5 MINUTES WITH...
Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, who finally get to crown the champion of this year’s Bake Off – filmed in a bubble, but still cooked to perfection…
Did you spot the winner straight away?
PAUL HOLLYWOOD, 54: Week on week we had absolutely no idea this year about who was going to win. PRUE LEITH, 80: Don’t go backing the wrong horse! I kept thinking “so and so’s going to win”, and then, you know…
How have you found the competition this year?
PAUL: In previous series you could see they were quite savvy, but these guys weren’t – maybe because they were living together for so long. We became friends, and I didn’t see a competitive side in anyone. They were working together and sure, they wanted to win – and they didn’t want to go home – but they were very much a group in that they were very emotional when someone went.
Your views on this year’s bakers? PAUL: I think this series has been strong. There have been some amazing bakes and more Star Bakers than any other year.
You had to live away from home for six weeks; was that hard? PRUE: Really, the only thing – apart from missing my grandchildren – was that we couldn’t do any cooking ourselves. Though Paul did, twice, because he imported his pizza oven – and that was a big event, he was making supper for something like 150 people. PAUL: I think on the last night I made 180 pizzas.
PRUE: Somebody must have been having two. One of them was me; they were fantastic! There’s no mixing with the bakers away from filming?
PRUE: We’re always kept separate from the bakers. If we become best friends with them it makes it harder to send them home! We have to keep our distance, but when we got to the final, Paul invited the finalists to come and join us in the dining room, and it was so nice to be relaxed and having a drink with them instead of them being all scared and anxious around us. Prue, we’ve been loving your outfits this series…
PRUE: I’ve always hated shopping, but now my stylist finds clothes for me and I love them. I only stole one of Noel’s shirts, but I did lust after a couple of others. They’re just so great…