Matt Lucas will swap Bake Off tent for ballet with new Wayne Sleep gig

New Bake Off host Matt Lucas will get a chance to show he’s a whirl beater... by playing ballet legend Wayne Sleep.

When coronavirus travel restrictions end, Matt, 46, will jet between the UK-based cookery show and the US – where he’ll star as 5ft2in Sleep in new comedy The Big Leap.

It is based on Sleep’s 2014 Channel 4 reality show Big Ballet, which featured “oversized” dance wannabes.

Those in the US show, which is being piloted, include Teri Polo, who played Pam in Robert De Niro’s Meet The Parents trilogy.

Advance reports on The Big Leap describe it as “diverse underdogs who compete to be in a reality series putting on a hip remake of Swan Lake.

Matt Lucas will start work on the new series once the coronavirus travel ban is lifted (Getty)

Wayne Sleep famously danced with Princess Diana (Getty)

"What they lack in dancer body type, they make up for with edge, wit.”

Lucas will replace Sandi Toksvig to co-host The Great British Bake Off this summer.

Matt Lucas pictured with Noel Fielding, current presenter of The Great British Bake Off (PA)

He will join judges Noel Fielding, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.

Sleep, 71, famously danced with Princess Diana at the Royal Opera House in 1985.