Bakery Corner

Fanny Hell A few items ago there was a photograph of pioneering TV chef Mrs F. Craddock together with the celebrated TV presenter's gaffe which made her famous beyond the confines of a TV studio kitchen. My correspondent, makwuzere, seeks confirmation that the maker of the gaffe was Bill Tennent. Bill was a presenter with STV at Cowcaddens for many years, and allegedly liked a refreshment from time to time, the two activities frequently coinciding. It seems well settled that it was indeed Bill who made the remark, the only issue is whether he was sober at the time. Bill was a very witty and urbane man, and it is entirely possible that he made the remark fully conscious of its comic resonance. The smart money, however, is on it being an unconsciously funny throwaway remark of the sort associated with those who are pleasantly refreshed. At any event, the debate about the provenance of the remark raised its head in the Scotsman diary a few years ago, and I was able to contribute a story with similar gynaecological overtones. This featured an occasion when, live on the STV Scottish News at 6pm, one of the young up-and-coming male journalists was to interview an American woman about crocheting, this woman being the acknowledged leading world authority on the subject, and she being in Scotland to give demonstrations. The interview went like this :- Young man : "So, tell us something about the equipment you need for crocheting". Loud American Woman: "Well, the most important thing is what I'm sitting on. This is my fanny stool. It's very important to have a comfortable fanny stool". Young man (crimson) (and nervously): "Ha-ha-ha, I think we should explain to the viewers at home that that word means something different in America than it does here". (Approximately half way through that sentence, the young man realised that instead of making things better, he was making it much much worse - but he couldn't stop himself, and as he completed the sentence you could see him thinking "I'm never going to work in television again" - which indeed he didn't).