A PRUDHOE chippy has been named the winner of Come Dine With Me: The Professionals (Newcastle).

Balls of Prudhoe scored 37 out of 40 on the new, Channel 4 spin-off show, 'battering' award-winning Namaste Indian Restaurant & Club Prosecco Lounge in Sunniside and Pigalo's American, North Shields.

Owner Anne Ball Blakeburn hit all the right notes - and not just with her opera singing - as she and front house Garry, joker, Stewart wowed brothers Razz, Boxa and couple Adam and Aaron with their three-course meal.

Hexham Courant:

And the proof was in the pudding - the leek pudding - as they scooped up the £1,000 prize money for their garlic king prawns, leek pudding with steak and gravy and Eton mess.

Anne said that not doing fish and chips was a chance to show people what else the restaurant has to offer.

The popular, family-run business, on Front Street, has called Prudhoe (not Proodhoe, Dave Lamb) home for 52 years, with Anne and husband Stevie taking it over from her proud parents.

Staff, friends and family, some of whom did not know the result, were all invited to watch the programme as it premiered. Some guests had been there during filming.

Courant reporter Georgia Langdon was among guests, and even got Garry's autograph.

Shortly after the showing, there was a large queue outside - perhaps those who had heard about the Queen's brush with Balls' spam fritters?