Former Great British Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc has admitted she thought the show would mark the end of her career when filming was complete on its first series.
Mel hosted the hit reality show alongside Sue Perkins for its first seven years, during which time it developed from cult favourite to unmissable TV juggernaut.
However, in a candid new interview with The Guardian, the comedian disclosed that she wasn’t exactly sold on the show before season one debuted.
She recalled: “I remember phoning Perks saying: ‘Don’t worry, mate – no one’s ever going to see this’. Because we were really scared. We were thinking: ‘Well, that’s the end of our careers. That was the flattest, tweest, most boring thing we’ve ever done. Who wants to look at cakes?’.”
When Bake Off ended up becoming an enormous success, it seems no one was as surprised as Mel and Sue themselves.
“It was just mad,” she said. “No one could have predicted that it would explode in that way – we certainly couldn’t have. What a joy to have that mad thing happen to you in your 40s. It just doesn’t happen to two old birds.”
Mel also spoke about the decision she and Sue made not to join Bake Off when it made the jump to Channel 4, at which point Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig took over as hosts (Sandi has since left the show and been replaced by Matt Lucas).
She explained: “I think it took us under 20 seconds to work out that we weren’t going to go with it.
“We felt that the show had been nurtured by the BBC. And effectively, the makers of the show were just going ‘See ya’, and going for the money. And that didn’t sit well with us.”
Bake Off is set to return for its 13th series later this week on Channel 4.
Despite speculation the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II may lead the broadcaster to delay the launch, it was confirmed over the weekend that the series would be premiering as planned on Tuesday night at 8pm.