Ready Steady Cook’s Brian Turner reveals stroke has left him with stammer

Celebrity chef Brian Turner has revealed a stroke has left him talking with a stammer.

The 76-year-old TV personality, best known for being a chef on BBC Ready Steady Cook, revealed his condition as he thanked the staff at a hospital in London for taking care of him.

He told James Martin’s Saturday Morning on ITV: “Well, unfortunately, I had a stroke in June last year and the people at the London hospital were fantastic and helpful.

“So excuse me if I just make a stammer, occasionally.”

Martin said: “It’s okay, I love you fella. So a round of applause for all the people who’ve been looking after you.

“It’s a pleasure to have you back, you’re more than welcome anytime.”

They then cooked a meal which had a neck of lamb and scones which Martin said was like a “cobbler”.

After the show aired, Martin wrote on Twitter: “Wow, well what can we both say just had Brian on the phone, ended in both us in tears at the amazing messages and support from you all…he wanted me to tell you all out there ‘thank you for all of them!’”

Turner said on the ITV show he began as a TV chef after him and restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson made an eight-minute film in a ship on the “high seas” about cooking.

He said he was then invited on This Morning which, at the time, was presented by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, and this led him to audition for Ready Steady Cook.

Turner said: “The people of This Morning said, and Richard and Judy said, ‘we must have these guys on the show’.”

He has also been part of the cooking segments on This Morning with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield in recent years as well as Saturday Kitchen.

Martin ended the segment on his cookery show by hugging Turner and saying: “Brian Turner, I love you.”

Turner was a regular on Ready Steady Cook which saw a chef challenged to produce the best possible dish from a bag of ingredients chosen by a member of the public.

The show ran from 1994 until 2010 and was later revamped in 2020.

Turner has also made appearances on Ainsley’s Food We Love, and Daily Cooks and hosted his own BBC show A Taste Of Britain which saw him explore the culinary delights of the UK with Janet Street-Porter.

He opened his own restaurant, Turner’s, in Chelsea, London, in 1986 and 15 years later, restaurants in Birmingham and Slough.

He also had locations at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, and Butlins, Bognor Regis.

In June 2002, Turner became a CBE for his services to tourism and training in the catering industry in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.