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Fanny Cradock
Fanny Cradock (February 26, 1909 - December 27, 1994) born Phyllis Nan
Sortain Pechey, in Apthorp House, Leytonstone, Essex, was a British writer,
restaurant critic and television cook who mostly worked with John "Johnnie"
Cradock, whose surname she adopted long before they married. She was the
daughter of novelist and lyricist Archibald Thomas Pechey.
MarriagesFanny was married a total of four times, the first in 1926 was to an RAF pilot named Sidney Vernon Evans. The marriage was short lived as he died in an air crash after only a few days. This left Fanny as a pregnant widow. Within a year of giving birth to her son Peter, Fanny married again, this time to Arthur Chapman. Another child was born, Christopher, and when Christopher was four months old, Fanny abandoned him and Arthur for a more exciting life in central London. In September 1939 she married again whilst still legally married to Arthur, but the new marriage only lasted eight weeks. By that time she had met Johnnie Cradock. Johnnie was already married with four children. He left his wife and family and had no contact with them for the rest of his life. Fanny and Johnnie finally married in 1977 after the collapse of her television career.
Early careerThe first ten years of her life in central 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". It is believed that Fanny met Johnnie Cradock at a food exhibition but this is uncertain. They began writing a column under the pen name of "Bon Viveur" 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". TelevisionIn 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 extremely popular in the late 1950s. 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 truly care for her audience. Regular 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 that her television show began to border on farce. As she got older, she applied more and more make-up and would wear vast chiffon ballgowns on screen. She became a figure of fun and the BBC was aware of it. 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 perfect 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 very long. Her series Cradock Cooks for Christmas is the only one 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. Gwen TroakeIn 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 to act as one of a number of experts giving Troake advice on her menu. The result would bring about the end of Fanny Cradock's TV career. Mrs Troake went through her menu of Seafood Cocktail, Duckling with bramble sauce and Coffee Cream dessert. Fanny told her that her menu was too rich, and while accepting that her dessert was delicious, insisted it was not suitable, declaring: "You're among professionals now". She grimaced, acted as if on the verge of retching, and pretended not to know what a bramble was. 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 Fanny thought was quite 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 had said that he felt Troake's original coffee pudding was perfect. However, so insistent was Cradock that she won. 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 Fanny had spoken to Troake, the public demanded her shows be axed from the BBC. Fanny wrote a letter of apology to Troake but the BBC terminated her contract just two weeks after the programme was broadcast. She would never present a cookery programme again. Later YearsFanny 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. In earlier years her husky voice and larger-than-life personality lent itself to mimicry: for example, on the 1960s BBC radio comedy show, Beyond Our Ken, Betty Marsden could regularly be heard in the guise of "Fanny Haddock". 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 appearance on television show The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross would become her last time in the public eye. Fanny and Johnnie spent their final years living at 29 Cooden Drive, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex. After Johnnie's death in 1987, she spent her last years in residence at Ersham House Hailsham, East Sussex, after having been found by a television reporter living in squalor. She died 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 LegacyMarguerite 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. Fanny's huge legacy was not multi-coloured foods - rather, she is attributed with the creation of the modern prawn cocktail which became extremely popular in 1970s Britain. Stage and Screen AdaptationsShe and Johnnie would be parodied by The Two Ronnies, Benny Hill and most famously by Betty Marsden in Beyond Our Ken with the character "Fanny Haddock". 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 [1] Fear Of Fanny was originally a touring UK stageplay. Brian Fillis formed the NRG Theatre Company with several friends, and together they toured the Edinburgh Festival in 2002, to rave reviews. "A deft piece of theatre that avoids easy laughs...with something more poignant which exposes the unhappy woman who hid behind the exuberant evening gowns and alarming eyebrows", said The Sunday Times, "Don't miss what might be a future classic", said [edinburghguide.com]. 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. "Alan Bennett would have appreciated the poetry of Fanny's hostess instruction to Johnnie to "mingle with the melon balls", reviewed The Independent. BooksAutobiography
Biography
Novels
TV shows
Cookbooks
BBC all rights reserved Booklets
Works about Fanny Cradock
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