A sickly slice of Paul Hollywood smugness that’s hard to swallow

Overbaked, misshapen and utterly tasteless . . . Paul Hollywood’s ego is the most appalling creation ever to come out of the bake Off tent.

A Baker’s Life (C4) was a blatant vanity project, a creepy thank-you present from the bake Off production company to the only one of the four presenters and judges to stay aboard after the £75 million move from bbC1 last year.

This was billed as Hollywood’s life story in four slices — but a confection this sickly is hard to swallow.

Paul’s admiration for himself is staggering. Watching clips of his bake Off screen tests, he tutted that his hair was a little too long, and he needed to lose a pound around the waist. He looked radiantly smug as he said it.

The only contributors permitted to speak were people with nothing but good things to say about Paul, which is a very small club indeed. Prue Leith, bake Off’s other judge who dwells in the Hollywood shadow, claimed he had ‘ a soft, squidgy centre’.

Sandi Toksvig declared through gritted teeth: ‘ He’s generous and kind, and we laugh and laugh and laugh.’ Co-presenter Noel Fielding nodded seriously and muttered: ‘very funny.’

It was all as sham as a cardboard wedding cake. What induced Prue and pals to be so sycophantic — did the producers have their families hostage, tied up at the back of the marquee?

His former colleagues Mary berry, Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc were not rushing forward to tell us how much they had loved working with Paul.

Nor were the people who were left thousands of pounds out of pocket, after he wound up his businesses Hollywood bread in 2003 and artisan bread LLP in 2014.

Most telling, this fake ‘life story’ did not feature his wife alex or their son. earlier this month, he announced his marriage was over. Now, it’s as though his former family has ceased to exist. So much for the soft, squidgy centre.

Instead, he took the opportunity to lash out at Mel, Sue and Mary. ‘For the three of them to walk away from me, it felt like they had abandoned the tent,’ he said bitterly. ‘One person stayed — why am I getting called a traitor? I was loyal to The Great british bake Off.’

He truly believes he’s had it tough. Employable Me (bbC2) introduced us to a group of people who really have had hard knocks, but are battling on regardless.

ryan, 22, was an animal lover who lived with a collection of turtles and lizards, and a heroically understanding boyfriend.

ryan had Tourette’s syndrome, which was particularly dangerous when combined with his camp wit. He couldn’t bite back the insults that popped into his head, some of them horribly funny.

‘Coffin dodgers!’ he barked at a white-haired couple, who were first shocked and then amused. ‘Sushi tonight!’ he shouted in a tropical fish store.

but there was nothing funny about the tics that convulsed him like epilepsy, or that made him punch a windscreen, shattering the glass and fracturing his arm.

ryan was brave to let the cameras see him — and even braver to apply for jobs. The fear of disaster made his tics worse, but still he persevered.

equally inspirational was father- of-two andy, a former company director left partially paralysed and struggling to speak by a stroke. He, too, refused to be beaten.

With such extraordinary subject matter, it’s a pity that the storytelling style was sometimes formulaic.

but this show had a lesson for everyone.