His sacking is ‘vile’, she said

Someone who has spent considerable time with John Torode “on and off screen” has weighed in on the ongoing scandal that has engulfed MasterChef in recent months.

She knows Lisa Faulkner and Gregg Wallace, too. And she has a thing or two to say about the two former co-presenters and the saga of their respective sackings.

Christine Hamilton competed on Celebrity MasterChef alongside John’s wife Lisa in 2010. She made it to the final but Lisa pipped her to the winning post.

The BBC has chosen not to renew John Torode’s contract, meaning there are questions to be answered about who takes over the reins on one of the organisation’s flagship cooking programs.

Christine and her husband Neil Hamilton have been known to TV audiences for many years (Credit: Loose Women/YouTube)

MasterChef finalist defends John Torode amid scandal

Christine Hamilton, 75, took part in Celebrity MasterChef in 2010, the same year as Lisa Faulkner. In fact, they went head-to-head in the final. But Lisa – on screen alongside John with their Weekend Kitchen show today (July 26) – took home the prize.

Christine had previously made a name for herself on I’m A Celebrity…. She came third in the first series of the reality TV show. And she and her husband Neil were the subjects of a Louis Theroux documentary in 2001. Neil is a former Conservative MP for Tatton, in Cheshire.

Christine took to social media last week amid John Torode‘s reported sacking by the BBC, revealing that she had spent time with him both “on and off screen” over the years.

In her post, she described John as “one of the nicest, kindest guys I’ve ever met”.

His sacking by the “vile” BBC, she wrote, is “deeply unjust”. It also demonstrates how deeply entrenched “wokeism” is in the machinations of BBC decision-making.

A staunch supporter of the erstwhile UK Independence Party, the majority of Christine Hamilton’s recent social media activity has to do with the scapegoating of immigrants from specific countries – not Australia, it’s worth noting.

So, voicing her support for John Torode marks a change of subject matter.

Richard Osman claims John Torode was ‘offered lifeline’ by BBC after using ‘slur’

While many of the allegations swirling around the MasterChef ecosystem over the past few months have been aimed at Gregg Wallace, John has not come out of it unscathed. Now, the BBC has announced its decision not to renew John’s contract at MasterChef.

“John Torode denies the allegation. He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment,” noted the organisation.

Richard Osman, who was the creative director of Endemol Shine – a Banijay production – for much of the period from the early 2000s to 2020, claims the BBC offered John Torode a lifeline, amid the whole saga.

“You know, he used, I think, probably the worst racial slur there is, Richard said during an episode of The Rest is Entertainment podcast. “And they found that to be substantively true. They found evidence that they were happy with — that that was true.

“They took John Torode aside, this was my understanding of the whole situation, and said: ‘We believe that this happened. We believe that you used this language.’ He denied it.

“They said to him – whether this was the BBC or Banijay – they said to him: ‘We will accept if you want to take a year off, you have to do a mandatory training course to understand and accept that this is not something we particularly want in our workplace’,” he continued.

“That was denied,” Richard went on. “He [John Torode] said: ‘Of course I’m not going to do that. I didn’t do this in the first place anyway so why would I ever do this?’”