Prue’s views
Bake Off star gives her verdict on latest series
The Great British Bake Off has risen to the challenge with a record audience on Channel 4, but at one stage this year Prue Leith feared she wouldn’t be part of it.
The series was postponed due to Covid- 19 and then some reports suggested judge Prue, who turned 80 in February, might not be on as bosses would struggle to get health insurance.
She says: “I began to feel guilty about being so old and then the Bake Off publicist said ‘nonsense!’ So I didn’t worry about it, but I would have understood.
“I mean, if they’d said, ‘Look, insurance is going to cost a fortune because you’re too old…’ I would have understood it. But I have to say, it turned out not to be true.”
The relief for Prue was huge as she loves being on the show, which enjoyed its best ever launch ratings on the channel, averaging 6.9 million viewers and peaking at 7.9 million.
Prue says she really enjoyed the new safety conditions in which 130 cast and crew became a giant ‘ bubble’ at Down Hall Hotel in Hatfield Heath, Essex.
Prue, Paul Hollywood and hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas couldn’t leave for six weeks, as the contestants slowly left one by one before the final.
It has arguably led to a friendlier show as contestants lived together and the judges and hosts are closer than ever.
“It was a little bit like being on a Butlin’s holiday camp or something,” Prue explains. “We all socialised – more than I have ever done in my life. And it was extraordinary. You wouldn’t think you could do that in a sort of socially distanced Covid time. But it was partly because we were in this complete bubble. I mean, I never felt safer.
“I had my two spaniels and I went walking with them every day for an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much. They had walks through the woods because the site is 115 acres.
“And that was great for Bake Off too, because they had space to put the tent exactly as it always is, and then Paul and Matt and Noel and
I had little shepherds huts for green rooms.
“And then there was the make- up tents and the wardrobe, which were actually in big Winnebagos and then there were another whole set of kitchens – 12 kitchens for the bakers to practise in.”
On the opening show, Prue tucked into three rounds of 12 cakes including lots of battenberg – one of her favourites. And there is plenty more to come over the series. But while Paul added “four or five pounds” to his waistline, she had a clever way of avoiding piling on weight.
She says: “I didn’t put on in any weight, but that may have been partly the dog walking. But also I never ate lunch. I would have yoghurt for breakfast.
“The cake would provide more calories than you need for breakfast and lunch! I would have supper. I was quite disciplined, but I’ve put on some weight since I came home, I’m sorry to say.”
That said, it wasn’t easy to not eat more. Viewers should prepare themselves for some close rounds.
Prue admits that during one of the baking contests of the series, it was so close she and Paul “had to go back and re-taste all the bakes” which is almost unprecedented on the show.
She also says to watch out for a savoury bake so good she stole the recipe and has been making it at home.
The other big change this year was the arrival of Matt Lucas as a host, replacing Sandi Toksvig, who chose to leave. Initial viewer reaction to him was positive, not least thanks to a sketch mocking Boris Johnson to kick the show off.
Prue says part of his charm is down to a lack of knowledge, a complete contrast to her five decades of experience cooking on screen right back to shows in the 70s.
“Matt was like a Martian in a way coming down and looking at something
Walking my dogs kept the weight off... and not having any lunch!
completely strange,” she says. “That was wonderful because he would ask, to everybody else, obvious questions, but that was lovely for the bakers because he was genuinely interested.
“He wasn’t just acting the part. He would often ask me things afterwards. We need to teach him. A lovely guy.
“I thought he was a bit nervous about the programme but like many actors, once they start, they lose the nerves. He recovered instantly.”
And with Matt another successful ingredient in the Bake Off series, it seems everyone is pleased to see Prue back on screen. Except possibly her own family sometimes.
While she has been away filming she has been staying in touch with her two grown up children Daniel and Li-Di and their own kids. “You know, when you Zoom little children, they find it so boring,” she admits. “And they just can’t be bothered with it. You realise you’re a pain in the neck. Their parents are saying: ‘ Talk to Nanna, look at the phone.’ And they want to get hold of the phone and push it on to Peppa Pig.” A prolific novel and cookbook writer, her work/life balance is about to change, although her children have doubts. Prue, who married second husband
John Playfair in 2016, enjoyed some downtime at home and says: “I wondered why I’m always rushing around and work so hard. I kept saying to myself, ‘why don’t I do more of this?’
“It was the first year for many years when I’ve actually been here [at home] in the early spring for long enough to see the garden changing and walk the dogs and have time to cook for John.
“I haven’t done much writing. I’ve done a bit because I do a lot of journalism. But I’m dithering about whether I want to go back to writing novels. I sort of feel passing my 80th birthday gave me licence to stop if I can.
“I can’t say I’ve made any fast decisions. My family just laugh when I say I’m going to take it easy. They just roar with laughter and say: ‘Mum, you’re a workaholic. You never rest’.”
Prue’s children would not have believed their eyes during some of the downtime during Bake Off, when Prue really did switch off for once. It explains how healthy she looks on screen as the series continues.
“I spent a lot of time when we first arrived with one of these golf buggies looking for a place nobody would see me,” she says with a glint in her eye.
“And one of the things they had provided was huge beanbags. So I’d take a beanbag onto the buggy and find somewhere I could sunbathe where nobody would see me.
“I found a couple of places and I honestly spent hours just reading lying in the sun. But I wasn’t going to be looked at with not very many clothes on. I was not entirely stripping off, but I was in my bathers shall we say.”
■ The Great British Bake Of f continues on Channel 4 on Tuesday. Spin off The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice is on Channel 4 tomorrow.
PRUE LEITH ON STAYING TRIM WHILE EATING CAKE