London - 1st March 2016
Battlechefs, new and exclusive to W, invites ten amateur celebrity chefs into Marco Pierre White's kitchen aboard a cruise ship. The celebs, including Blur musician Alex James, actor Keith Duffy and comedian Jenny Éclair, take it in turns to command the kitchen before being judged by the infamous restaurateur.
Filmed across two separate Mediterranean cruises on P&O's newly launched flagship, Britannia, each voyage sees celebrities step up to the plate and put their culinary skills to the test.
Joining Alex James and Jenny Éclair on the first cruise are Deborah 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 learning how to cook local specialities. With their new found skills they are split into teams to prepare a meal fit for the captain and his guests. Will the new chefs play fair as they compete to become Battlechefs champion?
Battlechefs will air on UKTV's premium entertainment channel, W, which launched on 15th February. W hosts dazzling new original content such as Get Me To The Church and Honey I Bought The House, alongside hit US shows including Code Black and Grimm.
For more information please contact:
Jess Molyneux, Assistant Publicist
About W
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W is UKTV's premium entertainment channel, offering audiences a dazzling mix of original factual entertainment formats - ON, Get Me To The Church, Honey I Bought the House - alongside the gold standard of shows from the US including Code Black, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CSI:NY, Grimm and The Strain plus jewels from the same day repeat of EastEnders.
About UKTV
UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches 42 million viewers a month.
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 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.