Cover Story
We visit Paul, sandi, Prue and noel in the famous tent to talk about proving the critics wrong, knitting, bowling and croquet!
i’ll be marvelling again over the fabulous confections and genius creations as a new batch of bakers create magic in the Bake Off tent. noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig will be back as hosts, while Paul hollywood and Prue leith return as judges. We speak to the four with all the flour on page 6!
NEW COOKERY The Great British Bake Off Tuesday / c4 / 8Pm
The proof was always going to be in the pudding, and it’s fair to say The Great British Bake Off ’s controversial move from the BBC to C4 last year was a success. So when TV Times heads to the familiar white tent in the idyllic Berkshire countryside, it’s as magical as ever.
We’re sitting in ‘Cake Corner’, where judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith mull over their final judging decisions, watching this year’s bakers mixing and measuring while the camera operators zoom in.
The atmosphere is calm and focused, as the bakers deal with distractions like the crew whisking bowls away to be washed up and presenters Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig asking questions.
While the bakers create culinary magic, Paul, 52, Prue, 78, Noel, 45 and Sandi, 60, lead us to a beautiful garden patio a short walk from the tent to tell us all about this year’s fresh batch of hopefuls.
‘We’ve become the world’s most dysfunctional family, we’ve stopped being polite to each other!’ laughs Sandi, and the chemistry between the four is undeniable…
do you feel vindicated that the new show has worked so well? prue: I had no idea there was this big debate going on until I arrived on set, and then I heard people were talking about these new guys who were likely to mess up a national treasure, so we were all quite tense. noel: I found that quite exciting though – I miss people thinking I was going to ruin the show! sandi: There were a lot fewer visits from executives this year! People love the show and you don’t want to break it, so it’s lovely that not only did we not break it, but we cherished it. We feel happier this year. paul: For me, Bake Off has always been about the bakers. It’s never been about the four of us –
we’re just the framework. How have the fans reacted? sandi: People are lovely when they come up to you. The four of us had a very strange evening recently – we ended up in a London pub, and people couldn’t quite believe we were all together. Lots of very unlikely gentlemen came over for photographs! It was very funny. prue: People come up to me and say, ‘I didn’t want to watch the new Bake Off at all, but it’s terrific!’ It’s as if they’re having to make some great big psychological confession that they dare like the new one! noel: I get lots of kids coming up to me who are just very excited. paul: I’ve gone from kids thinking I’m married to Mary to thinking I’m married to Prue. sandi: I had a great moment – I was driving one of my stepdaughter’s friends home from a party and she kept saying, ‘I cannot believe I’m in the Bake Off lady’s car!’ She was rolling down the window, shouting it out to the streets of London. When I got her home, she got out of the car and said, ‘Night, Sue! [thinking Sandi was predecessor Sue Perkins]’.
That’s fame for you.
what lessons did you learn from last year? sandi: Just to relax. I see Prue for example, and this series she’s much more the person that we know off-camera. You just have to be yourself. noel: I learned how to present; I had no clue! I’m getting better, I’m a work in progress – Sandi’s put me under her wing and she gives me a thrashing if I get it wrong. What’s disappointing is that I know quite a lot about baking now and I liked being slightly naive about it, because I was the audience’s point of view. Now I find myself thinking, ‘You should have used the Swiss meringue!’
what can you tell us about this year’s bakers? prue: They’re a lovely bunch, we all get really fond of them. paul: They’re definitely the strongest characters we’ve ever had. noel: It was tricky at the beginning because I loved the last lot, so there were five seconds where I was resisting the new bakers. Sandi said she liked them better than last year and I thought, ‘You’re weirdly fickle!’ But now I agree.
paul, have you given out many Hollywood handshakes this year? paul: A few, annoyingly. They’re so good this year. prue: He’s trying to be tougher, but they’re so good he has to give in. paul: I was accused last year of giving out too many, but people don’t appreciate how good the baking is. I almost gave one to Noel this year, because I taught him how to make bread and he actually created a decent loaf. You haven’t made one since, though, have you? noel: Well, it was so good
I didn’t want to ruin it. If you’re only going to make one loaf of bread in your life, you might as well do it with Paul Hollywood.
It was delicious. Maybe in about 10 years I’ll make a baguette with Prue.
what do you do while you’re waiting for the bakers to finish? sandi: I’m quite busy at the moment because I’m knitting a blanket for Noel’s baby – it’s got different animals on each square. I’m on the octopus at the moment. paul: Could you make me a Starsky and Hutch cardigan? I always wanted one, but my mum couldn’t knit. sandi: OK, leave that with me. prue: Yesterday Sandi got everybody playing croquet, not with a proper set, but with children’s mallets. sandi: Seriously, were those not the right size? We’re all going bowling tonight. I just want to see Noel in those shoes, that’s the only reason I’m going.
I miss people thinking I was going to ruin the show! NOEL Fielding
They bakers are the strongest characters we’ve ever had PAUL HOLLYWOOD