We go to the pub every night. I even had to pull Prue off the pole at a pole dancing club
admits she “thought twice” about joining Bake Off, but insists: “I was never nervous about being the new Mary Berry because I never thought I’d be anything like Mary Berry, so that wasn’t a worry.
“She was terrific at what she was doing, but nobody said to me, ‘Please do the same thing’.”
Having started her TV career in the 1970s, Prue insists she has no intention of changing her persona to fit the competition. “People either like you on television or they don’t,” she says.
“One of the crew brought on set a tape of Desert Island Discs that I did 30 years ago. It was fascinating, but I’m saying almost the same things. My voice sounds better because it’s younger, but I realised I haven’t changed at all. I’m not going to be any different.”
Prue is unapologetically Prue, and has spoken at length about her love life.
The romance writer wed John Playfair last year, though they still live in separate houses. She first married writer Rayne Kruger after an affair behind the back of his wife – a friend of her family.
The couple have a son, Danny, who is a charity chief, and adopted Cambodian war refugee Li-Da, a filmmaker.
Prue, 77, admits she’s been surprised by the schedule for Bake Off, filming over just two days a week
throughout the summer. She says: “Usually filming is quite uncomfortable, you’re in a rubbish hotel, travelling all over the country and everything overruns, so you wrap at 2am. This is really well organised and very pleasant.
“The crew is great and everyone knows what they’re doing, they’ve been doing it for seven years. It’s just me that doesn’t know what’s going on.”
Bake Off grew from a BBC Two audience of two million in 2010 through to the channel’s highest ever ratings of 9.45 million four years later.
Moving to BBC One the following year, the audience grew to almost 16 million by last year’s final. But not many, including Channel 4 boss Jay Hunt, expect the entire audience to migrate to the show’s new home. Jay noted she expected “some decline”.
Meanwhile Noel, 44, has admitted he steers away from gorging on the set’s sugary treats because, he claims, “nobody likes a fat goth”.
Prue says she, too, has to watch her figure and is introducing a new catchphrase, “Is it worth the calories?” “I’ve had to watch my weight all my life, I do go up and down,” she laments.
“I do often think, it’s not worth the calories. If something is so delicious that you don’t mind having to starve the next day, that’s the best cake in the world. But quite a lot of them are not.”
Not that the quality of bakers is poor this year. Paul reckons the calibre has gone up “quite a margin”.
He adds: “I gave out four handshakes one week. I had to move the bar up. Nobody passed it after that.”
The Great British Bake Off, from Tuesday, August 29 at 8pm, Channel 4.