Autumn TV special!
GBBO judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, on filming the hit show amid the global pandemic…
HOW HAVE YOU MANAGED TO FILM? PRUE, 80:
We’ve all been tested constantly! I honestly ended up thinking that the Bake Off tent was the safest place in the whole of England! Viewers will see the same show they’re used to – it won’t be masks and social distancing. It would’ve been really difficult to do a Bake Off without being friendly!
PAUL, 54: We’ve been in a very large bubble of 130 people – the hotel staff and all of the crew, the support crew, the bakers, and us. We were tested in our own homes twice, and once our results came back, we could socialise within a certain distance – and that’s how we got to the tent.
PRUE: My husband drove me there [from Prue’s Cotswolds home to the Bake Off set in Essex] and we weren’t allowed to stop. I was all right without a loo break, but afterwards, his car had to be locked up and not used for nine days – so if there were any COVID-19 bugs, they’d be dead by the time we needed it again.
YOU FILMED IN ISOLATION OVER SIX WEEKS, AT A HOTEL?
PRUE:
I loved it, because we were allowed to bring our dogs. I had my two mad spaniels, Teasel and Tatty, who turned out to be escapologists – but I didn’t
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worry because I knew they had 130 laps to choose from!
I was going to bring my Rottweiler, Bear, but he’s a big dog and he likes a lot of attention, so I left him with friends.
He would’ve eaten my spaniels…
PAUL:
PRUE: DID YOU MIX WITH THE BAKERS? PAUL:
They had to keep away from us lot! Though a couple of times, on down days, we did play rounders with everybody, and there was football as well – plus yoga and HIIT classes. The hotel ended up looking a bit like Glastonbury, because there were so many tents everywhere, with a place for relaxing. Did I do any exercise? I put on a bit of weight this year because we were constantly eating, and I wasn’t getting out on the bike!
PRUE: All you need is a bit of discipline, Paul. I didn’t eat breakfast and I skipped lunch…
PAUL: Oh, here we go…
WOULD YOU SAY THIS SERIES HAS BEEN THE MOST FUN TO FILM?
PAUL:
It did feel good, though obviously we were away from our day-to-day lives and I’m sure the bakers probably missed home as well. I’ve only been in my house [a
Grade II listed farm in Kent] just over a year. I missed it when I went into Bake Off.
AND YOU HAVE A NEW CO-HOST IN MATT LUCAS [WHO HAS REPLACED SANDI TOKSVIG AFTER SHE STEPPED DOWN]? PAUL:
I’ve always been a massive fan. I made him do Marjorie Dawes from Little Britain for my mum – winding her up because she’s lost a bit of weight.
PRUE: I think everybody loved Matt. He’s stepped seamlessly into the show, though I was just a bit nervous about going into a tent for six weeks with three guys who basically like football.
Leave it out, will you, Prue? I did seven years with three women!
PAUL: WHAT HAVE THE PAST FEW MONTHS BEEN LIKE FOR YOU? PRUE:
I really enjoyed a lot of lockdown. I was forced into doing little cooking videos for Instagram, which I ended up really getting into. Can you guess what
Paul did? He baked…
PAUL: I was doing a lot of banana bread. I couldn’t get enough bananas if I’m honest, and I like to use the really black ones…
By Hannah Wright
● The Great British Bake Off starts Tue 22 September, 8pm, C4
‘We played rounders
with everybody!’