Daphne Neville and Rudi the Otter appeared in five episodes of ‘Come Dine With Me’, broadcast at 5.00pm on Chanel 4 in 2018.
It wasn’t long before #comedinewithme was trending on Twitter:
Daphne is what is great about Britain..cute polite nice classy positive welcoming….list is endless,nice crowd now on here’
‘Daphne is lovely
‘I’m watching how cute is that old lady Daphne!! Ahhh’
‘Yes and we love Daphne too!!
I could not love Daphne anymore than if she was my own Nan!’
‘Aww I do love Daphne!!
‘We are only tuning in to watch daphne
‘Aww isn’t Daphne just the best!!
‘Daphne the perfect dinner guest
I totally want to adopt Daphne!!
Oh I LOVE Daphne, I’d score her night a 10 even if the food was crap!
Daphne opened Episode 5, being ‘first off’ on Monday 20th August, opening a can of tomatoes.
Daphne was interviewed in her kitchen and we met the guests as they came downstairs.
Every detail had been carefully planned. The wine was chilled, the table looked lovely and there was almost constant laughter. Viewers seemed to be engaged: ‘Go daphne!!
Daphne prepared tomato and mushroom soup for her four guests, followed by wild salmon, only to find out that two of the guests disliked fish, which was a bit of a pity.
Viewers on Twitter were apaulled: ‘So James wouldn’t eat Daphne’s main cause he doesn’t like fish but his starter is lobster?
One of the guests, who was a stickler for good manners, became irritated by another member of the party and walked out before pudding, which was quite dramatic.
It rather blew her own words out of the water although she did later write to Daphne to apologise. There was a roar from viewers on Twitter: ‘OMG how rude is Anne?! Lecturing the others on manners and then walking out on Daphne?! Bitch!’
Suddenly there was one less. Her fans on Twitter were in uproar:
Poor Daphne, completely bemused!!
Daphne kept going and the evening became increasingly enjoyable, especially when Rudi the Otter was brought down to meet everyone.
In the end, Daphne was awarded 28 points by her four dinner guests
The Twitter-atary added their opinion:
‘Everyone needs to protect and look after Daphne, that woman is a legend!!
‘If Daphne doesn’t win I’m going to kill someone
‘Daphne is our winner
Can we have Daphne on every week please!
You can watch this week’s episode on Channel 4 catch-up here
‘Absolutely love on . . . What a legend! I want to meet her and her otter 
You can! Daphne and Rudi the Otter will be appearing at the Frampton Country Fair in South Gloucestershire on 9th September 2018. All welcome!
Stories about Daphne and her tame otters can be found in ‘Funnily Enough’ a memoir by Sophie Neville available online and to order at your local library.
