Paul Hollywood says he’ll miss Mary Berry but could never say goodnight to Bake Off in first interview since quitting the BBC
Channel 4 beat BBC to the rights for 2017 but Paul Hollywood stuck with it and now he tells his side of the story
PAUL HOLLYWOOD has finally revealed why he ditched Mary, Mel and Sue to follow Bake Off to its new Channel 4 home – he just couldn’t bear to say goodbye to the programme itself.
The Merseyside-born judge said: “Who in their right mind would walk away from a job that you absolutely adore?”
Out of loyalty to the BBC, the hit show’s other three stars decided not to sign up when Channel 4 grabbed the rights to the series in September in a £75million three-year deal.
But speaking to The Sun in his first newspaper interview since news of the new contract broke, Paul says his main loyalty is to the format and the independent production company that makes the show.
He explained: “I’ll miss the girls and I’ll miss Mary — they’re like my sisters and my mum, you know. I just didn’t want to leave the job because I love that job.”
Paul, 50, also revealed for the first time what happened behind the scenes as he, fellow judge Mary Berry and presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins considered their options after the shock deal.
He recalled: “I got a text from Mel telling me what they were doing so I knew a couple of hours before everybody and I think that was the end really of chapter one.
“Mary and me spoke about Mel and Sue leaving and we understood their decision. Then we spoke about our decision.
“At the time neither of us knew what we were going to do, where we were going to go, and so we spoke.
“At the end of the day there was no coercion from Mary’s side or from my side and we both had a decision to make.
“We are both at different stages of our careers. I’m 50, Mary’s 80-odd — I didn’t see a reason for me to leave the show.”
Paul also said he felt that it was right to stay with Love Productions, which makes the show, as the company had plucked him from “obscurity” to be a judge when the series began in 2010.
Mary, 81, on the other hand, had been a household name since the Seventies and had a long association with the BBC.
The original four stars will now be seen together for the very last time in two pre-recorded festive Bake Off specials later this month.
Meanwhile Paul, who is married to Alexandra and has a son Josh, 15, is now set to earn hundreds of thousands of pounds more from the new deal — although he will not say exactly how much more.
When asked about the extra cash he would earn, the bread-making expert simply replied: “Enough.”
News of his bumper payday for going with the show to Channel 4 and splitting up the beloved TV line-up drew criticism from viewers.
For many, the four stars were the most important ingredient in making Bake Off our most popular TV show.
Fans believed that if the four had all refused to go to Channel 4, they could have made a similar, new rival baking show together for the Beeb.
That this could no longer happen was squarely blamed on Paul.
But he has no hard feelings, saying he understood the need for a scapegoat.
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He said: “People were upset that Bake Off ended in its current format, in its current line-up, and I understand that.
“I’m upset about not working with Mary and not seeing the girls and I understand people were getting upset and I just think they needed to vent it somewhere. I just happened to be there.
“When the new line-up is sorted out I’m hoping everybody will watch it again because the tent will be the tent, the bakers will be the bakers, the judges will do their job and I think everybody will love it.”
The search for a new judge to replace Mary as Paul’s sidekick has already started.
Bookies predict a two-horse race between Cherish Finden, a judge on BBC2 spin-off show Creme de la Creme, and Nigella Lawson.
But Paul says the shortlist still has 50 names on it, whittled down from 300 — and not all are women.
He explained: “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a woman, no.
“I’ve got a list of people as long as your arm who are qualified for the job with me and I’m going to find out more about them over the next few weeks.
“At the moment nobody is in the frame. My specialism is all about yeast, it’s all about pastry, so their criteria will be something different.
“There might be a bent towards cream cakes, a bent towards ice cream, baking powder, bicarbonate soda.
“It’s all about that chemistry and how that whole thing fits together.”
Another name put forward as a replacement for Mary was last year’s winner Nadiya Hussain, 31.
But she has signed an exclusive BBC deal and in any case, would not have enough experience.
Paul insisted: “You’ve got to have a minimum of ten to 15 years experience in the industry otherwise you’re still learning.”
Dozens of Channel 4 presenters have been suggested as replacements for Mel and Sue, and Paul says it is possible there will be just one host instead of a double act.
He said: “I don’t understand why there needs to be two. But that’s not my call.”
The important thing, he says, is that the presenter or presenters can calm contestants’ nerves.
He said: “The role of host is to put the frame round the programme, to make it fun, make it light, be a conduit between the camera and the bakers themselves.
“These poor bakers that have never been in the tent before — they walk in there and they’re really nervous. They tend to shake a lot, to cut their fingers a lot.”
What will definitely be back along with Paul and the famous tent when the show hits Channel 4 either next year or 2018 — depending on a contractual squabble with the BBC — is the format, and the saucy double entendres.
He said: “The signature bake will stay, the show stopper and the technical will be exactly the same. And I’m sure they’ll carry on the tradition of innuendos.”
Petrolhead Paul is busy filming a new series of City Bakes on the Food Network and will also be back next year with his new motoring show Paul Hollywood’s Car Nation — on BBC2.
He said: “The irony is that I haven’t left the BBC at all despite what everyone thinks.”
— The Great British Bake Off festive specials will screen on BBC1 on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.