New TV con: Nigella's family kitchen is really on an industrial estate in south London

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The producers of Nigella Express have gone to great lengths to give the impression that the programme is filmed in her family home.

Yet the kitchen is not at Miss Lawson's house at all - but inside a unit on an industrial estate in South London.

The news will surprise those who watched the first episode of the series on Monday.

Miss Lawson was seen walking through the front door of the house in West London she shares with her husband Charles Saatchi and two children, kicking off her heels and removing her earrings.

In another scene she claimed there was "nothing she loves more" than coming home to cook. She also spoke of guests coming to the house.

However, plans to film in her real kitchen were shelved after it proved too intrusive on her family life.

It was decided to recreate the kitchen at a unit owned by Miss Lawson off the capital's traffic-choked South Circular-Pictures by her children were hung around the carefully constructed set to give the impression that it really was her home.

Cut into the programme are shots including her making a bed and helping her children with homework - all adding to the impression that the kitchen is the one at her family home.

A programme insider said: "The show gives the clear impression of taking place at Nigella's family house, but it all happened on a specially constructed set in South London.

"They were not allowed to film in her kitchen as was first intended.

It was going to prove too much of an intrusion to have the cameras around for long periods, although there are some shots in the house.

"So the bulk of the cookery took place miles away from her home."

The BBC said: "There is no trickery involved.

"We never state the filming takes place at her home.

"The property where filming takes place is owned by Nigella and it is in London.

"We used it because it is particularly good for filming.

"It's a better place to fit a film crew in.

"This is not a observational documentary. We do not follow her everywhere she goes."