Sue Perkins has claimed Great British Bake Off contestant Iain Watters “really lost it” during the show’s infamous Bin Gate debacle.
In one of the hit baking competition’s most infamous moments ever, Iain dramatically binned his Baked Alaska after it failed to set during the 2014 series.
Reflecting on the incident, which made front page news when it aired, former Bake Off host Sue revealed there was also a lot going on behind the scenes that didn’t make it into the show.
Appearing on Ed Gamble and James Acaster’s Off Menu podcast, Sue said: “I had to talk to him. Yeah, he was effing and jeffing. There’s a lot of effing and jeffing which was the first time we’ve had that on camera in Bake Off.
“Obviously there’s a lot of it going on backstage, mainly because I’m just foul of mouth but normally it’s very mellow, as you know. He really lost it.
“And in that moment I was with him, it was life and death, but then slowly this creeping contextualisation of just… I’m with a man in a tent, whose ice cream has melted. This is… Meanwhile in Syria…”
Sue continued: “I had to take him out, and we had to have a little chat, be nice guy, and just say, ‘Come on, let’s bring some perspective to this. Maybe, maybe not, somebody opened the fridge door, it might have affected the temperature.’
“But I have to say the aplomb with which he just got the foot on the pedal of the pedal bin. It was like something out of Thelma and Louise, when you see that close up of it going up and down.”
The ramifications of #BinGate were huge, mainly for Iain’s fellow contestant, Diana Beard, who found herself on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse, when she was accused of sabotaging Iain’s Baked Alaska.
However a statement from the BBC insisted she was not to blame for the ice cream melting.
“Diana removing Iain’s ice cream from the freezer for less than a minute was in no way responsible for Iain’s departure,” the broadcaster said at the time.
Sue co-hosted the first seven series of The Great British Bake Off with comedy partner Mel Giedroyc prior to the show’s move from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2017.
It is now hosted by Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding, while long-serving judge Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith cast an eye over the contestant’s bakes.
The latest episode of the Off Menu podcast is available to stream now.