EastEnders actor Richard Blackwood has revealed that taking part in Celebrity MasterChef gave him ‘nightmares’.
The actor, 50, who played Vincent Hubbard in the soap from 2015 to 2018, has revealed in a new interview how he couldn’t stop stressing over his recipes.
Admitting he was ‘intimidated’ at first when asked to do the show, he explained how the cookery show gave him many ‘sleepless nights’.
Scary! EastEnders actor Richard Blackwood has revealed that taking part in Celebrity MasterChef gave him ‘nightmares’.
He told The Mirror: “You’d never think cooking could turn into a nightmare, but it really does – it’s hard.
‘You have sleepless nights, dreaming about the dishes you’ve made or want to make. Then, whatever the food was, it was not even edible. It was like literally, you just can’t stop thinking about food.’
‘Preparing for MasterChef is like preparing for a quiz where there are general knowledge questions; you don’t know where they will go.
“No matter how much you can study geography, or you can study history, they can go there, well, the special topic is horror movies.”
Fierce: The actor, 50, – who played Vincent Hubbard in EastEnders from 2015 to 2018 – has revealed in a new interview how he couldn’t stop stressing about his recipes.
Love Island star Faye Winter, Strictly Come Dancing pro Katya Jones, actor Ryan Thomas and McFly singer Danny Jones are among the celebrities taking part in the current series of Celebrity MasterChef.
Joining them on the BBC One show is TV presenter Lisa Snowdon, former EastEnders star Cliff Parisi and The Choir star Gareth Malone.
Broadcast over six weeks, the celebrities are faced with a series of cooking challenges to follow in the footsteps of reigning champion Kadeena Cox and win the coveted MasterChef title.
This year’s line-up of 20 celebrities, joined again by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace, also includes former boxing champion Chris Eubank, TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher, former pro footballer Jimmy Bullard and comedian Paul Chuckle.
Wow!: This year’s top 20 celebrities, joined again by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace, include TV presenter Lisa Snowdon, former EastEnders star Cliff Parisi and The Choir star Gareth Malone
Former All Saints member Melanie Blatt, comedian Kae Kurd and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Kitty Scott-Claus are also taking part.
Also hoping to impress with their culinary skills are reality star MoJo, media personality Nancy Dell’Olio and British actress Lesley Joseph – as well as actors Adam Pearson and Clarke Peters.
This year has seen the return of Under The Cloche, The Street Food Challenge and Dinner Party Dish challenges in the four-week heat round before the top celebrities face off in the mid-week and final week stages.
Celebrity MasterChef line-up: Katya Jones and Faye Winter (L-R) are among the other stars taking part in this year’s series
Following the pandemic, the series will see the finalists face challenges cooking for large numbers of people – including a special centenary challenge to mark 100 years of the BBC.
Katie Attwood, series editor of MasterChef, said as the stars were announced last month: ‘Celebrity MasterChef is a favorite in the must-see TV calendar and this series is as funny, engaging and poignant as ever.
“John and Gregg are in for a treat, as are our viewers.”
Sarah Clay, BBC editor-in-chief, added: “This line-up will absolutely cement Celebrity MasterChef as one of the best-loved cookery programs in the country, with plenty of laughs alongside fierce competition guaranteed.
“The level of cooking is fantastic this year and you can really see how much it means to all of them.”
Kadeena Cox, MBE was crowned Celebrity MasterChef 2021 champion as she reigned victorious against Joe Swash and Megan McKenna during the final.
Celebrity MasterChef, produced by Shine TV, is currently airing on BBC One.
The competition: Broadcast over six weeks, the celebrities face a series of cooking challenges as they battle it out for this year’s coveted trophy (competitor Ryan Thomas pictured)