THOMSONS BAKERY MAKES DOUGH FROM TV SHOWS (December 2005)

After winning nearly £25,000 on Noel Edmonds’s new big money guessing game, Deal or No Deal, on Channel 4, Specialist baker Jan Thomson returned home to Newcastle to find husband Ian had been lined up to make an appearance on Gordon Ramsey’s F Word series on the same channel on Thursday, December 8 th. As Jan is also invited, this will be her third appearance on national television this year. In March, she and Ian featured in BBC2’s Ready Steady Cook with chef/presenter Ainsley Harriot.

“It has been an incredible year for both of us,” said Jan, who put the money she won on Deal or No Deal towards the cost of a Nissan 350Z which they had been saving up to buy. “Until now, all the vehicles we have bought have been for the bakery business. This is the first one we can truly call ours,” said Jan.

Winning the £25,000 was hard work, she says. She was one of 22 people who took part in the new game show which heralds the return of Noel Edmonds to national television after a lengthy absence. “Contestants had to sign up for a six-week stay in Bristol and during the time I was there I took part in 15 recordings of up to three each day. As luck would have it, I played at the end of the second week. I knew Ian and the staff were working flat out at the bakery and I was on the phone to him about four times every day asking if everything was all right. He said I wasn’t to worry and to keep going in the game which was a real test of nerve and stamina. In the end I won £24,900 but I had to keep quiet about my winnings until the show was transmitted on Wednesday, November 16 th. It was murder keeping mum about the result.”

No sooner had Jan shared her good news with family and friends, including the Thomsons’ 17 employees in the bakery at Stamfordham Road, Westerhope Village, than she and Ian were preparing to head for the television studios again. This time the call was from the Gordon Ramsay programme. “We have been asked to report to the F Word restaurant in London two days before the show goes out on Thursday, December 8 th. We hope we’ll be asked to make an appearance,” she said.

Thomsons Bakery, a member of Northumbria Larder, was started by Ian’s parents in Stamfordham Road in 1956. He married Jan in 1973 and two years later she joined the business. “I have done every job that has to be done in the bakery over the years, but now I concentrate mainly on accounts and administration,” she said.

Thomsons are well known for flavouring their speciality bread with Newcastle Brown Ale, which they sell in the shop and at various outlets, including farmers’ markets. Jan will be selling bread, Christmas cakes and puddings and other seasonal produce during the weekends of December 2/3 and 9/10 at Newcastle Farmers’ Market.