divided

Anna Haugh and Grace Dent made their joint MasterChef debut on Tuesday

A fresh series of MasterChef has landed on the BBC with a new hosting duo.

Series 22 sees celebrated chef Anna Haugh and restaurant critic Grace Dent take over from Gregg Wallace and John Torode as judges. The pair will test 48 of the country’s best amateur cooks with an array of spectacular challenges.

The first heat of this year’s competition aired on Tuesday (April 21), with six talented cooks from all walks of life heading into the kitchen to battle it out for a coveted MasterChef apron.

They include digital portfolio manager Rosdip, 33, construction project company director Brendan, 57, tech programme manager Jhané, 29, environmental consultant Sabina, 49, accounts assistant Samantha, 39, and IT manager Matt, 41.

Just moments into the episode, viewers were left divided as Anna and Grace made their joint debut. Some fans were frustrated with the pair’s facial expressions, with one person writing on X (formerly Twitter): “I’m assuming it must be in the contract that judges/presenters on MasterChef must express shocked/surprised faces at every opportunity possible! Gregg and John did it for years and it looks like it’s continuing!”

Another added: “Someone tell Anna that she doesn’t have to replicate Gregg’s surprised face every time a contestant tells her what they are going to be cooking,” while a third said: “I can’t watch #MasterChef any longer. [Anna] and her daft facial expressions.”

A fourth fan echoed the sentiment: “Why do those two presenters keep making such stupid faces?”

Meanwhile, other viewers were delighted with Anna and Grace’s debut, with one person writing: “Loving the two ladies, Grace and Anna running the MasterChef kitchen.”

Another added: “Love Anna and Grace in this series,” while a third said: “Absolutely love Anna.” A fourth fan commented: “Loving Grace and Anna on #MasterChef.”

During the episode, Anna and Grace put their trust in the amateur’s taste buds as they introduced the Signature Dish round, which saw the contestants make their favourite dish from home.

The cooks who made the best two dishes, Rosdip and Jhané, were immediately rewarded with a MasterChef apron, while the other four fought it out for the last two aprons in the Classic Recipe Test.

The amateurs were each given the same recipe for one of Anna’s favourite brunch dishes, which put core cookery skills to the test.

The successful group of cooks, along with their newly-earned aprons, had one more hurdle to jump to secure their quarter-final place.

Anna and Grace invited last year’s final three – champion Harry Maguire and finalists Claire Syrenne and Sophie Sugrue – to sample the food on offer.

They tasted two courses from each of the cooks, before Anna and Grace revealed the three contestants who would be going through to the quarter-finals.

MasterChef season 22 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer

EastEnders fans were not expecting to see one character randomly head back to the BBC soap without warning during Monday’s episode of the BBC soap amid a scene with Ravi Gulati

Fans got a surprise during Monday’s episode of EastEnders as a character returned without warning after four years offscreen.

With the episode now up on BBC iPlayer ahead of it airing on BBC One on Monday evening, we saw Ravi Gulati faced with a blast from the past. The death of his ‘father’ Ranveer Gulati was revisited, as Ravi headed to hospital amid his mental health spiralling.

There, his nurse was none other than his ex and former stepmother Nina Gupta. Fans may recall Nina was having an affair with Ravi behind Ranveer’s back.

Around this time we saw Suki Panesar believe she had killed Ranveer after he sexually assaulted her. She attacked him in self-defence, and Ravi walked in and decided to help her cover up the crime.

READ MORE: EastEnders reveals identity of Vicki’s blackmailer – and their tragic reason for crimeREAD MORE: Emmerdale fans ‘rumble’ Dr Todd’s reason for targeting Jacob in sick plot

It was soon apparent his ‘dad’ was still alive though, and Ravi killed him. Nina was helping Ravi trying to get Ranveer’s money, and she covered for Ravi for killing her husband too.

Now she’s back, treating Ravi in hospital where she addressed their past. Seeing him struggling, she said it was karma for what he did all those years ago.

Fans were divided over the return, as one fan posted on social media: “Now why did we need to bring Nina back. We didn’t need her the first time and she’s just proven why we didn’t need her this time.”

A second fan said: “I’m glad they bought back Nina for this episode cause even though this sl was triggered by the drugs and the spiking I think it reminds people that everything genuinely stems from Ranveer and Nish.” A third added: “Unexpected Nina in the bagging area!!!”

Another viewer said: “Seeing Nina return today took me by suprise but has equally left me convinced that Kheerat and/or Ash might return at some point. Kheerat took the fall for Ranveer’s death in the end and that showdown at the surgery beteeen Ash and Nina was brilliant.”

The reactions kept on coming too, with one fan saying: “Bringing back Nina Gupta wasn’t on my bingo card!” another confessed: “For some reason I thought Nina died lmao clearly not.”

A final comment read: “I was really divided about Nina. I think it’s really good when you bring back a past character to explore someone else’s past and I think this did that and reminded us of that time in Ravi’s life. But equally why was she acting like she wasn’t a ‘baddie’ style character then too?

“She was hardly innocent! I thought it was a good twist as we didn’t know it was going to happen and it was like oh hello, but at the same time I don’t know if it added much.”

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .