BAKE Off’s Prue Leith has revealed why the winners of the Channel 4 show always upset her.
The 82-year-old has judged Bake Off since 2017 and has helped crown five winners.
Prue Leith has revealed why past Bake Off winners have upset her
Prue is back to crown another winner in the Bake Off tent
However, Prue has admitted her surprise at some of the previous victors considering how they worked in the tent.
Speaking to The Celeb Report’s TV Mag, she said: “The thing that always shocks and slightly upsets me is that I always thought the best bakers would be the most organised – they’d have their tables cleared all the time, things put away, always have a clean bench and their ingredients would be over there and so on.
“Well, all I can tell you is that some of the best bakes have come off the messiest benches, while the most chaotic, slightly panicky bakers running around with their aprons covered in chocolate or whatever, looking like a bull in a china shop, then out comes something exquisite!”
Prue admitted it’s hard to figure out who will end up being crowned the winner in the early stages of the competition.
She said: “First of all we get a brief with their photo and a bit about them, and it’s very tempting to think: ‘Well, she’ll be a good baker because her mother was’ or something like that, but actually you don’t make judgements until the end of the first episode and think: ‘So-and-so is the one to watch because they really know what they’re doing,”
“But then they often fall off their chair halfway through! They go downhill for some reason and sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t.
“So I’ve stopped betting on who will make it because I’ve never yet got it right.”
With broadcasters’ duty of care increasingly important on shows where competition can be fierce, reassuringly Prue is certain that all the bakers who make it into the tent are well looked after.
She said: “One year, [former host] Sandi Toksvig and I were worried about one of the bakers – she was quite tearful and we thought: ‘Could she manage it?’
“But they all see a psychologist and we were told she’s actually fine, she just deals with stress with being quite emotional. Indeed, seconds later she was fine.
“There’s a lot of concern to make sure bakers are up to it. In the selection process, the contestants have to show they can talk while they’re working, which is something people can fall down on.
“And they weed out the people who seem to just want to be famous and who are performing.”
The Great British Bake Off continues tonight at 8pm on Channel 4. TV Mag is available for free every Saturday, only in The Celeb Report.
