Match made on MasterChef is heating up: John Torode pictured 'moving in' with 2010 winner Lisa Faulkner

When actress Lisa Faulkner won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010 she declared it had ‘totally changed my life’.

How right she was. For not only has the former Holby City star turned her win into a cookery career, she found love with MasterChef presenter John Torode.

Now it appears their two-and-a-half-year relationship is heating up. 

Moving day: Masterchef Judge John Torode was spotted packed his belongings into removal vans and his car outside his south London home

Getting serious: Torode then arrived with his belongings at his girlfriend Lisa Faulkner's home

Great taste: Torode and the former Holby City actress, pictured at the National Television Awards in January this year,  have been together for two-and-a-half year after meeting on MasterChef

MasterChef has returned to the BBC and is as tough as ever

Australian chef Torode was spotted packing up his belongings at his Clapham home last week before arriving at Faulkner’s house in North London, where the 43-year-old lives with her eight-year-old daughter Billie from her marriage to actor Chris Hoghill. The couple split in 2012.

   

Torode, 49, separated from Jessica, the mother of his two children, in 2011 and was granted a divorce last year.

Let’s hope the culinary couple’s new-found domesticity isn’t affected by too many cooks in the kitchen.

Hooray for the BBC, cries TV boss (as he jumps ship) 

A mere fortnight ago, Ben Stephenson, the BBC’s drama boss, declared his commitment to the Corporation when he won a special judges’ prize at the Royal Television Awards.

‘The BBC is always on the front pages for the wrong reasons and it’s effing nonsense,’ an excitable Stephenson declared.

‘It’s time for everyone to get behind the BBC. There are no more cuts [to be made] at the BBC — only programmes.’ 

Just days after his emotional pronouncement, Stephenson has confirmed that, far from getting behind the Beeb, he is off to the U.S. after accepting a job with Star Wars director J. J. Abrams’ TV production company.

‘I couldn’t be more excited to be joining Abrams at Bad Robot,’ Stephenson said. A twist worthy of one of his own BBC drama commissions.

Since defecting from the BBC amid great fanfare with her morose One Show co-host Adrian Chiles, Christine Bleakley has struggled at rival ITV.

But the 36-year-old presenter appears to be crying all the way to the bank.

Newly published accounts for her company, Chrisola Entertainment Ltd, disclose that Bleakley  made a profit of £286,000 in the past year.

Bleakley, whose fiance is Premier League footballer Frank Lampard, was reported to have signed a four-year contract with ITV in 2010 worth a total of £4 million. 

But she and Chiles were dropped from Daybreak, the new breakfast show they hosted, the following year.

Bleakley’s company had £2.25 million cash in the bank and was owed £684,000 as of June last year. So, it was worth £2.8 million. Not bad for a firm that held just £35,000 in profits in 2010.

No wonder she and Lampard are reportedly eyeing up a 9,000sq ft apartment in the Big Apple, costing £64,000 a month. The pair are due to relocate to America when Lampard joins New York City FC in July.

JCB boss's rose fuels Jeremy Clarkson

Rose fan: Clarkson and his tipple of choice

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is known for his quick temper, but apparently his loyalty knows no bounds.

Among the many luxuries he demands backstage at the Top Gear Live show is a quantity of Chateau Leoube rosé, grown on JCB owner Lord Bamford’s vineyard in the South of France. 

Tory donor Bamford and his wife, a former air hostess, are part of Clarkson’s Chipping Norton set in Oxfordshire, which also includes David and Samantha Cameron.

Lady B says of Clarkson’s chosen tipple: ‘He has great taste.’

Chateau Leoube is also sold by the magnum, which may be part of its appeal.

Out of work since his fellow Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson punched their producer, James May has been enjoying the more gentle arts.

On Monday 52-year-old May and his girlfriend Sarah Frater were spotted watching the Royal Ballet perform at the Royal Opera House in London.

As a dance critic, Sarah was able to advise him on the finer points of the grands jetés.

Sadly, it’s too late for her to give oafish Clarkson a kick up the derrière.