechey arrived at the judging area, just in front of the Dog & Partridge, "sitting on the bonnet of an Austin Seven waving a Union Jack and a Swastika flag." A strong contrast with her sterling efforts later in the war to keep the home fires burning.... Perhaps it was not surprising that Bobby and her sister were known for "frolics and antics" with an uncle connected with operetta and pantomime.

But it will seem even less surprising when I tell you that their first cousin, the daughter of the author, playwright and lyricist was Phyllis Nan Soutain Primrose Pechey, better known to TV audiences as ITV's first celebrity chef, Fanny Craddock. Peter Tipton, The Yateley Society, first published 3 Feb 2006, corrected 6 April 2014 Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (1909 - 1994) - Genealogy Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey "Primrose Pechey", "Phyllis Sortain", "Phylis Holden-dye", "Fanny Craddock" Birthdate: Apthorp House, Fairlop Road, Leytonstone, Essex Death: in Hailsham, East Sussex, UK Immediate Family: Mother of <private> Evans and <private> Chapman Managed by: NewspaperARCHIVE.com Text: ... Fanny Cradock, teacher: Fanny Cradock, who won a niche in British social history by teaching luxury-starved Britons to cook better after...

Date: Archibald Thomas Pechey, Bijou Sortain Pechey (born Hancock) Brother: Charles A A P Pechey Husband: (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television cook and writer who mostly worked with her then common-law husband Johnnie Cradock, adopting his surname long before they married. She was the daughter of the novelist and lyricist Archibald Thomas Pechey. Fanny’s family background was one of respectable middle-class trade; her ancestors included the Pecheys (corn merchants and churchmen), the Vallentines (distillers) and the Hulberts (cabinet makers). Childhood Fanny’s birth was formally registered in the district of West Ham.[1] Fanny was given the name ‘Phyllis Nan S. Pechey’. The ‘S’ was for Sortain, a name that had been passed down through her mother’s family.

A plaque, with her name misspelled in the London borough of Leytonstone records at Fairwood Court, Fairlop Road, London E11: "Fanny Craddock 1909-1994. On this site until 1930 stood a house called Apthorp, birthplace of the famous TV cookery expert Fanny Craddock; born Phyllis Pechey." Fanny's birthplace was named after Apthorp Villa, in Weston, Somerset, where her grandfather Charles Hancock had been born. Fanny’s parents did not manage their money well, her mother, Bijou, spent extravagantly, and her father, Archibald, had sizeable gambling debts, many run up in Nice.

In attempting to keep their creditors at bay, the family moved around the country, going to Herne Bay in Kent, then to Swanage in Dorset, and on to Bournemouth (which was then in Hampshire), where Archibald’s brother, Richard Francis Pechey (1872–1963), had become the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in 1912.[2] Whilst in Bournemouth the 15-year-old Fanny attended Bournemouth High School (now Talbot Heath School).[3] Archibald moved the family again to Wroxham in Norfolk, circa 1927, where his debtors caught up with him and by 1930 he was appearing in Norfolk's bankruptcy court faced with debts of £3,500. Marriages By the time of her father’s downfall, Fanny had already left the family and set up her own home with her first husband. Fanny married four times, twice bigamously. First she married Sidney A.

Vernon Evans on 10 October 1926, she was 17, he was 22.[4] Fanny had adopted a variation on the family name, marrying as Primrose Pechey, which was a form passed down her father’s side. Sidney Evans died in a plane crash on 4 February 1927,[5] leaving Fanny pregnant with their son Peter Vernon Evans,[6] who was adopted by his grandparents. Thanks to Johnny Cradock, Peter later became a sous-chef at the Dorchester Hotel. By July of the following year Fanny had fallen pregnant again, and was obliged to marry the baby’s father Arthur William Chapman on 23 July.[7] For this marriage Fanny used a form of her name closer to that on her birth certificate, employing her maternally inherited ‘Sortain’, rather than the paternal ‘Pechey’. The couple had a son Christopher,[8] but their marriage lasted less than a year before they separated. Fanny left her son Christopher and husband Arthur for a new life in Central London. Christopher was brought up in Norfolk by his father, an aunt and grandmother, although he made contact with Fanny in his adult life.

Arthur Chapman became a Catholic and so would not give Fanny the divorce she later requested, as it was against the teachings of the Catholic Church, he merited only a single line in Fanny’s autobiography. Fanny married again on 26 September 1939; her husband this time was Gregory Holden-Dye, a daredevil minor racing driver, driving Bentleys at Brooklands in Surrey.[9] The marriage lasted only eight weeks, and produced no children, as Fanny had soon met the love of her life Johnny Cradock. Greg’s mother had expressed a low opinion of Fanny, and ended up as a loathsome character in Fanny's first novel Scorpion's Suicide. Fanny later concluded that as Arthur Chapman had not granted her a divorce, her marriage to Greg was not lawful, and so never publicised it. John Whitby Cradock was a major in the Royal Artillery who was already married with four children. He soon left his wife, Ethel, and children to be with Fanny. Unable to marry Johnny, because of Arthur’s refusal to get divorced, Fanny changed her surname to Cradock by deed poll in 1942.

When she was informed that Arthur had died, she married Johnny on 7 May 1977,[10] although Arthur actually lived until 1978. For this marriage Fanny went with a pared down version of her name, and also seemed to be having problems with her memory, as the then 68-year-old put her age down as '55' on the marriage certificate, even though she had a son who was nearly fifty.[11] Early career Having left Chapman, the next ten years of Fanny’s life in London began with her living in destitution, selling cleaning products door to door. She then worked in a dressmaking shop. Things finally picked up for her when she began to work at various restaurants and was introduced to the works of Auguste Escoffier, which proved influential.

She later wrote passionately about the change from service à la française to service à la russe and hailed Escoffier as a saviour of British cooking - although she also fiercely defended her opinion that there was no such thing as English Cuisine, "Even the good old Yorkshire pudding comes from Burgundy." Fanny and Johnnie Cradock began writing a column under the pen name of "Bon Viveur"[12] which appeared in The Daily Telegraph from 1950 to 1955. This sparked a theatre career, with the pair turning theatres into restaurants. Cradock would cook vast dishes that were served to the audience. They became known for their roast turkey, complete with stuffed head, tail feathers and wings. Complete with French accents, their act was one of a drunken hen-pecked husband and a domineering wife. At this time, they were known as Major and Mrs Cradock. She also wrote books under the names Frances Dale and Phyllis Cradock. Television In 1955 Fanny 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 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". She once insisted that "Everyone is entitled to a piece of really good cake at least once a year."[citation needed] As time went by, however, her food began to seem outdated, and her love of the piping bag and vegetable dyes meant that her television show began to border on farce.[clarification needed] As she got older, she applied more and more make-up and wore vast chiffon ballgowns on screen. She became a figure of fun and the BBC was aware of it.[citation needed] Fanny 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 were a series of young men who didn't last very long. Throughout Fanny's 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 newly wed women, on how to use gas cookers for basic dishes.[13] Despite the BBC's ban on advertising, Cradock only ever used gas stoves in her television shows and often stated that she "hated" electric stoves and ovens.[14] Her series Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas is the only one of several she made to have been repeated in recent years, on the UK digital television channel Good Food, usually in the run-up to Christmas. The Gwen Troake incident In 1976 a housewife in Devon, Gwen Troake, won a competition called Cook of the Realm, leading to the BBC selecting her to organise a banquet to be attended by Edward Heath, Earl Mountbatten of Burma and other VIPs.

The BBC filmed the result as part of a series called The Big Time, and asked Fanny Cradock, by then a tax exile in Ireland, to act as one of a number of experts giving Mrs Troake advice on her menu. The result brought the end of Fanny Cradock's television career.[15] Mrs Troake went through her menu of seafood cocktail, duckling with bramble sauce and coffee cream dessert. Fanny, grimacing and acting as if on the verge of retching, claimed not to know what a bramble was, told Mrs Troake that her menu was too rich, and, though she accepted that the dessert was delicious, insisted that it was not suitable, declaring, "You're among professionals now." She suggested that Mrs Troake use a small pastry boat filled with fruit sorbet and covered with spun sugar, decorated with an orange slice and a cherry through a cocktail stick, giving the dish the look of a small boat, which Fanny thought would be suitable for the naval guests. In the event, the dessert was a disaster and could not be served properly. Robert Morley had also been consulted on the menu and said he felt that Mrs Troake's original coffee pudding was perfect.

When the dessert failed to impress, the public was annoyed that Fanny Cradock had seemingly ruined Mrs Troake's special day. Fanny wrote a letter of apology to Mrs Troake, but the BBC terminated her contract two weeks after the programme was broadcast. She never presented a cookery programme for the BBC again. (Mrs Troake, by contrast, published A Country Cookbook the following year.)[16] '''Later years''' Fanny and Johnnie Cradock spent their final years living at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex. Fanny and Johnnie Cradock became regulars on the chat show circuit, and also appeared on programmes such as The Generation Game and Blankety Blank. Fanny appeared alone on Wogan, Parkinson and TV-am.[citation needed] When she appeared on the television chat show Parkinson with Danny La Rue and it was revealed to her that La Rue was actually a female impersonator, she stormed off the set[citation needed]. Her final BBC appearance was on Wogan in 1986, and her final television appearance was on The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross in 1987[citation needed].

In 1991, four years after Johnnie's death, family friend Phil Bradford found Fanny living in a flat in Chichester where she was living in squalor and seemed disorientated. [17] He sought power of attorney and moved her to a nursing home at Ersham House Hailsham, East Sussex. She died following a stroke on 27 December, 1994. Both Fanny and Johnnie were cremated at Langney Crematorium, Eastbourne. There is a memorial plaque and a rosebush in the grounds of the crematorium for both of them. Culinary legacy Marguerite Patten has described Fanny Cradock as the saviour of British cooking after the war. Brian Turner has said that he respects Fanny's career and Delia Smith has attributed her own career to early inspirations taken from the Cradocks' television programmes. Others are less complimentary and in the BBC series How We Used To Cook in an episode dedicated to Cradock and Graham Kerr, Keith Floyd and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, amongst others, were very disparaging in regard to her method and cooking skill.

Despite their extravagant appearance and novelty value, her recipes were extremely widely used and her cookery books sold in record numbers. In the third series of The F Word, Gordon Ramsay held a series-long search for a new Fanny Cradock. Stage and screen adaptations In her early years on television Fanny Cradock's husky voice and larger-than-life personality lent themselves to mimicry, for example on two BBC Radio comedy shows in the 1960s, Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne, in which Betty Marsden played Fanny Haddock. Fanny and Johnnie were also parodied by The Two Ronnies and on Benny Hill, with Benny as Fanny and Bob Todd as an invariably drunk Johnnie. Fanny's life has also been the subject of two biopic dramas: Doughnuts like Fanny's by Julia Darling and Fear of Fanny by Brian Fillis.[18] Fear of Fanny was originally a stage play.

After a successful run by the Leeds Library Theatre Company, touring the United Kingdom in October and November 2003, the play was turned into a television drama starring Mark Gatiss and Julia Davis, broadcast in October 2006 on BBC Four as one of a series of culinary-themed dramas. It was filmed in high definition and was also broadcast on BBC HD.

Books Fabulous Fanny Cradock: TV's Outrageous Queen of Cuisine by Clive Ellis (Sutton Publishing, 2007) Novels as Phyllis Cradock Gateway to Remembrance (1949) The Eternal Echo (1950) as Fanny Cradock The Lormes of Castle Rising (1975) ISBN 0-8415-0437-7 Shadows Over Castle Rising (1976) ISBN 0-525-20128-9 War Comes to Castle Rising (1977) ISBN 0-525-23009-2 Wind of Change at Castle Rising (1979) ISBN 0-525-23468-3 The Windsor Secret (1986) ISBN 0-352-32064-8 TV shows Fanny's Kitchen[19] Chez Bon Viveur The Cradocks Dinner Party Fanny Cradock Invites Cradock cooks for Christmas Cookbooks Cooking with Bon Viveur 1955 Museum Press Ltd (writing as John and Phyllis Cradock

) Bon Viveur Recipes circa 1960 Daily Mail The Daily Telegraph Cook's Book by Bon Viveur 1964 Collins Fontana Books The Daily Telegraph Sociable Cook's Book by Bon Viveur 1967 Collins Fontana Books Fanny & Johnnie Cradocks' The Cook Hostess' Book 1970 Cookery Book Club Modest but Delicious 1973 Arlington Books/The Daily Telegraph Common Market cookery France (1973) BBC, ISBN 0-563-12586-1 365 Puddings by Bon Viveur Summer 1975 The Daily Telegraph 365 Soups by Bon Viveur Winter 1977 The Daily Telegraph Fanny & Johnnie Cradock's Freezer Book 1978 W H Allen A Cook's Essential Alphabet 1979 W H Allen Time to Remember - A Cook for All Seasons 1981 Web & Bower BBC all rights reserved Booklets Home Cooking 1965 BBC (TV Series April - June 1965) Adventurous Cooking 1966 BBC (TV Series April - June 1965)

 Ten Classic Dishes 1967 BBC (TV Series January - March 1968) Problem Cooking 1967 BBC (TV Series 1967) Eight Special Menus for the Busy Cook-Hostess 1967 Gas Council Colourful Cookery 1968 BBC (TV Series Oct - December 1968) Giving a Dinner Party 1969 BBC (TV Series July - October 1969) Fanny Cradock Invites 1970 BBC (TV Series July - October 1970) Fanny Cradock's Nationwide Cook Book 1972 BBC Fanny Cradock's Christmas Cooking 1975 BBC (TV Series November - December 1975) Works about Fanny Cradock Doughnuts like Fanny's - play by Julia Darling, 2002.

Later renamed Fanny Cradock - The Life and Loves of a Kitchen Devil[20] Fear of Fanny - play by Brian Fillis, 2002, adapted for BBC Four in 2006 starring Julia Davis as Fanny Cradock[21] References 1.^ GRO Register of Births: Jun Qtr, 1909, Phyllis Nan S. Pechey, at W. Ham, vol 4a, page 369 2.^ Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1923, page 1173-74 3.^ 4.^ GRO Register of Marriages: 1926, Dec Qtr, Phyllis N. Primrose Pechey & Sydney A. V. Evans, in Sheppey, Kent, vol 2a, page 2368a 5.^ GRO Register of Deaths: MAR 1927 2b 309 NEWHAVEN - Sidney A. V.

Evans, aged 22 6.^ GRO Register of Births: DEC 1927 4b 78 ERPINGHAM - Peter S. Evans, mmn = Primrose-Pechey or Pechey 7.^ Marriage: 1928, Sep Qtr, Phyllis N. S. V. Evans & Arthur W. Chapman, in Norwich, Norfolk, vol 4b, page 316 8.^ GRO Register of Births: SEP 1929 4b 422 DOWNHAM - Christopher A. J. Chapman, mmn = Primrose-Pechey 9.^ Marriage: 1939, Sep Qtr, Phyllis N. S. Chapman & Gregory L. E.

Holden-Dye, in Fulham, London, vol 1a, page 1615 10.^ Marriage: 1977, Jun Qtr, Phyllis Chapman & John Cradock, in Surrey South Western, vol 17, page 1154 11.^ 12.^ The Craddocks were still using this byline at the end of their Telegraph career (Daily telegraph cooks' book-London, W.H.Allen, 1978 ISBN 049102472X 13.^ 14.^ 15.^ The Daily Telegraph, 18 December 2007, 'Fanny Cradock - a Christmas cracker', [1] 16.^ London, McDonald and Jane's ISBN 0354085131 17.^ "The Real Hell's Kitchen: The shocking truth about flamboyant TV chef Fanny Cradock". Daily Mail. 8 October 2007. . Retrieved 23 August 2011.

18.^ 19.^ TV Heaven Review 20.^ Theatre Review 21.^ Review in Guardian newspaper External links Biography portal Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fanny Cradock A clip of the Gwen Troake incident Fanny Cradock at the Internet Movie Database Fanny Cradock at Find a Grave Fanny Cradock • Biography & Facts Fanny Cradock Fanny Cradock Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television cook and writer frequently appearing on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with Major Johnnie Cradock who played the part of a slightly bumbling husband.Fanny Cradock came to the attention of the public in the postwar-utility years, trying to inspire the average housewife with an exotic approach to cooking.

She famously worked in various ball-gowns without the customary cook’s apron, averring that women should feel cooking was easy and enjoyable, rather than messy and intimidating.In her early anonymous role as a food critic, working with Major Cradock under the name of ‘Bon Viveur’, Fanny introduced the public to unusual dishes from France and Italy, popularising the pizza in England. She is also credited as the originator of the Prawn Cocktail. She and Johnny worked together on a touring cookery show, sponsored by the Gas Council, to show how gas could be used easily in the kitchen and, as their fame increased, Fanny’s shows transferred to television, where she enjoyed 20 years of success.In the course of her shows Fanny made frequent concessions to the economic realities of the era, suggesting cheaper alternatives which would be within reach of the housewife’s purse.

The BBC published her recipes and suggestions for dinner-parties in a series of booklets, consolidating her reputation as the foremost celebrity chef of her day.Fanny adopted a combative persona, with dramatic make-up and waspish comments to Major Cradock and her assistants, and would advise viewers, when showing them how to pierce a turkey with forks, to think of a neighbour they didn’t like. Her theatrical style was ripe for parodies, such as Betty Marsden's 'Fanny Haddock' radio-sketch in Beyond our Ken. It also led, at the height of her fame, to a spectacular crash-and-burn on The Big Time, where Fanny disastrously brought her acid wit into play when dealing with housewife Gwen Troake.As a result of The Big Time Fanny alienated the public, lost her contract with the BBC and became fair game for a drubbing by the media, which revealed that she and Major Cradock were not married. A brutal and insufficiently researched entry in the Dictionary of National Biography suggested that she embellished her surname as Primrose-Pechey, when it derived from her paternal grandfather John Thomas Primrose Pechey.

Subsequent celebrity chefs have brought a sophistication to British cooking which was not a part of Fanny's repertoire, but have acknowledged her pioneering work, when purple piped potato brought excitement to a Britain of liver and bacon suppers. About: Fanny Cradock About: Fanny Cradock An Entity of Type : person , from Named Graph : , within Data Space : dbpedia.org Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television cook and writer frequently appearing on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with Major Johnnie Cradock who played the part of a slightly bumbling husband.

Property Secret drugs menu of TV chef Fanny | Media | The Guardian Secret drugs menu of TV chef Fanny Drama tells how moody studio cook kept control Saturday 9 September 2006 20.00 EDT First published on Saturday 9 September 2006 20.00 EDT Share on Messenger Close She was one of TV's first celebrity chefs and remains one of the most famous, flamboyant and formidable cooks ever to grace the small screen. New research into the life of Fanny Cradock suggests, however, that her explosive, unpredictable personality was largely due to an addiction to appetite-suppressing and mood-enhancing amphetamines. Sources close to the late cook have revealed to the writer of a forthcoming TV drama about her that she was addicted to the pills - known among her inner circle as her 'uppers and downers' - for most of her adult life. 'A number of people who worked with her said she kept a basket of pills by her bed which they used to call Fanny's hundreds and thousands,' said Brian Fillis, writer of the drama who spoke to many of Cradock's 'associates and helpers'.

'One reason most thought she did take them was to control her moods which swung wildly, but they may have been a way to keep thin because amphetamines are obvious appetite suppressants,' he said. 'She always insisted that her food never made anyone fat.' The 'downers' are thought to have been sleeping pills. If true, these suggestions would help to explain the explosiveness of Cradock, who mixed furious disdain with extreme tenderness towards her on- and off-screen partner, Johnnie, who became her third husband. Johnnie, played by actor Mark Gatis, was the TV 'stooge' who stood behind the chef, obeying her instructions and drinking wine while she cooked on her shows. In the drama, Fear of Fanny, Cradock is played by the Nighty Night actress Julia Davis as emotionally brittle, frequently swearing in front of the camera and at home. She is repeatedly seen taking the uppers to perk her up in the morning and downers, probably sleeping tablets, to help her rest.

One of her sons from an earlier marriage, Christopher, spoke to the production team, and his revelations helped shape the 90-minute drama, which is said to offer the first in-depth profile of the woman credited with introducing a new wave of more sophisticated foods to Britain. It charts Cradock's decline after she ridiculed a member of the public on The Big Time, a Seventies BBC show that gave amateurs the chance to operate in professional environments. Cradock was seen physically gagging and rolling her eyes after a woman was criticised for preparing a poorly balanced menu for a restaurant. The BBC decided that it was fine to be rude to paid people but the public were off limits. Cradock was sacked. She did not appear regularly again, ending a career which began in 1955 with Kitchen Magic and spawned other shows including The Cradocks, Dinner Party and Fanny Cradock Invites. Her private life was little better. Cradock was said to have no friends except Johnnie, and she and Christopher fell out when she objected to his choice of second wife. Her other son, Peter - she had both before marrying Johnnie - declined to co-operate with the production, to be broadcast on BBC4 next month.

'Christopher told me that his mother was evil, but I wasn't sure how serious he was being,' Fillis said. 'He certainly knew what kind of person she was, and the picture from all the people we spoke to was clear.' Now aged 77 and living in Devon, he has vivid memories of his mother. Her last public appearance before she died at 85 in 1995 was on the Parkinson Show alongside Danny La Rue who was dressed in drag as Shirley Bassey. Fanny had no idea at first that 'the woman' was actually a man, and when she found out she stormed out of the studio. Queen of the kitchen Born: Phyllis Primrose-Pechey, 1909 Died: 1994 Personal life: Her mother was an actress, her father a writer. Eloped at 16 but her husband died the same year. They had one son. She later married Arthur Chapman; they had a son before divorcing. Met co-star Major Johnnie Cradock in 1939.

They married in 1977 Career: Newspaper columnist, TV chef Pioneer dish: Prawn cocktail fanny cradock : definition of fanny cradock and synonyms of fanny cradock (English) Johnnie Cradock (1977–1987) Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic , television cook and writer who worked with her common-law husband Johnnie Cradock . Daughter of a failed gambler, Cradock began working in restaurants and became a cookery journalist. All her first three marriages were over quickly, with two sons who were alienated from her, by the time she met Johnnie, with whom she launched her successful TV cookery show that ran for twenty years. Her theatrical style positively invited parody, notably in Betty Marsden's 'Fanny Haddock' radio-sketch in Beyond our Ken.

She eventually married Johnnie in 1977, after being misinformed of the death of an earlier Roman Catholic husband who had refused to give her a divorce, which she claimed rendered her third marriage invalid. Technically she was therefore a trigamist . Contents 12 External links Childhood Cradock’s family background was one of respectable middle-class trade; her ancestors included the Pecheys (corn merchants and churchmen), the Vallentines (distillers) and the Hulberts (cabinet makers). She was the daughter of the novelist and lyricist Archibald Thomas Pechey and Bijou Sortain Hancock. Cradock’s birth was formally registered in London, in the district of West Ham . [1] Fanny was given the name ‘Phyllis Nan S. Pechey’. [2] The ‘S’ was for Sortain, a name that had been passed down through her mother’s family. A plaque, with her name misspelled in the London borough of Leytonstone records at Fairwood Court, Fairlop Road, London E11: "Fanny Craddock 1909-1994.

On this site until 1930 stood a house called Apthorp, birthplace of the famous TV cookery expert Fanny Craddock; born Phyllis Pechey." Her birthplace was named after Apthorp Villa, in Weston, Somerset, where her grandfather Charles Hancock had been born. Cradock’s parents did not manage their money well, her mother, Bijou, spent extravagantly, and her father, Archibald, had sizeable gambling debts, many run up in Nice . In attempting to keep their creditors at bay, the family moved around the country, going to Herne Bay in Kent, then to Swanage in Dorset, and on to Bournemouth (which was then in Hampshire ), where Archibald’s brother, Richard Francis Pechey (1872–1963), had become the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in 1912. [3] Whilst in Bournemouth the 15-year-old Fanny attended Bournemouth High School (now Talbot Heath School).

[4] Archibald moved the family again to Wroxham in Norfolk, circa 1927, where his debtors caught up with him and by 1930 he was appearing in Norfolk's bankruptcy court faced with debts of £3,500. Marriages By the time of her father’s downfall, Cradock had already left the family and set up her own home with her first husband; she married four times, twice bigamously. First she married Sidney A. Vernon Evans on 10 October 1926, she was 17, he was 22. [5] Cradock had adopted a variation on the family name, marrying as Primrose Pechey, which was a form passed down her father’s side. Sidney Evans died in a plane crash on 4 February 1927, [6] leaving her pregnant with their son Peter Vernon Evans, [7] who was adopted by his grandparents. Thanks to Johnny Cradock, Peter later became a sous-chef at the Dorchester Hotel.

By July of the following year Cradock had fallen pregnant again, and was obliged to marry the baby’s father Arthur William Chapman on 23 July. [8] For this marriage Cradock used a form of her name closer to that on her birth certificate, employing her maternally inherited ‘Sortain’, rather than the paternal ‘Pechey’. The couple had a son Christopher, [9] but their marriage lasted less than a year before they separated. Cradock left her son Christopher and husband Arthur for a new life in Central London. Christopher was brought up in Norfolk by his father, an aunt and grandmother, although he made contact with Fanny in his adult life. Arthur Chapman became a Catholic and so would not give Fanny the divorce she later requested, as it was against the teachings of the Catholic Church, he merited only a single line in Fanny’s autobiography. Cradock married again on 26 September 1939; her husband this time was Gregory Holden-Dye, a daredevil minor racing driver, driving Bentleys at Brooklands in Surrey. [10] The marriage lasted only eight weeks, and produced no children, as she had soon met the love of her life Johnny Cradock.

Greg’s mother had expressed a low opinion of Fanny, and ended up as a loathsome character in Fanny's first novel Scorpion's Suicide. Cradock later concluded that as Arthur Chapman had not granted her a divorce, her marriage to Greg was not lawful, and so never publicised it. John Whitby Cradock was a major in the Royal Artillery who was already married with four children. He soon left his wife, Ethel, and children to be with her. Unable to marry Johnny, because of Arthur’s refusal to get divorced, she changed her surname to Cradock by deed poll in 1942. When she was informed that Arthur had died, she married Johnny on 7 May 1977, [11] although Arthur actually lived until 1978. For this marriage Cradock went with a pared down version of her name, and also seemed to be having problems with her memory, as the then 68-year-old put her age down as '55' on the marriage certificate, even though she had a son who was nearly fifty.

[12] Early career Having left Chapman, the next ten years of Cradock’s life in London began with her living in destitution, selling cleaning products door to door. She then worked in a dressmaking shop. Things finally picked up for her when she began to work at various restaurants and was introduced to the works of Auguste Escoffier , which proved influential. She later wrote passionately about the change from service à la française to service à la russe and hailed Escoffier as a saviour of British cooking - although she also fiercely defended her opinion that there was no such thing as English Cuisine, "Even the good old Yorkshire pudding comes from Burgundy." Fanny and Johnnie Cradock began writing a column under the pen name of "Bon Viveur" [13] which appeared in The Daily Telegraph from 1950 to 1955. This sparked a theatre career, with the pair turning theatres into restaurants. Cradock would cook vast dishes that were served to the audience. They became known for their roast turkey, complete with stuffed head, tail feathers and wings. Complete with French accents, their act was one of a drunken hen-pecked husband and a domineering wife.

At this time, they were known as Major and Mrs Cradock. She also wrote books under the names Frances Dale and Phyllis Cradock. Television 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 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." [14] As time went by, however, her food began to seem outdated, and her love of the piping bag and vegetable dyes meant that her television show began to border on farce.[ clarification needed ] As she got older, she applied more and more make-up and wore vast chiffon ballgowns on screen. She became a figure of fun and the BBC was aware of it.[ citation needed ] 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 were a series of young men who didn't last very 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 newly wed women, on how to use gas cookers for basic dishes.

[15] Despite the BBC's ban on advertising, Cradock only ever used gas stoves in her television shows and often stated that she "hated" electric stoves and ovens. [16] Her series Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas is the only one of several she made to have been repeated in recent years, on the UK digital television channel Good Food , usually in the run-up to Christmas . The Gwen Troake incident In 1976 a housewife in Devon, Gwen Troake, won a competition called Cook of the Realm, leading to the BBC selecting her to organise a banquet to be attended by Edward Heath , Earl Mountbatten of Burma and other VIPs. The BBC filmed the result as part of a series called The Big Time , and asked Fanny Cradock, by then a tax exile in Ireland, to act as one of a number of experts giving Mrs Troake advice on her menu. The result brought the end of Fanny Cradock's television career. [17] Mrs Troake went through her menu of seafood cocktail, duckling with bramble sauce and coffee cream dessert.

Fanny, grimacing and acting as if on the verge of retching, claimed not to know what a bramble was, told Mrs Troake that her menu was too rich, and, though she accepted that the dessert was delicious, insisted that it was not suitable, declaring, "You're among professionals now, dear." She suggested that Mrs Troake use a small pastry boat filled with fruit sorbet and covered with spun sugar, decorated with an orange slice and a cherry through a cocktail stick, giving the dish the look of a small boat, which Fanny thought would be suitable for the naval guests. In the event, the dessert was a disaster and could not be served properly. Robert Morley had also been consulted on the menu and said he felt that Mrs Troake's original coffee pudding was perfect. When the dessert failed to impress, the public was annoyed that Fanny Cradock had seemingly ruined Mrs Troake's special day. Fanny wrote a letter of apology to Mrs Troake, but the BBC terminated her contract two weeks after the programme was broadcast. She never presented a cookery programme for the BBC again.

(Mrs Troake, by contrast, published A Country Cookbook the following year.) [18] Later years Fanny and Johnnie Cradock spent their final years living at Bexhill on Sea , East Sussex . Fanny and Johnnie Cradock became regulars on the chat show circuit, and also appeared on programmes such as The Generation Game and Blankety Blank . Fanny appeared alone on Wogan , Parkinson and TV-am .[ citation needed ] When she appeared on the television chat show Parkinson with Danny La Rue and it was revealed to her that La Rue was actually a female impersonator, she stormed off the set[ citation needed ]. Her final BBC appearance was on Wogan in 1986, and her final television appearance was on The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross in 1987[ citation needed ]. In 1991, four years after Johnnie's death, family friend Phil Bradford found Fanny living in a flat in Chichester where she was living in squalor and seemed disorientated. [19] He sought power of attorney and moved her to a nursing home at Ersham House Hailsham , East Sussex.

She died following a stroke on 27 December , 1994 . Both Fanny and Johnnie were cremated at Langney Crematorium , Eastbourne . There is a memorial plaque and a rosebush in the grounds of the crematorium for both of them. Culinary legacy Marguerite Patten has described Fanny Cradock as the saviour of British cooking after the war . Brian Turner has said that he respects Fanny's career and Delia Smith has attributed her own career to early inspirations taken from the Cradocks' television programmes. Others are less complimentary and in the BBC series How We Used To Cook in an episode dedicated to Cradock and Graham Kerr , Keith Floyd and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall , amongst others, were very disparaging in regard to her method and cooking skill. Despite their extravagant appearance and novelty value, her recipes were extremely widely used and her cookery books sold in record numbers. In the third series of The F Word , Gordon Ramsay held a series-long search for a new Fanny Cradock.

Stage and screen adaptations In her early years on television Fanny Cradock's husky voice and larger-than-life personality lent themselves to mimicry, for example on two BBC Radio comedy shows in the 1960s, Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne , in which Betty Marsden played Fanny Haddock. Fanny and Johnnie were also parodied by The Two Ronnies and on Benny Hill , with Benny as Fanny and Bob Todd as an invariably drunk Johnnie. Cradock's life has also been the subject of two biopic dramas: Doughnuts like Fanny's by Julia Darling and Fear of Fanny by Brian Fillis. [20] Fear of Fanny was originally a stage play. After a successful run by the Leeds Library Theatre Company, touring the United Kingdom in October and November 2003, the play was turned into a television drama starring Mark Gatiss and Julia Davis , broadcast in October 2006 on BBC Four as one of a series of culinary -themed dramas. It was filmed in high definition and was also broadcast on BBC HD . Books Fanny Cradock Invites You To...

Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas Cookbooks Cooking with Bon Viveur (Museum Press Ltd, 1955 - writing as John and Phyllis Cradock) Bon Viveur Recipes (Daily Mail, circa 1960) Daily Telegraph Cook's Book (Collins Fontana Books, 1964) by Bon Viveur Daily Telegraph Sociable Cook's Book (Collins Fontana Books, 1967) by Bon Viveur Fanny & Johnnie Cradocks' The Cook Hostess' Book (Cookery Book Club, 1970) Modest but Delicious (Arlington Books/The Daily Telegraph, 1973) Common Market Cookery: France (BBC Books, 1973) ISBN 0-563-12586-1 Common Market Cookery: Italy (BBC Books, 1974) 365 Puddings (The Daily Telegraph, Summer 1975) by Bon Viveur 365 Soups (The Daily Telegraph, Winter 1977) by Bon Viveur Fanny & Johnnie Cradock's Freezer Book (W H Allen, 

1978) A Cook's Essential Alphabet (W H Allen, 1979) Time to Remember - A Cook for All Seasons (Web & Bower, 1981) Booklets Home Cooking with Fanny Cradock (BBC, 1965 - TV Series: Apr-Jun 1965) Adventurous Cooking with Fanny Cradock (BBC, 1966 - TV Series: Apr-Jun 1965) Ten Classic Dishes (BBC Worldwide, 1967 - TV Series: Jan-Mar 1968) Problem Cooking with Fanny Cradock (BBC, 1967 - TV Series: 1967) Eight Special Menus with Their Accompanying Wines for the Busy Cook-Hostess (Mendham Bros/Gas Council, 1967) Colourful Cookery (BBC, 1968 - TV Series: Oct-Dec 1968) Giving a Dinner Party (BBC Worldwide, 1969 - TV Series: Jul-Oct 1969) Fanny Cradock Invites (BBC, 1970 - TV Series: Jul-Oct 

1970) Fanny Cradock's Nationwide Cook Book (BBC, 1972) Fanny Cradock's Christmas Cooking (BBC, 1975 - TV Series: Nov-Dec 1975) Works about Fanny Cradock Doughnuts like Fanny's - play by Julia Darling, 2002.

Later renamed Fanny Cradock - The Life and Loves of a Kitchen Devil [22] Fear of Fanny - play by Brian Fillis, 2002, adapted for BBC Four in 2006 starring Julia Davis as Fanny Cradock [23] References ^ GRO Register of Births: Jun Qtr, 1909, Phyllis Nan S. Pechey, at W. Ham, vol 4a, page 369 Fanny Cradock, 85 - A British TV Cook In an Evening Gown - NYTimes.com Fanny Cradock, 85; A British TV Cook In an Evening Gown Published: January 2, 1995 Fanny Cradock, who won a niche in British social history by teaching luxury-starved Britons to cook better after the austere years of World War II, died on Dec. 27 in a nursing home in East Sussex, England. She was 85. Mrs.

Cradock, garbed in gems and evening gowns, enlightened television viewers with hundreds of how-to-cook programs, which began in the early 1950's and were influential in Britain for years. Her television career lasted until the late 1980's. The programs also featured her amiable kitchen partner, companion and, eventually, husband, Maj. John Cradock, an alumnus of Harrow who sported a monocle and a tuxedo. In addition, the Cradocks wrote columns for British newspapers. Her writings included "The Practical Cook" (1949) and "The Ambitious Cook" (1950), and she also wrote books jointly with the major.. "The Cradocks' secret was the snobbery and pretension of the times," the British newspaper The Independent recalled on Thursday. "In the postwar era they made their hungry, servantless readers and viewers feel they still belonged to an elite." Mrs.

Cradock was also known for such comments as, "The British housewife's greatest handicap is the British husband -- who just wants what mum used to make." In 1956 she got into a dispute with Raymond Oliver, a chef appearing on French television, when he suggested that men were better cooks than women. Mrs. Cradock, originally named Phyllis Primrose-Pechey, learned about cooking as a girl, from hotel cooks and her grandmother. Her father went bankrupt and she was a vacuum-cleaner seller, dressmaker, newspaperwoman and novelist. The major died in 1987. She is survived by two sons. Photo: Fanny Cradock. (Associated Press, 1956) Fanny Cradock - The Full Wiki The Full Wiki More info on Fanny Cradock Wikis Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles .

Related top topics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Fanny Cradock Apthorp House, Fairlop Road, Leytonstone , Essex , England Died Known for Cookery Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February, 1909 – 27 December, 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic , television cook and writer who mostly worked with John "Johnnie" Cradock , whose surname she adopted long before they married. She was the daughter of the novelist and lyricist Archibald Thomas Pechey . Fanny’s family background was one of respectable middle-class trade; her ancestors included the Pecheys – corn merchants and churchmen, the Vallentines – distillers, and the Hulberts – cabinet makers. Contents 11 Notes Early career and marriages There has been some confusion over her birthplace. One national newspaper obituary records the Channel Islands; the borough of Leytonstone specifically records at Fairwood Court, Fairlop Road, London E11: "Fanny Craddock [sic] 1909-1994.

On this site until 1930 stood a house called Apthorp, birthplace of the famous TV cookery expert Fanny Craddock [sic]; born Phyllis Pechey." [1] Fanny's birthplace was named after Apthorp Villa, in Weston, Somerset, where her grandfather Charles Hancock was born. Her birth was formally registered in the district of West Ham . The first ten years of her life in London began with her living in destitution, selling cleaning products door to door. She then worked in a dressmaking shop. Things finally picked up for her when she began to work at various restaurants and was introduced to the works of Auguste Escoffier , which would prove influential. She later wrote passionately about the change from service à la française to service à la russe and hailed Escoffier as a saviour of British cooking - although she would fiercely defend her opinion that there was no such thing as British cuisine: "Even the good old Yorkshire Pudd'n comes from Burgundy". Fanny married four times, the first in 1926 [2] to an RAF pilot named Sidney A. Vernon Evans.

The marriage was shortlived as he died in an air crash after a few months. [3] This left Fanny a pregnant widow. Within a year of giving birth to her son Peter, [4] Fanny married again, in 1928, [5] this time to Arthur W. Chapman. Another child was born, Christopher, [6] and when Christopher was four months, Fanny abandoned him and Arthur for life in central London. In September 1939 she married Gregory Holden-Dye [7] whilst still legally married to Arthur, but the new marriage only lasted eight weeks. By that time she had met Johnnie Cradock , a Royal Artillery major. Johnnie was already married with four children. He left his wife and family to be with Fanny. Fanny and Johnnie married in 1977 after the collapse of her television career [8] . Fanny carved out a minor reputation as a novelist and children's author under the pseudonym "Frances Dale". As "Phyllis Cradock" she was an authority on the lost continent of Atlantis (she had a lifelong belief in spiritualism).

But it was her first recipe book, The Practical Cook, that opened the door to Fleet Street in 1949. The Daily Telegraph already had a cookery expert, Claire Butler, so Fanny's first contributions were as "Elsa Frances", a fashion writer, and "Nan Sortain", a beauty consultant - "all acne, leaking scalps and curious inquiries made on behalf of a mysterious 'friend'", she recalled. It is believed that Fanny met Johnnie Cradock at a food exhibition but this is uncertain. Evelyn Garrett, the woman's editor of the Daily Telegraph, asked whether she and Johnnie would like a few weekend breaks in the country "to find out if there is anything left that is worthwhile in the inns of England." [9] and they soon began writing a column under the pen name of "Bon Viveur" which appeared in the Daily Telegraph from 1950 to 1955. This gentle experiment evolved into a five-year voyage of discovery, during which Fanny and Johnnie visited thousands of hotels and restaurants, home and abroad.

The paper also provided a wider stage for her showman's flair, staging "Kitchen Magic" extravaganzas across the country in which the pair turned theatres into restaurants. Cradock would cook vast dishes that were served to the audience. They became known for roast turkey, complete with stuffed head, tail feathers and wings. Complete with French accents, their act was one of a drunken hen-pecked husband and a domineering wife. At this time, they were known as Major and Mrs Cradock. The Cradocks' most prestigious event, when they filled the Royal Albert Hall for their International Christmas Cookery show in 1956, was dedicated to the Frenchman, Georges Auguste Escoffier . Television In 1955, Fanny recorded a pilot for a BBC television series. It was a winning format and each series came with a printed booklet that gave a detailed account of each recipe Fanny demonstrated. In later years, she would simply say, "You'll find that recipe in the booklet so I won't show you now". Cradock's TV programmes were popular from the late 1950s well into the 1960s.

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 for her audience. Catchphrases were; "This won't break you", "This is perfectly economical", "This won't stretch your purse". She insisted that "Everyone [was] entitled to a piece of really good cake at least once a year". As time went on, her food became outdated. Her love of the piping bag and vegetable dyes meant her television show began to border on farce. As she got older, she applied more and more make-up and wore vast chiffon ballgowns on screen. She chose not to wear an apron stating "cooking is a cleanly art, not a grubby chore". and "Only a slut gets in a mess in the kitchen." [9] By this stage, when Fanny spoke, the world listened.

She campaigned against artificial flavourings and fertilisers - the Cradock tomatoes were fed on a mixture of tea and urine dubbed "Madam's Tonic" - and in 1974 she sent the Ayr fishing fleet into panic after revealing that monkfish was being widely used in scampi as a cheaper alternative to prawns . She had firm views, too, on what viewers and readers should do at Christmas. In Fanny's book, there was no beginning or end to the preparations: Christmas puddings should be prepared a year in advance, although a batch Fanny made for Harrods in the early Sixties had to be returned when they went mouldy. Every month had its tasks: pickling walnuts , preserving angelica , making potpourri . Her fervour for DIY was also reflected in her accent on wreaths, flamboyant table designs and home-made decorations - an enterprise that she claimed could keep children "absorbed throughout the long winter evenings". [9] Fanny had always included her relatives and friends in her television shows. Johnnie suffered a minor heart attack in the early 1970s and it was the opportunity for the BBC to request "Fanny-only" shows.

Johnnie was replaced with the daughter of a friend - Jayne. Another was Sarah and there was a series of young men who didn't last long. Fanny Cradock's last television cookery programmes were Christmas-themed. Her series Cradock Cooks for Christmas is the only of her programmes to have been shown in the past decade - enjoying an annual Christmas re-run on the UK digital television channel UKTV Food . The Gwen Troake Incident In 1976, Devon housewife Gwen Troake won a competition called "Cook of the Realm", the prize being to organise a banquet to be attended by Edward Heath , Earl Mountbatten of Burma and other VIPs. The BBC filmed the result as part of a series called The Big Time , and asked Fanny Cradock (then a tax exile in Ireland and aged 66) to act as one of a number of experts giving Troake advice on her menu. The result brought the end of Fanny Cradock's TV career. [9] Mrs Troake went through her menu of seafood cocktail, duckling with bramble sauce and coffee cream dessert.

Cradock, grimacing and acting as if on the verge of retching, claimed not to know what a bramble was, telling Troake that her menu was too rich, and while accepting that the dessert was delicious, insisted it was not suitable, declaring: "You're among professionals now". She suggested that Troake use a small pastry boat filled with cream and covered with spun sugar. It was completed by an orange slice and a cherry through a cocktail stick, giving the dish the look of a small boat, which Cradock thought suitable for the naval guests. In the event, the pudding was a disaster and couldn't be served properly. Robert Morley had also been consulted on the menu and said he felt Troake's original coffee pudding was perfect. When the pudding failed to impress, the public were annoyed that Cradock had seemingly ruined a potential success for the Devon housewife. Coupled with the rude manner in which she had spoken to Troake, the public complained in droves and demanded her shows be axed from the BBC. Cradock wrote an apology to Troake but the BBC terminated her contract two weeks after the programme. She never presented a cookery programme again.

(Troake, by contrast, published "A Country Cookbook" the following year [10] ) Later Years Fanny and Johnnie became regulars on the chat show circuit and appeared on programmes such as The Generation Game and Blankety Blank . Fanny appeared alone on Wogan , Parkinson and TV-am . She wrote several novels, the Castle Rising series which had recipes as footnotes but they were not well received. When she appeared on the television chat show Parkinson , her co-star was drag artist Danny La Rue . When it was revealed to her that La Rue was actually a female impersonator, Cradock stormed off set. This was her final BBC appearance, her final television appearance of all being on The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross . Fanny and Johnnie spent their final years living at 95 Cooden Drive Bexhill on Sea , East Sussex . She stayed with The Telegraph until the early 1980s by which time her main source of income was a series of novels chronicling the life and hard times of the aristocratic Lormes family.

After Johnnie's death in 1987, she spent her last years in residence at Ersham House Hailsham , East Sussex, after being found living alone and in squalor by a family friend, Phil Bradford, who gained power of attorney to ensure she was cared for until her death from a stroke, on 27 December 1994. Both Fanny and Johnnie were cremated at Langney Crematorium, Eastbourne . There is a memorial plaque and a rosebush in the grounds of the crematorium for both of them. Culinary Legacy Marguerite Patten has spoken about Fanny Cradock being the saviour of British cooking after the war . Brian Turner has said that he respects Fanny's career and Delia Smith has attributed her career to early inspirations taken from Cradock's television programmes. Despite her extravagant appearance and novelty value, her recipes were extremely well used and her cookery books sold in record numbers. In the third series of The F Word , Gordon Ramsey held a series-long search for a new "Fanny Cradock".

Stage and Screen Adaptations In earlier years her husky voice and larger-than-life personality lent itself to mimicry: most famously, on the 1960s BBC radio comedy shows, Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne , where Betty Marsden could regularly be heard in the guise of "Fanny Haddock". She and Johnnie would be parodied by The Two Ronnies , Benny Hill (with Benny as Fanny and Bob Todd as an invariably drunken Johnnie). Fanny's life has also been the subject of two biopic dramas; Doughnuts like Fanny's written by Julia Darling and Fear of Fanny written by Brian Fillis [11] Fear Of Fanny was originally a touring UK stageplay. After a successful run touring the UK in October and November 2003 with the Leeds Library Theatre Company, the stageplay was turned into a drama starring Mark Gatiss and Julia Davis (playing Fanny Cradock), and was broadcast in October 2006 on BBC Four as part of a series of culinary -themed dramas. It was filmed in high definition and also broadcast on BBC HD .

Arcania Buried in the mix of The Beatles song Helter Skelter is John Lennon exclaiming, "Fanny Craddock!

Fanny Craddock!" Food for Thought "Carping about the way cabbage is cooked in Britain is like shooting a sitting bird with a gun that isn't licensed, on a Sunday out of season." Daily Telegraph 1964 Predictions for 1965: "More dehydrated, deep-frozen and pre-prepared foodstuffs, the end of the Chinese restaurant and the dawn of cous-cous parties." Daily Telegraph 1964 [9] "When it comes to cooking, the best friends of a working woman with a family are a three-tiered steamer and a casserole." Daily Telegraph 1976 "We approached our new microwave oven with the trepidation of two people returning to a reactor station after a leak." Daily Telegraph 1979 Books Cooking with Bon Viveur 1955 Museum Press Ltd (writing as John and Phyllis Cradock) Bon Viveur Recipes circa 1960 Daily Mail The Daily Telegraph Cook's Book by Bon Viveur 1964 Collins Fontana Books The Daily Telegraph Sociable Cook's Book by Bon Viveur 1967 Collins Fontana Books Fanny & Johnnie Cradocks' The Cook

 Hostess' Book 1970 Cookery Book Club Modest but Delicious 1973 Arlington Books/The Daily Telegraph Common Market cookery France (1973) BBC, ISBN 0-563-12586-1 365 Puddings by Bon Viveur Summer 1975 The Daily Telegraph 365 Soups by Bon Viveur Winter 1977 The Daily Telegraph Fanny & Johnnie Cradock's Freezer Book 1978 W H Allen A Cook's Essential Alphabet 1979 W H Allen Time to Remember - A Cook for All Seasons 1981 Web & Bower BBC all rights reserved Home Cooking 1965 BBC (TV Series April - June 1965) Adventurous Cooking 1966 BBC (TV Series April - June 1965) Ten Classic Dishes 1967 BBC (TV Series January - March 1968) Problem Cooking 1967 BBC (TV Series 1967 Eight Special Menus for the Busy Cook-Hostess 1967 Gas Council Colourful Cookery 1968 BBC

 (TV Series Oct - December 1968) Giving a Dinner Party 1969 BBC (TV Series July - October 1969) Fanny Cradock Invites 1970 BBC (TV Series July - October 1970) Fanny Cradock's Nationwide Cook Book 1972 BBC Fanny Cradock's Christmas Cooking 1975 BBC (TV Series November - December 1975) Works about Fanny Cradock Doughnuts like Fanny's - play by Julia Darling, 2002.

Later renamed Fanny Cradock - The Life and Loves of a Kitchen Devil [13] Fear of Fanny - play by Brian Fillis, 2002, adapted for BBC Four in 2006 starring Julia Davis as Fanny Cradock [14] Notes ^ GRO Register of Births: JUN 1909 4a 369 W. HAM Phyllis Nan S PECHEY ^ GRO Register of Marriages: DEC 1926 2a 2368a SHEPPEY - Sydney A. V. Evans = Phyllis N. P. Primrose-Pechey or Pechey ^ GRO Register of Deaths: MAR 1927 2b 309 NEWHAVEN - Sidney A. V. Evans, aged 22 ^ GRO Register of Births: DEC 1927 4b 78 ERPINGHAM - Peter S. Evans, mmn = Primrose-Pechey or Pechey ^ GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1928 4b 314 NORWICH - Arthur W.

Chapman = Phyllis N. S. V. Evans ^ GRO Register of Births: SEP 1929 4b 422 DOWNHAM - Christopher A. J. Chapman, mmn = Primrose-Pechey ^ GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1939 1a 1615 FULHAM - Gregory L.E. HOLDEN-DYE = Phyllis N. S. CHAPMAN ^ GRO Register of Marriages: JUN 1977 17 1134 SURREY SW - John CRADOCK = Phyllis CHAPMAN Cradock, Fanny, 1909-1994 - LC Linked Data Service | Library of Congress Cradock, Fanny, 1909-1994 Pechey, Phyllis Nan Sortain, 1909-1994 Primrose-Pechey, Phyllis Nan Sortain, 1909-1994 Additional Information Sources found: Fabulous Fanny Cradock, 2007: p.

229 (died 27 Dec. 1994) found: LC database, May 30, 2013 (hdg.: Cradock, Fanny, 1910- ; usage: Fanny Cradock [predominant form], Frances Dale) found: Oxford dictionary of national biography, viewed May 30, 2013 (Cradock, Phyllis Nan Sortain (Fanny); b. Feb. 26, 1909, Leytonstone, Essex; daughter of Archibald Thomas Pechey and his wife, Bijou Sortain, née Hancock; by the time of her first marriage she had embellished her surname, giving it as "Primrose-Pechey"; m. Sidney Arthur Vernon Evans, Oct. 10, 1926 (d. a few days or months later); m. Arthur William Chapman, 1928; m. Gregory Leo Edmund Dye (or Holden-Dye), 1939; left him within a few weeks for Major John Cradock (m. 1977, d. 1987) d. Dec.

27, 1994, Hailsham, Sussex; television chef; called herself Frances Dale on the spine of the nine romantic novels she wrote [usage in LC copies of novels: Fanny Cradock] and in the by-line she enjoyed as fashion editor of the Sunday graphic; she and Johnny joined the Daily telegraph under the nom de plume Bon Viveur) found: Wikipedia, viewed May 30, 2013 (under Fanny Cradock: Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey, better known as Fanny Cradock; b. Feb. 26, 1909, Leytonstone, Essex; d. Dec.

27, 1994, Hailsham, East Sussex; unable to marry Johnnie Cradock because of her husband's refusal to get divorced, she changed her surname to Cradock by deed poll in 1942; wrote novels under the names Phyllis Cradock and Fanny Cradock; also wrote books under the name Frances Dale; wrote a column with Johnnie for the Daily telegraph under the pen name Bon Viveur) notfound: Bon voyage, 1950: t.p. (Frances Dale)

Question: Phyllis Primrose Pechey is better known as whom?
Answer: FANNY CRADDOCK