The morning after the night before.Friday morning. As the celebrities prepared for the day ahead, everyone was surprised to see that Jim had dressed in his suit, instead of his chefs whites. After his argument with Brian the previous night, Jim walked into the kitchen and told Marco he planned to leave after the morning meeting.“I’m going to leave today,” Jim said to Marco. “I’ll wait until everyone’s here and do it with a bit of respect.” Marco then said to Jim that he’d like to have a word with him after he had delivered his news.Once the other seven celebrities had joined Jim in the kitchen he unfolded a piece of paper and read out his speech: “Marco I’m going to leave today. I’ve made a few bullet points so I don’t waffle on. There’s a number of reasons. I could stay in this kitchen with most of the people here forever, I enjoy the work, I enjoyed working hard last night with everyone but I didn’t realize it was going to be this intense. “Brian and I had a little set two last night and I feel it’s only going to be a moment until I say something I am going to regret which is not acceptable in the PC world so I think it’s best that I leave. “Everyone will get a lot more out of this programme than I am,” summarized Jim.

He then went on to thank Marco.

“I’d like to thank you Marco for this small trip and my loyalty to you goes without saying. And I wish everyone good luck for the rest of it, I hope you all do well and I hope you take from this TV show being a better cook and some of Marco’s passion. But if that’s not what you’re here for I hope it gives you the accepted lift up the celebrity ladder. Good luck.”

Then with one last handshake to Marco and a goodbye to his fellow celebrities, Jim left the kitchen, as Marco insisted he had two minutes with him in the office before he left for good.

Marco went on to tell the remaining celebrities that it was now his job to persuade Jim to change his mind and stay.

“I think Jim will be a great loss – my job now is to try and change his mind.”

Barry was quick to back Marco up and cited the way Jim was booed during the sacking for his turn in temperament. Barry said: “Can I just say Marco I think it is important we get him to stay, he is touchy in the extreme and he is feeling the pace, I just think that he’s touchy, he is old fashioned...More than anything else what upset him last night was that he got booed.”

“Whatever they think of us out there no one deserves to be booed,” interjected Marco. “Because everyone has worked very hard.”

Marco then instructed the celebrities to get on with their morning duties whilst he headed off to speak to Jim.

Jim – the backlash

Despite Barry jumping to Marco’s aid when he insisted Jim must return, not all the celebrities were convinced Jim’s change of heart was genuine. Later in the confessional Adele said:

“I don’t think this is the right place for Jim to be. Jim has a real thing about reality TV shows – you can’t say this, you can’t say that – why are you here?

“I don’t think he’s a team player,” Adele added. “Marco seems to think he is great, and yes he is great for morale and he’s great for telling jokes.”

Abbey also felt that Jim was over egging the pudding with his grand gesture of departure.

“I just think Jim’s being so petty. It’s become a big issue and putting his suit on today – I do think Jim’s a bit of a divvy like that.”

Back in the kitchen Barry and Abbey discussed it further as they collected items from the fridge.

Barry: “He’s only bluffing again, eventually him and Marco will fall out big time because he’s a…”

Abbey: “T**t?!” she interrupted jokingly.

Barry also said as he prepared the blue kitchen with Paul that he doesn’t think Jim will leave because he’s the one who needs the career boost.

“The bottom line is,” said Barry, “he said he needs this because his career is over. So he needs it, why would he not do it?”

Marco and Jim – will he return?

After his rousing leaving speech, Jim met Marco in his office as Marco embarked on persuading the comedian to change his mind and stay.

Marco began: “Firstly, and this is my personal belief, I think you have a duty to yourself, your family, your children to stay. I think you have a duty to your team to stay.

“But I respect your decision whatever your decision may be it will never affect my opinion of you in the kitchen and what you did for me as a person.”

Marco added: “You supported me, you stood firm, you kept on delivering. If you want some advice form me that would be my advice, and I would cut the emotion, and keep your head down because I think you can go all the way.

Marco then emphasized that Jim should focus all his energies in to the task in hand and not get distracted by anyone around him.

“You have a natural love for food, I think you enjoy cooking, I think you enjoy being part of the service. You shouldn’t allow things around you to bother you, like I try and detach myself from the odd mistake, override it and step in – like the other night two veal for example, whip off the bone cut it in half take a pan out and whoosh fry it.”

Jim then joked: “I’ll do that with Brian’s head then.”

Marco went on to say: “Jim I think you should stay…you should push on through, detach yourself emotionally, those people in there need you.

“Please go upstairs, have a cup of tea, a coffee, have a sit down, read a book for an hour and please re-think it. Because I would love to see you walk back in the kitchen and I think if you can walk back in the kitchen fan f***ing tastic.”

Brian is devastated by Jim’s behavior

After an incredibly turbulent 24 hours, Brian was left devastated by Jim’s behavior towards him and broke down in the Confessional as he opened up about how the row and the aftermath had affected him.

Brian recapped how all he’d said was he’d help the girls and it’s caused a “stupid argument” between himself and Jim.

A visibly hurt Brian explained:

“Jim said some very hurtful things. He said everything I do is just an act for the cameras and I just want to be a people pleaser. And I said I don’t have to try, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Brian began to cry as he said he knew the basis of Jim’s speech this morning was directed at him.

“And then this morning when he read the letter out, he had written on it ‘is Brian a blue?’ He didn’t read it out but he’d written it.”

Brian choked back tears and sobbed in to his apron as he continued to try and recount his feelings.

“He’s such a horrible man, he also said that if he stayed there’d be a risk that he’d say something that would upset someone and I know that’s me and I feel sick to my stomach.

“I think he means that he would say something to me that is really offensive to me because I’m gay. I’m not going to let him bully me but what kind of man gets dressed in his suit and reads out a thing and then stays?”

Brian continued: “What can I possibly do? Maybe I should start to fly, I mean like assemble something on my back so I just go ‘whizzzzz’ [mimes a helicopter spinning with his finger] and I’m hovering over the pan with my feet.

“And if I was I’d p**s in his veal. I would p**s in his veal. I’m not going to pretend to not be myself, I can’t, it’s all I know. And shame on him, what a horrible, horrible man trying to ruin my time here and I won’t let him. I will not let him ruin my time. I refuse to.”