Great British Baking Show judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith are known for their playful banter and on-screen chemistry, but the former admitted he sometimes has to leave the set over his co-star’s “embarrassing” comments.
Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum, Hollywood opened up about how he and Leith have softened over the years and allowed more of their humor to slip through. However, this sometimes leads to Leith making risqué puns that leave him flustered and unable to continue.
“The problem is, it’s quite a tactile thing, bread-making or whatever, so certain shapes can look a bit rude on camera,” he explained, referencing a bake last season where a contestant made a cake shaped like a beaver. “So, Nicky, tell us about your beaver,” Leith said in the episode.
“She’s embarrassing. That’s what she is,” Hollywood quipped about his fellow judge. “I mean, Prue will say it, and I’m sure she’s saying it deliberately. We were doing sausage rolls, and she said to a guy, ‘I don’t think your sausage is big enough,’ and I just stopped and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to leave for 10 minutes,’ so I walked out the tent.”
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It’s this humor, though, that Hollywood says has made the show such a success for 15 seasons and counting. “We all have a good sense of humor in the tent, and we all have a good laugh. I think that’s part of the magic of [the show],” he stated.
“The atmosphere in the tent is very jovial, it’s very happy, it’s very fun, so when someone says something to spark somebody else off, it just goes through it like wildfire,” Hollywood added.
As for Leith, she recently told Bella magazine that she has become more “reckless” in her older age and just says whatever comes to mind. “Because I’m so near the end, I’m a bit more reckless now. What’s the worst that can happen?” she told the outlet.
“If I was about to try to get a job on Bake Off, I probably wouldn’t walk down a catwalk in latex with goth make-up on, but now it’s too late. If I want to do it and it sounds like good fun I just think, ‘why not?’” she continued, referring to her catwalk debut during London Fashion Week in September.
The Great British Baking Show, Season 15, Fridays, Netflix