Bellissima Nigella

SHE’S been off our screens for a while now, but it’s probably fair to say that Nigella Lawson has inspired a whole new generation of eager cooks – whether they would be mostly of the male variety because of her, shall we say, descriptive methods of demonstration is purely speculation.

This time around, in Nigellissima, she’s presenting a guide to Italian cuisine, keen to demonstrate how traditional and exciting meals needn’t be a chore to knock up, and can actually use ingredients that are widely available in most supermarkets.

The kitchen set in which she will be working her magic has been built and modelled entirely on her own kitchen at home, so she’s bound to be a dab-hand, right? Not that that was ever in doubt.

She recently explained, on her website blog, the reasons for building a replica kitchen rather than simply using her own. “I love my new kitchen and would have loved to film in it. But with one child doing GCSEs, another AS exams and yet another A-levels, it would not have been a good idea – or even possible. So we built a copy of my kitchen on set and it feels just like home.”

That’s just as well, because she prides herself on her home-cooking being suitable for even the busiest of families.

But what has inspired her to choose Italian food for this latest series? This isn’t Nigella’s first taste of the country.

“When I went to live in Italy when young, I said I’d do anything but clean lavatories, but as a chambermaid in Florence, that’s what I ended up doing. But I also learnt about real Italian food, and by the time I’d left I had found my spiritual and gastronomic home,” she says.

“I wanted to make a series of my sort of Italian food, inspired by the ethos and the ingredients, but fused with the way we live our lives here, in the UK.”

First up on the menu is Sicilian pasta with tomatoes, garlic and almonds, a family feast of tagliata and Tuscan fries, and a fiery egg dish for late-night parties.

IF you’re a bit bored of the same old thing on Top Gear, with its convoluted challenges, famous faces in a reasonably-priced car and Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond taking the mickey out of James May, then Classic Car Rescue could be for you.

As the title suggests, this is about restoring classic cars to their former glory.

Bernie Fineman and Mario Pacione are the ones tasked with tracking down the parts needed to bring the vintage wrecks back to life. They also learn the stories behind the machines and reveal why they have a place in automotive history.

The first vehicle to make a pit stop is an E-Type Jaguar, the sports car which set new standards in design and performance during the 1960s.

DJ and presenter Reggie Yates has clinched some novel-sounding jobs in his time, but none more intriguing than Tourettes: Let Me Entertain You, in which he brings together talent with a difference. Its contributors are all affected by Tourette’s syndrome. The Beeb has tackled a frequently-mocked condition, rather well.

Tonight, after three months of training, we see whether the youngsters can successfully make the leap from singing in private to performing in front of a huge audience.