Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White sets sail with Battlechefs onboard P&O Cruises
Take P&O Cruises flagship Britannia, mix in ten amateur celebrity chefs, add the godfather of British cooking, Marco Pierre White to serve up Battlechefs, a new cookery contest set at sea, starting on UKTV’s W on Monday April 4, 2016 at 8pm.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>
New and exclusive to UKTV’s premium entertainment channel, celebrities, including Blur musician Alex James, actor Keith Duffy and comedian Jenny Eclair, take it in turns to command the cookery club kitchen on Britannia before being judged by the infamous restaurateur, Marco Pierre White.
Filmed across two Mediterranean cruises, the first voyage visits ports in Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz, Valencia and Cartagena and the second Barcelona, Rome, Cannes, Ajaccio and Alicante. Each cruise hosts a self contained competition which sees five celebrities step up to the plate and put their culinary skills to the test as they assume the role of head chef.
Joining Alex James and Jenny Eclair on the first cruise are Debra Stephenson (Playing the Field, Bad Girls), choreographer Jason Gardiner and Olympic gold medallist Greg Rutherford. Meanwhile, Keith Duffy (Coronation Street) and John Partridge (EastEnders) set sail with former JLS band member JB Gill, fashion expert Susannah Constantine and The X Factor winner Sam Bailey.
The trainee chefs sail from port to port discovering stories about each location and learning how to cook local specialities. With their new found skills they are split into teams to prepare a meal to impress Marco, the captain and his VIP guests. As temperatures in the kitchen rise, will the new chefs play fair as they compete to be crowned Battlechefs champion?
P&O Cruises vice president of marketing Christopher Edgington said, “We are very excited that Britannia is to star on UKTV’s Battlechefs, showcasing the state-of-the-art Cookery Club onboard as the perfect backdrop for celebrities to prepare their speciality meals. To set a celebrity-led cookery contest at sea is a TV first and we are proud to be involved in the show. The channel provides an ideal audience to introduce newcomers to cruising, highlight the P&O Cruises food experience and show the excellent facilities Britannia offers guests. We will be encouraging all our past and present guests to tune in for the first episode and be part of the Battlechefs experience.”
One hour episodes of Battlechefs will be shown each weekday at 8pm from April 4.
For more information or interview opportunities contact:
Jessica Molyneux, Assistant Publicist, Jessica.molyneux@uktv.co.uk
For further press information please contact:-
Michele Andjel, michele.andjel@carnivalukgroup.com 023 8065 6653 / 07730 732 072
Jenny Hadley, jenny.hadley@pocruises.com 023 8065 6650 / 07825 120 088
Hayley Paterson, Hayley.paterson@pocruises.com 023 8065 6652
About P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises has a fleet of eight ships offering holidays tailored to British tastes combining genuine service, a sense of occasion and attention to detail, ensuring passengers have the holiday of a lifetime, every time. Azura was launched in April 2010 – officially named by Godmother Darcey Bussell CBE. Small ship Adonia was added to the fleet in May 2011, named by Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE. Britannia, a new 141,000 ton ship, was named by HM The Queen on March 10, 2015.
About W
Sky 109/245, Virgin 124/191, BT & TalkTalk 311 On demand on Sky and Virgin
W is UKTV's premium entertainment channel, offering audiences a dazzling mix of original factual entertainment formats - Get Me To The Church, Honey I Bought the House - alongside hit shows from the US including Code Black, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CSI:NY, Grimm and The Strain plus the same day repeat of EastEnders.
About UKTV
UKTV's eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, Watch, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food - include the most popular non-PSB channel in the UK and account for 9% of the British commercial TV market. The company's most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £283m and EBITDA of £74.1m. It invested £123m in programming and related launches last year, and is becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.
UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC, alongside programmes originally shown on ITV and Channel 4. The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating its 22nd year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British television broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.
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