Come Dine With Me to air Norfolk competition on Channel 4

Come Dine With Me, a Channel Four show that sees groups compete to host the best dinner party, filmed a contest in Norfolk in 2022.

The scenes are set to air on evenings during the week beginning February 19 but one of the contestants has already spilled some behind-the-scenes secrets to get viewers excited.

Hannah Mayhew, a 41-year-old head housekeeper from Diss, said she applied on a whim.

Hannah Mayhew, from Diss, will compete in the dinner party contest (Image: Hannah Mayhew)

"I saw a post advertising it on the Diss Community Facebook page, so after a few drinks on a Friday night I thought I'd apply," she explained.

"I never thought I'd get anywhere - I think they had around 2,000 applications from around Norfolk."

She said the contestants got along well and had all planned theme nights for their dinner parties, meaning there was a lot of dressing up in different costumes throughout the week.

She said: "I'm all about the glitz and the glam, sparkles and glitter and shine, so that was my theme.

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"We were told about any costumes we would need around a week before so that we had time to find something - there wouldn't have been much time on the day.

"Every day we had to film the menu reveals for that evening, so a taxi would pick me up from home in Diss, take me into somewhere like Norwich or Thetford to film the reveal, take me home to get ready and then back to the host's house."

On the Tuesday when Hannah filmed her dinner party, production crews arrived at 8am and her husband, children and dogs were asked to leave until filming finished at around 1am the following day.

"I was a bit nervous they would have a poke around in my smalls drawer when they were looking around my house too - thankfully they didn't, but we did find something a bit different in one of the houses."

Although Hannah couldn't say anything about what meals were served or who won, she did say the group had stayed in touch via a WhatsApp group and that they are "very interested" to see how they are portrayed.