PRUE LEITH says she thought she would be turned down for the judging job on The Great British Bake Off – because she didn’t “tick the diversity box”.
The food writer has presided over the classic Channel 4 cooking show for seven years with fellow judge Paul Hollywood, after taking over from Mary Berry, who left when it moved from BBC One.
Now she has revealed: “I just jumped at it. I had begun to think about it, once I knew Mary Berry was not going to go on. I thought, ‘Oh, I’d love that job’, but I dismissed the thought.
“I thought, ‘They’ll get someone younger, someone more . . . probably a young Asian chef or something, that would tick all the diversity boxes and stuff’. But no, they chose me.”
Even so, Prue accepts that she was more than qualified for the role.
She said on the Sliding Doors podcast: “If you think about my past career, I’d had 11 years sitting at [BBC Two cooking contest] the Great British Menu as a judge and every plate has about ten tastes on it — it makes Bake Off look really simple.
“With cake, with one spoonful, you can get the icing, the filling and the crumb.
“I knew all the top chefs, I had a Michelin restaurant of my own so I knew that level of cooking very well.”
Renewed deal
Bake Off will return for its 15th series this autumn with Prue on board, though I understand she is not returning for the celebrity version in aid of Stand Up To Cancer, as she is booked to film the US version instead.
It comes after I exclusively revealed that telly’s favourite cooking contest will remain at its current home on C4, as its maker, Love Productions, has renewed its deal with the broadcaster.
THE premiere of series three of Bridgerton, focusing on Colin and Penelope’s romance, was seen by 3.6million Netflix viewers in its first week.
This makes it Britain’s third most watched streaming show behind Fool Me Once, also on Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video’s Clarkson’s Farm.
DANNY’S AFTER BIG LAUGHS
DANNY DYER bares his, er, soul for his new role in Sky comedy Mr Bigstuff.
The former EastEnders hardman shows a lot of leg as he lounges on a shagpile rug wearing a lady’s kimono.
And his manhood is barely covered – with a tin of his screen dad’s ashes.
He joins Brassic star Ryan Sampson in the show, which follows estranged brothers Glen and Lee as they try to mend their sibling rivalry.
Making his comedy debut as Lee, Danny crashes into the near-perfect lives of Glen and his fiancée Kirsty, played by Harriet Webb.
An alpha male with a prescription drug addiction, Lee is on the run from a murky past that’s catching up with him as he bids to lie low. And the trio soon start unravelling faster than a cheap carpet.
The series airs from July 17 on Sky Max and on streaming service NOW.
A HOL LOT MORE TO OUTLAWS
STEPHEN MERCHANT plans to rest The Outlaws after its third season in Bristol – but is up for taking it overseas, preferably somewhere he can get an exotic holiday.
He told The Sun’s TV Mag, free with the paper tomorrow: “The idea was finishing this, and then doing a series of community service people in Liverpool, Manchester, anywhere.
“Maybe that could still happen.
“It’s just a nice way to input a crime story that doesn’t involve police or criminals directly. We could do it in America, a Parisian version, an Aussie version – bucket-list destinations.
“I definitely think there should be a Hawaii version.”
The Outlaws returns on Thursday at 9pm on BBC One.
A NEW series about a gay couple on their adoption journey is finally coming to BBC one.
Lost Boys & Fairies, starring Sion Daniel Young, sees pair Gabriel and Andy fight to convince social worker Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington) they are ready for the challenge. It will air from June 3 at 9pm.
FIENNES BANG IN TROUBLE
THERE are plenty of dangers in the Canadian wilderness – but the biggest threat to actor Joseph Fiennes in his new travelogue was a dodgy gas connection.
In the National Geographic channel’s Fiennes: Return To The Wild – to be screened on May 31 – the Handmaid’s Tale star and his cousin, the explorer Sir Ranulph ‘Ran’ Fiennes, travel across British Columbia, retracing Ran’s 1971 expedition that saw him cross the province almost entirely by river, in a rubber boat.
Producer Kate Beal Blyth said: “We’d gone through all the dangerous bits, the wild bears, the rapids, the glacier, and then there was an explosion in the hotel next to where we were filming.”
Joseph added: “There were lots of people around us to make sure we didn’t get hurt, lost or eaten.
“But it’s the odd gas leak you never thought would happen that you can never be prepared for.”