GBBO: “We resigned, basically,” Perkins explained, “Because it was not a kind show”
BY SOPHIE PERRY. IMAGE BBC/GBBO.
Can you imagine a version of The Great British Bake Off that never had Mel and Sue on it? Us neither. It’s an idea that really doesn’t knead thinking about (geddit?)
Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins’ run on GBBO delighted the nation for seven series, but it very nearly never happened…
The pair, who quit when the show moved from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2017, revealed to the Radio Times that they actually quit on the first day of filming. They admitted that producers originally wanted to make GBBO a crueller and more intrusive show than they were happy working on.
“We resigned, basically,” Perkins explained, “Because it was not a kind show. They were pointing cameras in the bakers’ faces and making them cry and saying, ‘Tell us about your dead gran.’”
She added that the pair spoke to producers and, “Had very stiff words about how we wanted to proceed.” Whatever was said clearly worked, as the puntastic pair went on to host the show for the next seven series.
With their cheeky and compassionate presenting style GBBO was free of the sensationalist melodrama and crocodile tears that plague most other competition shows. The height of the drama instead coming from the collapse of croquembouche towers and the icing of-just-to-warm genoise sponges… #RIP
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