GREATIT’S THE British Bike Off!

Roaring into Weekend with a new column, motorbike-mad James Martin tells why he bought Keith Floyd’s old car, what his chances of a Top Gear job are – and how he became godfather to fellow biker Paul Hollywood’s son

TV chef James Martin broke hearts in March when he left Saturday Kitchen, the show that made him a household name. Who can blame him though? He’d worked pretty much every Saturday for ten years. He wanted his weekends back. ‘And it was time to go,’ he adds. ‘Terry Wogan once said to me – when he was a guest on the show – “You’ll know when it’s time to go.” I wanted to be off that treadmill.’

So how many weekends off has he enjoyed since he quit? He snorts with laughter. ‘None! I stepped off one treadmill and on to an even faster one.’

His diary does sound rather full. After we speak he’s dashing off to a food festival, and he’s just come back from filming in France. Some of his Christmas shows – one featuring the blessed Mary Berry – have just aired. And this week he adds another string to his bow when he joins Weekend magazine as a columnist. Every week he’ll be providing us with his kitchen know-how and cookery tips.

Then there’s the next cookery book, which is in the pipeline. And there are those rumours that he might be the man to front whatever the BBC decides to replace Bake Off with after its move to Channel 4, or even Top Gear. So is he deep in discussions with the BBC for either of these? Alas no. ‘The phone hasn’t rung yet,’ he says, but tantalis- ingly he doesn’t rule himself out. ‘If it does we’ll have a discussion, but we’ll see. It’s something to consider, isn’t it?’

If he is in the running to be a judge on any new BBC show, then he’s well placed to get expert advice on how it all works. Both Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are old friends. ‘I’ve known Mary for more than 20 years,’ he admits. ‘And Paul for 17. He and I did some early shows together and I’m godfather to his son Joshua.

‘ I met Mary even earlier. We were represented by the same agency, and I was very much the newbie. We used to do cookery demonstrations together. I knew what I was doing by then – but I couldn’t get to grips with the Aga.’ Mary, of course, was Queen of the Aga. ‘She’d be creating these amazing cakes and mine would be burnt to cinders. I couldn’t cook on the bloody thing, even though I could cope with 100 people coming in for lunch, then another 100 for dinner. I learned an awful lot from Mary. She’s highly intelligent and articulate. She’s got more TV experience than anyone and her writing is so focused. You have to admire her. To be 81 and still have that go and drive. I want to slow down now that I’m 44!’

Of course, he’s just finished working with Mary on Christmas With Friends, his two-part festive special show on the Food Network. Was it James who convinced her to wear leathers and sit on a motorbike for the publicity shots? He is, after all, almost as famous for his love of cars and bikes as he is for his cooking, joking that ‘olive oil runs through one vein, motor oil through the other’. At the last count he had two Ferraris, a vintage Ford Mustang and five Minis. His bike collection has included Ducatis, Harleys and a Brough Superior, ‘the bike Lawrence of Arabia had’.

He shares this love of biking with Paul Hollywood, although they clearly aren’t in touch the way they used to be. ‘Back then we used to speak to each other a lot. Now we don’t, because we’re busy. At the big food festivals you rarely get booked to be at the same one on the same day. I’ll be there one day and he’ll be there the next. You don’t bump into each other, and that’s a shame.’

What of the sad split of the Bake Off

‘There’d be more work for the rest of us if Mary retired!’