BBC Christmas special for Nigella

Nigella Lawson is also known for her cookery writing

Television chef Nigella Lawson is to make a Christmas special programme for the BBC.

Lawson, who recently presented daytime chat show Nigella on ITV1, will front Nigella's Chocolate Christmas Special on BBC Two.

It will be the first time Lawson - whose cookery shows Nigella Bites and Forever Summer were on Channel 4 - has fronted a programme on the BBC.

A spokesman for the BBC said: "We are very pleased to have Nigella on board."

He added that there was a possibility of making more programmes in the future with Lawson.

Lawson, 45, who has also written a number of cookery and lifestyle books, is married to art collector Charles Saatchi.

She has two children from her previous marriage to the late columnist and broadcaster John Diamond, who died of cancer in 2001.