‘Why did we leave Bake Off ? We had run out of puns!’
In their first joint intervew since waving goodbye to Paul Hollywood and ovenloads of Channel 4 dough, the queens of comedy tell More about their (rather nifty) next moves
Everybody loves Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. They are TV’s favourite comedy double act, a pair of lifelong friends whose warmth, generosity and Carry Onstyle quips helped make The Great
British Bake Off such a huge success – whether hugging a tearful contestant, knocking over a tower of biscuits, making fun of Mary Berry’s disgust for a soggy bottom or ordering the bakers at the end of a challenge to: ‘Stand away from your hot baps!’
Now the duo – who refused to ‘go with the dough’, as they put it when
Bake Off was sold to Channel 4 – are being rewarded with their own BBC prime-time slots, the first of which is the Saturday celebrity show, Let’s Sing And Dance For Comic Relief. Right, we want to know all about your first post-Bake Off TV show...
SUE Well, we’ll be looking on as celebrities don Lycra support pants and tights to gurn, prance and sing their way into the public’s hearts and minds belting out songs on Let’s Sing And Dance For Comic
Relief. It’s going out live on four consecutive Saturdays.
MEL We will have a judging panel made up of comedy royalty, from Jo Brand, Julian Clary, Miranda Hart, Paul O’Grady and Frank Skinner to Jennifer Saunders and Claudia Winkleman. In episodes 13, our celebs will sing, dance and do their thing and the public will vote for their favourite. The act with the most votes will go through to the grand final but those in second and third place have to battle it out against each other and the judges will decide their fate. Strictly’s dark horse was Ed Balls. Who’ve you got in that role?
MEL We’ve got Russell Grant as Diana Ross, Gogglebox’s Steph and Dom as Cher and Meat Loaf and Sara Pascoe as Sia, so take your pick. I can’t wait for some Saturday night lols! It’s primarily a dance show, so do you have signature dance moves? SUE Mel’s feet rarely leave the ground but she sort of bounces her booty. I will be sort of strutting and trying to moonwalk. I still go to Ibiza every year and cut a slight rug at Ushuaïa [the club]. I’m usually the oldest person there by about 40 years. And there’s usually some fairly wandering hands, which I’m always grateful for at my age. Who is the most entertaining drunk? SUE I’m pretty good. It’s almost like my body overheats when I drink too much and when I’ve lost my inhibitions, I think: ‘Well, now is a great time to remove my clothes.’ Like at weddings and things, if I get battered, I’ll just take my top off. Or just the trousers will unfurl and I’ll be wandering around eating canapés with my trousers down by my ankles. I only get drunk maybe two or three times a year but God I go for it, and there’s always jumping on a table, nudity and shouting. MEL But really jolly. SUE We don’t get drunk as much as we used to. But Melly, when she’s drunk… There was an incident. Paul Hollywood and I had to carry Mel, physically carry her like a sack of spuds, into the hotel after a Bake Off party. I had her hands, Paul had her legs. Whereupon Melly stripped naked and stood in front of me saying: ‘You need to see this. You need to deal with your inhibitions. You need to see my naked body.’ And I kept saying: ‘I really don’t need to see you naked. I don’t have any personal inhibition but I don’t want to see your jugs right now. I just want to go to sleep.’ Both of us can be fairly entertaining. Are you disappointed that you won’t be doing Bake Off any more? MEL It was seven incredibly brilliant years. We loved every minute. And it’s going to be sad not to be doing it but we’ve got amazing memories. SUE It does sting sometimes that we’re not doing it any more – and of course it’s really sad – but we made our decision and we made it quickly and together. MEL It felt like the right thing to do. SUE And it was the right thing. And there was no hesitation. We both wish it all the best. Hand on heart, I don’t know if I’d watch it because that might be a bit