It’s Mary, queen of tarts

FOR years fans of the Great British Bake Off saw her as the queen of the kitchen. And it seems Mary Berry’s latest TV role is no less regal.

The 82-year-old tried on a crown at Powderham Castle in Devon during filming for her new BBC series Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets, in which she visits Britain’s grandest homes. And when at Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey was filmed, she is understood to have joked she is the new ‘Lady Mary’, after the drama’s lead character. The baker told Radio Times she is ‘just fascinated’ by country houses and by ‘what family life was like in the past’.