Prue: I don’t want to crash and burn on Bake Off ( like Chris Evans did on Top Gear)
PRUE Leith is terrified of ‘doing a Chris Evans’ by flopping spectacularly if she takes over from Mary Berry on the Great British Bake Off.
Evans failed to fill Jeremy Clarkson’s shoes as a new host on Top Gear and quit after just one series.
And Miss Leith, 77, who is tipped to become Bake Off’s new star when it moves from the BBC to Channel 4, said she was scared of doing the same.
The chef said last night: ‘It’s a bit scary following Mary, I don’t want to do a Chris Evans.’
The former Great British Menu star admitted she would love the chance to be a Bake Off judge.
But she dismissed as ‘ complete rubbish’ reports she would be paid three times as much as Miss Berry – and insisted she did not yet know if she had got the job.
Miss Leith is in advanced talks for a judging role on the bakery programme after Miss Berry and presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins announced they would leave the show.
The stars made their decision when production company Love Productions sold the series to Channel 4 after seven seasons with the BBC.
Miss Berry’s fellow judge Paul Hollywood has, however, signed up for three series with Channel 4.
There was speculation Miss Leith had been offered at least £200,000 for the role, dwarfing the £70,000 Miss Berry was paid at the BBC.
But she said: ‘I believe I’m about to be paid about a quarter of a million pounds or something – it’s complete nonsense.’
However, she added: ‘I’d love to star in Bake Off, it would be ridiculous to pretend that I didn’t want to do it.’
Speaking ahead of hosting the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards, she said: ‘ They’ve said they’ll let everyone know soon.
‘I have some hopes of doing it soon. I have been through interviews and meetings but realistically they’ve only cast Paul Hollywood because he’s there already.
‘They still need to replace Mel and Sue, and Mary Berry. If they like me, and they appear to, they need to make sure that the other two fit. So I don’t imagine anything will be announced until their replacements are found. But I haven’t signed anything.’
Miss Leith backed Hollywood’s decision to follow the show to Channel 4, despite the departure of his co-presenters.
She said: ‘I think Paul Hollywood was quite perfectly within his rights to stay with Love Productions. They’d made him famous, he was getting a decent salary and he was enjoying it. Why shouldn’t he stay with them?’
Miss Leith opened her Michelin star restaurant Leith’s in 1969 and in 1975 founded Leith’s School of Food and Wine, training amateurs and professional chefs alike.
Her book Leith’s Cookery Bible is revered in the culinary world, and she has plenty of TV judging experience, having spent ten years on BBC2’s Great British Menu.
She received an OBE in 1989 and a CBE in 2010.
The grandmother was married to author Rayne Kruger, with whom she had two children, for 38 years until his death in 2002. She married retired clothes designer John Playfair, 69, last year, and lives with him in the Cotswolds.
‘It’s a bit scary following Mary’