Celebrity chef Marcus Bean dazzled Strictly star Russell Grant in a Channel 4 cookery programme – despite only getting three hours’ sleep the night before.

Mr Bean, of the New Inn, at Baschurch, was the guest chef on Drop Down Menu and he cooked a dish of scrambled eggs with bubble and squeak , chosen by the audience, for the TV show’s special guest Grant.

Remarkably, Mr Bean had only managed to catch three hours’ sleep the night before yesterday’s appearance.

He had worked all day at his north Shropshire pub and then looked after his wife and children, who were poorly, before getting up in time for his performance on Channel 4.

And Mr Bean had to be on his toes as he Grant engaged in banter with him – at one point even asking him whether his mother-in-law had laid the eggs that he was going to scramble.

Mr Bean had invited the studio audience to choose between three potential dishes for Mr Grant; including queen scallops with king prawns, a smoked bacon and cheese cannelloni with spinach or scrambled eggs with cheesey bubble and squeak and spring onions and sprouts.

Mr Bean explained that the eggs for the later dish had been collected from his mother-in-law 24 hours earlier, which prompted Mr Grant to ask whether she had actually laid them.

Later, Mr Grant sprayed himself with fizzy water as he tried to open a plastic bottle. He laughed it off and told the show’s presenters that he needed a drink because he hadn’t stopped talking since going on air.

Mr Bean then cooked up the dish, much to the star astrologer’s satisfaction.

The show proved popular with the TV audience and also with interactive viewers who posted tweets, though some people from Shropshire said the cameras ought to have honed in on Mr Bean more than Mr Grant.

Kerstin Losch, of Aqueduct, Telford, who tweets as @kerstinskitchen said: “We are seeing far too little of @marcusbeanchef + the cooking on DropDownMenu me thinks.”