BBC Breakfast star gasps as Ainsley Harriot shuts door…

BBC Breakfast star gasps as Ainsley Harriot shuts door on him as he welcomes himself into stranger's home

A BBC Breakfast reporter gasped in surprise as Ainsley Harriot shut a door on him and welcomed himself into a stranger's home during a live TV broadcast. The celebrity chef was out and about knocking on doors to hand out invitations to a local Coronation Big Lunch on Thursday (April 13).

The Big Lunch ambassador, known for hosting twenty-one series of Ready, Steady, Cook, joined the street party planning around Richmond, south-west London, by heading to the various homes and posting invitations. As he got underway, he was joined by BBC Breakfast reporter Tim Muffett.

After chatting to one local resident with Ainsley, Tim turned to the camera to talk to the show's hosts Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt who were back in the studio. And it was then that the presenters pointed out that the door had been shut in his face. "I'm going to let you guys carry on chatting and I'm going to go back to the studio," he said to Ainsley and a local lady as the stood at her front door.

But as Tim returned his attention back to the hosts in the studio, he didn't see Ainsley wave to the camera before slipping away into the home of the lady he and Tim were talking to. " Oh, Ainsley has gone in, he's really just gone right in," Charlie said before Tim turned around and gasped: ""He's gone in? He's gone in..."

Naga laughed: "He makes friends very, very quickly." The two hosts then burst out laughing as Tim was left looking bewildered into the camera. "You're feeling left out, Tim?" Charlie asked. "Tim, thanks very much we'll see you later."

Before he and Naga moved on, he remarked: "Maybe he will get in the invite now, maybe he will get the invitation," before revealing: "I've just seen time going back to the door, to try to get in or to get Ainsley out, I don't know."

Tim was left talking to Naga and Charlie in the studio on his own (BBC)

Thousands of street parties are expected to be held during the coronation weekend, with people encouraged to come together across the country for the Coronation Big Lunch, the day after the history-making event itself, on Sunday, May 7. Speaking to the PA news agency, Ainsley, 66, said: "What I’ve discovered more and more over the years is how important food is to bring people together, it’s part of the social glue.

“If you can share a bit of cake or sandwiches, it’s another extension of friendship, and a way of showing that you trust your neighbours.” While he invited residents in Grosvenor Gardens, East Sheen, to the coronation festivities, he added: "One of the most important things about longevity in life is feeling a part of your community.

"We have gone through a period when everybody just became a little bit selfish – this coronation is an opportunity for us to address those things, to show our human sides and look out for our neighbours."

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