The Saturday Kitchen studio descended into a fit of giggles this weekend when guest Martine McCutcheon popped in. And it was all over a single word.
The former EastEnders star lost her composure when chef Nigel Haworth announced he was going to prepare a dish of mussels and cockles.
Bursting into laughter, she said: “It’s the word ‘cockles’. Cockles just makes me laugh.”
And things weren’t helped by the fact that she was seen on the show sipping a glass of wine, prompting some viewers to suggest that she was more ‘Martini’ McCutcheon than Martine and question whether she was drunk.
Taking to Twitter, one view said: “Martine McCutcheon has had a glass of wine on Saturday Kitchen and is giggling at ‘cockles and muscles’.”
Another tweeted: ‘Lol how many glasses as Martine had?’
Fuelled by the early morning glass of white, the mum-of-one also adopted a faux-posh accent and said: “I would like to say something very intellectual about this wine but I’m afraid I can’t.
“I’m really enjoying this. I’m having so much fun!” she then shouted after taking a big swig. “Can we do this every weekend?’
Meanwhile host Donal Skehan tried to maintain control of the situation with only limited success thanks to his distracting special guest.
The hilarious appearance comes as Loose Women panellist Martine, 40, prepares to star in the highly-anticipated follow-up to the hit 2003 film Love Actually in aid of Comic Relief.
The short, written by Richard Curtis in aid of Comic Relief, will be shown on Red Nose Day on 24 March and will see Martine resume her role as smitten Downing Street worker Natalie who falls for the dashing Prime Minister played by Hugh Grant.
And if photos from the set are anything to go by then it looks like the two much-loved characters finally tie-the-knot this time round…
Martine had been invited onto Saturday Kitchen to talk about being reunited with Hugh and many of the film’s other stars, including Keira Knightly and Liam Neeson, but her ‘tipsy’ appearance got tongues wagging for a very different reason.
Still, what a ‘perfect moment’ of TV gold it turned out to be.