Nadiya Hussain responds to critics

[PruthePrune]

Nadiya Hussain responds to critics

I can understand her being upset that her shows have been axed, apparently ratings were falling, However, I find it hugely disappointing that she has brought race/religion into it. No one is entitled to a BBC show and I think she has had a bloody good run. AIBU?

She isn't complaining about her show being axed if I understand correctly. She is complaining about people saying she should be grateful that in spite of being the child of immigrants she has had a good run on the BBC.

Of course, she isn't being unreasonable.

The amount of gratitude expected from immigrants and their descendants (especially if they aren't white) just for pretty much living and being like everyone else is ridiculous.

Have people said “in spite of being the child of immigrants”?

Exactly

Why would I "stamp my feet" as you so childishly put it?

It's all the "Brit" incomers that hate each other's problem, not mine.

Look at this thread? A boring basic slop cooking woman gets a massive leg up on TV and makes millions of the back of it but it's misery all round and micro aggressions that nobody can ever understand if you weren't from that particular country being forced to speak to someone from another country. Multiplied by 60 countries.

What a shit show!

You can all fight like rats in a sack over your entitlements, I'm not sticking around to watch.

all the "Brit" incomers

And I bet you’ll claim you’re “not a racist”, right?

The word is meaningless. Couldn't care less.

YouTube could work, but it's a very crowded market. She would need to have something to stand out, I don't know enough about her to know if that's the case?

I think she is using that as an excuse. You can't rant about a feeling she has to prove it. She has been cancelled because of her ratings. Look what Jamie Oliver has done he has a YouTube channel,which I follow and he promotes for Tesco supermarket. Maybe that's what she needs to do. I personally don't watch cookery programmes and I prefer to get ideas from YouTube.
She'll find a way but she needs to get off the racism band wagon. It's too easy to use the race card.

She's made a shit ton of money for the BBC and now they're turning their backs because she's not being a good, quiet little Muslim for them so that they can tick their diversity box without actually standing by their talent or understanding what it actually means to have a genuine multicultural offering.

I love her and I hope she's proud of herself for standing up for her principles.

Ten years is a long time for someone who was merely needed to “tick a diversity box”.

It's horrible getting the heave-ho, but happens to the best of us during our lifetime. Maybe time she grew some thicker skin and looked to the future instead of berating past employers/the public online.

Indeed. Did the Hairy Bikers tick a ‘hairy and northern’ box? Jamie Oliver a ‘cheeky chappy with an annoying vocab’ box? Nigel Slater a ‘feathery stroker from North London who wraps things in paper a lot’ box? Mary Berry a ‘Thatcherite traditionalist’ box?

Jamie is also very good at adapting his 'brand' to fit in with the times. So just after COVID he had the 'together again' series, and during the cost of living crisis he did a 'meals for £1' series. Straight cooking shows just don't draw large audiences anymore.

The hairy bikers travelled around the world a lot. Stepping back to allow other amateur cooks and chefs to shine. That was their strength not their roots imo.

Well I think she’s shot herself in the foot

No one will want to produce any future series if she brings out the race and religion card every time

10 years is a good innings

i don’t think she was worth that

I agree. No one lasts in popularity forever, she made a good name for herself and was well thought of.
Now i think people will think twice about giving her a show.

But Nadiya did at least two series where she travelled, and I thought the episodes I saw in the US series were very effective — she was able to be related to by black Americans coming back to areas left devastated after Hurricane Katrina, and immigrant Latinas in California doing community initiatives in a way I think a white British presenter would not..

If she was bringing in money, they wouldn’t care if she was purple.

Do you think she should keep her show indefinitely even if only one man and a dog watch it, just because her family is from Bangladesh”?

Maybe even viewers from different cultures aren’t watching her any more. Maybe there are other people out there from different cultures who have fresh ideas and deserve a chance. If we never gave new talent a shot we’d still be watching Madhur Jaffrey on repeat.

This is not what came across in your post.

She didn't work for free. She made a shit ton of money for herself too! She had plenty of recipe books published. I highly doubt that after 10 years the BBC suddenly decided to cancel her because theyvsuddenlyvreslisedxshexwas bangladeshi. Imo as someone who has bought a book of hers and tried some of her recipes she is not a trained chef, and her dishes show that. They are not great. There are loads of female Indian chefs whos recipes come out top knotch whos books I also have who don't get TV shows. She has got 10 years of shows when other, more knowledgeable and accomplished chefs haven't because she is personable and a good presenter. But if your ratings drop, you're out. That's TV. It's for her agent to get her other work and support and advise her, not the BBC.

Nigella ticks the mecrowavay box

Also, the ‘slinking downstairs to raid the larder in a fetching robe’ box. And the ‘plumptious beauties’ box.

Nigella's last new BBC series was in 2020.

Yes - what a shame, and what a misjudgment on Nadiya's part. Showing that you're a difficult person does not recommend you for further work.

She's had her moment in the sun - and a good long one it's been. I just cannot believe that anyone in 2025 is so naive as not to understand the transitory nature of celebrity, and TV celebrity in particular.

I can think of so many people, chefs and other 'personalities' who once dominated the schedules and are now never seen. If they've been sensible they'll be doing all kinds of appearances, after dinner talks, radio interviews, writing, etc.

I liked her very much but I'm revising my opinion. I'm surprised she's so unaware of how this game works, and to have a public tantrum isn't going to help her in the future.