Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins have revealed they quit The Great British Bake Off on its first ever day of filming, meaning the seven series they spent hosting the show almost never happened.
The pair, who are reuniting for a new Sky1 assassin comedy called Hitmen, said they “resigned” right at the start because of the way producers on the BBC show were treating contestants.
“We resigned, basically,” Perkins told the Radio Times. “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.’ So we had very stiff words about how we wanted to proceed. I think we can say that, now we’re out of it, can’t we?”
Perkins added: “We’re quite cheesy and homespun and we just want to have a laugh. Who wants to see people crying? I don’t. Especially if you work in television and you know the mechanisms that have been used to make them cry.”
The duo, who eventually did quit Bake Off in 2016 when it moved to Channel 4, said they only found out the series was leaving the BBC on a television news bulletin.
“There’s no antagonism there,” said Perkins. “I just think, ‘If you’re going to let us find out that way [from TV], then we’re not really a team, are we?’”
Judge Mary Berry also quit the show, but Paul Hollywood stayed on and was joined by Prue Leith, Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding.
Toksvig announced she was stepping down in January after three years presenting the show, and last week Matt Lucas was named as her replacement.
