Axed Come Dine With Me contestant was ‘boozed up, abused contestants and threatened TV crew’
A fellow competitor branded Rory Nicoll, 41, 'the biggest a*****e I've ever met' as he became first contestant to be booted off the Channel 4 show
THE winners of a controversial Come Dine With Me episode last night claimed axed contestant sparked chaos after getting tanked up on booze ahead of filming.
Darren Esposito accused his rival of threatening producers and making abusive comments during a furious boozy bust-up on the hit show.
Nicoll, 41, became the first ever contestant to be booted off the cult Channel 4 dinner party show in last Friday’s epsiode.
But show rival Darren, 39, accused Nicoll of drinking early in the morning on the day he was due to host dinner at his home.
He said: “On the first episode, I said that Rory would be a thorn in our side and I wasn’t wrong. He was completely off his trolley.
“He had the producer pinned up against the wall at the end of his night, shouting at him that they’d ruined his chances of winning by not letting him serve as much alcohol as he wanted.
“I couldn’t believe the way he was treating them.
“We asked Rory if he was a plant because his behaviour was completely erratic and he hurled a lot of abuse at me.
“It was really nasty. He was very abusive the whole day.”
We told how Nicoll was filmed taking part in two nights of the telly hit.
But he suddenly vanished after a bizarre on-screen barney with Darren over which member of boyband Take That was the best.
As the programme moved on to the next night, bosses had marked his face with a red cross.
Darren, from Leven, Fife, claims the bust-up lasted 45 minutes.
He said: “The whole argument stemmed from him saying that he was the original Robbie in Take That.
“He was slagging off Gary Barlow and the rest of the members and I was standing up for the band because I’m a big fan.
“I was asked if I wanted him in my house on my night. I said he could come if he apologised to the crew, the girls and I - but he refused.”
Filming for the Central Scotland edition of the show took place in May last year.
Darren and Linsay were named joint winners of the episode and split £1,000 in prize money.
Linsay, 31, from Inchture, Perthshire, branded Nicoll “the biggest a*****e I’ve ever met”.
She said: “We’d heard he’d been drinking from 9.30am on the day of his meal. He had kept saying that there wasn’t enough to drink the night before.
“He kept banging his fists on the table and complained about not being able to serve enough alcohol to us.
“He flicked the V’s at me and told me to f*** off at one point during the Take That argument.
“You felt very unsafe in his presence. He was actively looking for arguments and fights.”
She added: “I have to commend ITV and Channel 4 for how they dealt with the situation and in the end it was an amazing experience.”
Channel 4 would not give the official reasons behind Nicoll’s exit.
Nicoll did not reply to requests to comment.
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