The Great British Bake Off’s Paul Hollywood admits he worried if the new team would ‘gel’
Meanwhile Prue Leith reveals she called Mary Berry to find out what Paul was like to work with
When Prue Leith was offered the chance to replace Mary Berry as a judge on The Great British Bake Off, she knew exactly what she had to do next…
“I thought I’d better just have a quick word with Mary,” says Prue, 77.
“I’ve known her for ages, so I rang her and she was great. She didn’t say: ‘Don’t touch Paul Hollywood with a bargepole!’ Mary said Paul was great and knowledgeable and fun to work with – all the things I wanted to hear.”
There’s a pause and a smile.
“By then I wanted the job so badly, though,” adds Prue, “that if she’d said the opposite I’d have probably still taken it! But it was a relief to know I was not entering a lion’s den.”
The lion in question – though he insists he’s a pussycat really – is seated next to her today as we steal Prue and Paul away from our exclusive photo shoot with the judges and two new hosts, Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding, to determine whether they possess the all-important chemistry that made Mary and Paul such a winning combination.
“When I first saw Prue, I told her that she looks like my mother-in-law,” reveals Paul, 51.
“I said to him: ‘Do you like your mother-in-law?’” laughs Prue.
“I love her,” grins Paul. “Prue is a younger version of my mother-in-law. The way she acted, the way she spoke. I just felt confident in her immediately. I was talking to her like I’d known her for years. It felt very comfortable.”
Perhaps surprisingly, considering their shared profession, they had never met before they were tested out for the cameras by Bake Off’s production crew.
“It was set up as a sort of fake Bake Off,” recalls restaurateur and cookery- school founder Prue.
“We had two girls making soda bread and a cake, and like any other television thing there was hair and make-up and all the rest of it, just as if it was real.
"After Paul and I had examined what they’d cooked and commented on it, we went out again and Paul said: ‘You need to be a bit more forward. Don’t take any notice of me.’
"What I was doing was following his lead because I thought he knew what he was doing. He said: ‘Just go for it.’”
“Prue was a little nervous, which I didn’t expect her to be,” says baker Paul.
“But she’d only said four sentences when I knew she was the one. I actually knew straight away because off-camera she was very animated, chatty and friendly, and her qualifications weren’t an issue.
"She has a hugely extensive knowledge.”
“I was a bit nervous,” admits Prue, “but I thought: ‘He’s a nice guy.’
Paul was trying to help me get the job, which is pretty nice since he’d never met me before.”
It’s clear the pair enjoy each other’s company.
All the same, Prue was under no illusions as to the intense scrutiny that would come with this job.
From Brexit Britain to Trump as President, all these things are mere white noise for some compared to the concern over what might happen to the nation’s favourite cooking show and its vital ingredients when it moved from BBC1 to Channel 4.
“I was astonished at how much [fuss] there was,” acknowledges Prue. “I think it’s marvellous that it’s such a successful show, but it does sort of still astonish me that it is. I keep reminding myself: ‘It’s only cake.’”
“The main protagonists in Bake Off are [whispers] the bakers,” says Paul. “It’s nothing to do with the hosts and the judges. What matters is what the baking is like, what the challenges are like, so that viewers can make it at home. The amount of time we’re on the programme is minimal. The beating heart that is Bake Off is still one.”
That beating heart includes new hosts Sandi and Noel. When we watch them in action in that famous tent, Noel jokes that Channel 4 has Claudia Winkleman on speed dial in case he messes up, but his and Sandi’s leg-pulling and easy banter is not a million miles from the gentle but irreverent fun former hosts Mel and Sue delivered.
“Noel’s very warm with the bakers,” says Paul, sounding a little surprised.
“I knew Sandi would be but because Noel’s an unknown quantity I wasn’t sure. Then all of a sudden you stuck him with the bakers and he was amazing. They reacted to him in such a way.
"That warmth and love was there from him – that Bake Off feeling was there. They all loved him.”
“They are the biggest difference, because they’re very different to Mel and Sue, whereas I’m more like Mary,” agrees Prue.
“But they are just a naturally funny pair – they can’t help it. Noel and Sandi fire off each other and they make it up.
"Obviously there are certain points they have to get across – they tell the bakers what to do – but they do that in their extraordinary way.
"And then half the time they have their arm around a baker who is a bit upset, or they’re making them a cup of tea.”
Visiting the new Bake Off tent is a reassuringly familiar experience.
The Union Jack bunting, the red-and-white-check tablecloths, the copper pans on the wall, even the white picket fence around the outside of the tent.
It looks like Bake Off and it smells like Bake Off. All rumours that the addition of Noel, in particular, might lead to some bizarre psychedelic transformation prove to be wholly unfounded.
“People will be surprised that it’s not as different as they might have expected – it’s exactly the same,” insists Paul, “and I think that was important from the new guys’ point of view as well as for me, funnily enough.
"I was a little bit nervous coming back. I know my job but it’s different when you’re working with other people. You think: ‘Is this all going to gel?’ But as soon as we all met, it started to.
"Then we went out for a meal, had a few drinks together and got on really well. The next day we did rehearsals in the tent and it just went click, click, click, click. I thought: ‘This is excellent. I can’t wait.’”
“It’s the same tent, the same formula,” says Prue. “I think most people will be reassured that Bake Off hasn’t changed.”
“When we met the bakers, I thought: ‘Yup’, and I looked at the first challenge and it was awesome: Cake Week,” says Paul.
“It was unbelievable. There was this...” – Paul lets out a comforting sigh – “...of being back in the tent. You knew that all was good in the world again.”
NEW! The Great British Bake Off Tuesday 8pm C4; An Extra Slice Thursday 10pm C4