Fat Ladies' bike sold

Triumphant: Two Fat Ladies on their bike

The motorcycle and sidecar used by television's Two Fat Ladies on their popular BBC cookery programme has been sold at auction for £8,500.

The black 1996 Triumph Thunderbird was ridden by the late Jennifer Paterson, with the other half of the duo, Clarissa Dickson Wright, in the sidecar.

A private British collector bought the classic machine at the Brooks auction in Stafford.

Cooking up trouble: Clarissa Dickson Wright and the late Jennifer Paterson

As well as the bike itself, the new owner also took home the personalised Two Fat Ladies number plate (N88 TFL), Paterson's wax jacket and assorted memorabilia from the show.

Two Fat Ladies quickly assumed cult status when the programme was launched in 1996.

The pair toured around the UK on the bike collecting ingredients for their lavish recipes, which unashamedly promoted taste above health.

No nonsense

Never stuck for a word, they would openly rubbish vegetarians and tee-totallers and their eccentric, no-nonsense style earned them admirers across the globe, including Australia, Japan and the United States.

Jennifer Paterson lived life to the full

But the partnership came to a tragic end when Paterson, a smoker, died from cancer last August, aged 71.

Dickson Wright paid tribute to her, saying: "She was great fun and very funny but I didn't know how it would work.

"I think they thought we'd fight - two opinionated, middle-aged women. But the moment we started cooking together, what you saw was what you got."