Nigella Lawson criticises Daily Mail 'dingbats' over deception claims

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Nigella Lawson in Nigella Express
Nigella Lawson in Nigella Express: criticised by the Daily Mail

TV chef Nigella Lawson has hit back at the "dingbats" at the Daily Mail who accused her of deceiving viewers in last year's BBC2 series Nigella Express.

Lawson said it was unfair that the series shown last autumn was dragged into what she called the "hysteria" of the TV deception debate, when the Mail revealed that a scene featuring her on a bus had used a hired vehicle filled with extras.

The September 2007 article also disclosed that her "at home" scenes were not shot at the house she shares with her husband, Charles Saatchi, and their children in London's Eaton Square.

However, Lawson rubbished the Mail's claims in an interview in the latest issue of the Radio Times, on sale tomorrow.

"There are two very different things. There's deceit, and there's artifice or illusion - like when you go to the theatre. I think there was a lot of bad faith in the television world at that time. I'm sure there were certain malpractices that were indefensible, but instead of just addressing these, the hysteria was spread across the board," she said.

"I felt like saying, 'Listen, dingbats, viewers are not idiotic'. When I say on TV, 'This cake takes 20 minutes to bake' and then one minute later it's ready, what do they think I have done? Do they think I have some kind of Time Lord qualities?

"Would they prefer that I went on a real red bus and made everyone on it two hours late for their appointments while I got on and off for the third time because the lighting wasn't right? It's very odd, because I'm not making a documentary," Lawson added.

In the interview, which she conducted from her home wearing curlers in her hair, Lawson also revealed how uncomfortable she is with the "domestic goddess" tag, which she claimed was coined ironically for her first book.

"The argument has become so polarised. Either you're a bitch who spends too long in the office and never sees your children, or you're some little throwback wanting to make things nice in the kitchen," said Lawson, whose BBC2 series Nigella's Christmas Kitchen begins on BBC2 over four consecutive nights from Monday, December 15.

"And, of course, in real life women are both. Or neither. You have to find a way of integrating those two sides of yourself. Otherwise you go mad," she added.



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