 In 1976, a housewife in Devon, Gwen Troake, won a competition called "Cook of the Realm", leading to "The Big Time" inviting her to organise a banquet to be attended by Edward Heath, Earl Mountbatten of Burma and other VIPs.The BBC filmed the result as part of "The Big Time", and asked Fanny Cradock, by then a tax exile in Ireland, to act as one of a number of experts giving Troake advice on her menu.The result brought the end of Fanny Cradock's television career.