Johnnie Cradock

Who was Johnnie Cradock?

Major John "Johnnie" Whitby Cradock was a cook, writer and broadcaster and the fourth husband of television cook and writer Fanny Cradock.

Cradock attended Harrow School and served in the British Army, reaching the rank of Major in the Royal Artillery. At the age of twenty, he played rugby for Beckenham RFC during the 1924/5 season alongside a seventeen year old James Robertson Justice who would later become an actor. He is best remembered as being the long-suffering stooge for his wife in their popular United Kingdom cooking programmes which were shown from the 1950s to the 1970s. Wearing a traditional blazer and sporting a monocle above his trademark handlebar moustache, he would remain around the back of Fanny's studio sets awaiting her imperious commands which, when they came, often resulted in him being berated for being too slow.

With his wife, he wrote a number of popular cookery books. Johnnie and Fanny also wrote the "Bon Viveur" restaurant column for The Daily Telegraph newspaper from 1950 to 1955. This was one of Britain's first restaurant columns and led to their first television series in 1955.