Alright, she gave probably the most cringe-inducing half-time pep-talk in history; and yes, for someone presenting cookery shows seemingly since Logie-Baird switched on his TV she seems strangely nervous, and we still await her first joke with interest. Given that some of us have been viewers since she first appeared on BBC’s Look East programme in 1970 that’s some wait. But for millions of Britons preparing to cook Christmas lunch it’s Delia’s ever-authoritative and practical cookbooks that will guide them and which are being dusted off even now. And cottage-pie-plain though they are her TV programmes are watchable because they are about food and how to prepare it, not lifestyle, not celebrity, not scooters. Heroic simplicity.