Tasty personalities shine on Black Country Come Dine With Me

With a tiara perched on her head, self-proclaimed Duchess of Dudley Vicky Pell lives up to her nickname as she settles in front of the TV at her Black Country home to watch herself on hit cooking show Come Dine With Me.

With her husband, David – now nicknamed the Duke of Dudley – at her side, Vicky is one of five dinner hosts anxiously tuning into Channel 4 this week to watch the show, as well as finding out how their performances have been ripped apart by the show's witty narrator, Dave Lamb.

It has been five months since the dinner guest hosts opened their homes to a group of strangers to impress them with their culinary skills. And now they are reliving the stresses, strains, tensions, tantrums and laughter as the show airs – while revealing how the famous "cab scene" at the end of each show is really filmed.

But while there may have been heat in the kitchen the guests who were thrust together for the show insist they have made friends for life and still stay in touch.

Banker Mandeep Rajput was the first to host with a night featuring Indian cuisine and saucy Bhangra dancing. The 38-year-old dad turfed out his wife Vijay, 35, and children Jai, eight, and Maya, five, for the television cameras to roll into his detached home in Speakers Close at 8.30am.

Mr Rajput, who works as a business development manager for Clydesdale and Yorkshire bank, said: " I met many good people who I am still in touch with today."

Larger-than-life pub quiz host Adam Reece, who ordered his guests to turn up in pyjamas, said he had jumped at the chance to be on the show after narrowly missing out when it was in Wolverhampton in 2011.

The 26-year-old, who lives with his moth-er Joanne in Sanderling Rise, Kingswinford, spent £350 to impress his guests – way over the £125 each contestant is given.

The former Kingswinford School pupil, who now works a assistant manager at Speedy Cash store in Dudley while also running quizzes at the Glassworks pub in Wordsley, added: "It was a great experience, but it also showed me the fakery of television filming. For the filming in the cab at the end, we all share one cab and driving round in circles before swapping.

When someone said something funny, the producers asked us to say it again and do fake laughs so they could get it all on camera."

Meanwhile, Duchess of Dudley, Vicky Pell has been watching the show with husband David, and will definitely be tuning in tonight when her own dinner party is screened. Holding a cruise ship themed evening, she received her hubby's help to make over their home for the day of filming.

Retired nursing home activity co-ordinator Di Dawson signed up to the show after producers contacted her ukulele group, The Sedgley Strummers.

The 65-year-old, who used to work at Wrottesley Nursing Home and run a confectionary stall at Brierley Hill's Concord Market, was last night seen serving up salmon that had been caught by her husband Harry.

Tomorrow's show was filmed at the home of 25-year-old Sarah Freeman, who lives with her parents Glynis and Paul, in Apley Road, Amblecote, Stourbridge. Miss Freeman, who runs a business called Gourmet Meals in the Dudley borough, was called to take part just a day bef-ore the week-long challenge started after another contestant dropped out.

She quickly organised a Moroccan-themed night, with the final evening proving to be end and start of friendships with explosive arguments during the night.

Miss Freeman said: "The last night people showed their true colours. I don't want to see some of them, but I would stay in touch with Adam and Mandeep."