CAROL: I’M LOAFINGMY LIFEAT59
Katie watched. “I am a huge fan of Bake Off,” insisted Carol. “I watched the first two series, because Katie was at home.
“It’s a way of teaching maths as well. She was very young when we started and she’s a brilliant baker now and a brilliant cook in general.
“I catch Bake Off whenever I can, but I don’t always get a chance. I don’t watch much telly at all. I’m even thinking about taking the internet out of the house. It would be the best thing. What do I use it for? A bit of emailing. What about the rest of it?”
Carol’s career began after her mum saw an advert for someone good at maths for a new TV programme, forged her daughter’s signature and got her an audition. The show was Countdown, the first show to be screened on the new Channel 4 station in 1982. Her chemistry with original host Richard Whiteley, who died in 2005, was telly gold. Carol carried on with the show until 2008 before she left after 26 years with the beloved show, becoming a Loose Women panellist from 2011 to 2014.
But after being never off the telly in the 90s in shows such as How 2, Dream House and Tomorrow’s World, Carol is enjoying popping up on shows like Bake Off, previously doing Strictly in 2004 and I’m a Celeb in 2016.
No wonder then she has no fear of the tent or judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
“Just because of the spirit behind it,” she said. “You’re doing it in the spirit that it’s meant. If it was a flying competition, I’d be quite competitive, but this is just so much fun. The lads are hilarious and Kelly is brilliant.
“She’s so lovely. But this doesn’t feel like a competition, it’s just too much fun for that. Rob is standing behind me and he keeps saying I’m going to turn him straight.”
The show brought back memories for Carol of her baking with her daughter. She said: “All those moments of being a young mum. So that’s why the judging and stuff doesn’t matter to me. I can just picture Katie’s little hands when we used to bake. She’s now a research scientist working on cancer drug delivery using nanotechnology in Cambridge.”
Like most families Carol has personal knowledge of cancer. Her mum Jean died of the disease aged 88 three years go. She said: “My mum got her first cancer nearly 20 years before she died. She had ovarian, then she had kidney cancer – not a secondary cancer – and then she had melanoma.
“But the research gave her 20 more years and gave me 20 more years with my mum. Had that happened 30 years earlier, she wouldn’t have had those two decades. So I want to celebrate what has been done.
“And now my daughter Katie is working in this field and I’m celebrating what she’s doing. The work that she’s involved with might well lead to other people living longer.”
During next Tuesday’s programme, the celeb bakers will battle it out over three rounds – the signature, the technical and the showstopper.
Cocky Carol only did one practice – for her Welsh Cake.
She said: “I decided to do that as my signature dish because Wales is important to me.
“I grew up there, my mum’s Welsh and in the last year or so I’ve been working a lot back in Wales – and I can only describe it as falling in love with my country. It makes me cry with joy and laughter. I’m relearning Welsh and I’m going to live in Wales. I love it and I think I understand it more as a grown up.
“The Welsh have the biggest softest hearts and love laughing, which I guess is exactly what I do too. So I practised my Welsh Cakes.”
And while she was good at baking at school, Carol doesn’t think she’ll do as well as everyone else thinks she will. “Part of the problem is,” she laughed, “I don’t really eat cake. Fish I can do and I’m very good at a salad.”
The show will see Carol in the tent for Sandi Toksvig’s final outing as a host. She’s been replaced by Matt Lucas, who will join co-presenter Noel Fielding.
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer is on Channel 4, Tuesday, 8pm.