Noel ‘like Tom without Jerry’ as Toksvig quits smash-hit telly show
PRESENTER Sandi Toksvig has had her cake and is to beat it out of The Great British Bake Off tent after three years on the hit show.
She is leaving to concentrate on other TV work after the Stand Up To Cancer celebrity version this spring.
Sidekick Noel Fielding said her decision left him feeling “like Tom without Jerry, Mick without a Keef ”.
Noel, 46, told Sandi: “Double acts are a rare and magical beast and working with you was a pleasure.”
Sandi, 61, said her friendships with Noel and judges Prue Leith, 79, and Paul Hollywood, 53, would “continue beyond the confines of television”.
She said: “When stepping down from a job it is quite common for people to say they are doing so in order to spend more time with their family. Unusually, I am
departing so I can spend more time with my other work. As my waistline will testify, Bake Off is an all-consuming show.”
She joined Bake Off in 2017 with Noel and Prue after hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins and judge Mary Berry quit rather than shift from the BBC to Channel 4.
Sandi said it proved Bake Off could “withstand a change of hosting personnel”.
Favourites to replace her include comic Jo Brand, 62, who hosts spin-off An Extra Slice, ex-celeb contestant Jennifer Saunders, 61, and former Gogglebox favourite Scarlett Moffatt, 30.
Nadiya Hussain, 35, the 2015 winner, comics Sarah Pascoe, 38, and Roisin Conaty, 40, and former contestant Liam Charles, 22, are also in the frame.
Sandi’s new Channel 4 shows will include The Write Offs, about adult literacy.
But Channel 4 boss Ian Katz said Bake Off would miss Sandi’s “warmth and wit”.