Paul Hollywood found a useful way of filling his time while bubbled up in the Great British Bake Off’s biosphere.
The baker has revealed he taught Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding how to drive while filming the current series of the Channel 4 show.
Neither of the show’s presenters are able to drive, so famous petrolhead Paul opted to help them learn using the on-set buggies at Down Hall in Essex.
Speaking to The Mirror, Paul said: “Neither of the male hosts have actually got a driving licence.
“So I was trying to teach Matt a few little tricks on the go kart and how to drive it at speed. But it was, it was fun. We need a challenge actually.
“We need to get a newspaper involved where we end up teaching Noel and Matt how to drive a car. Get a licence for them.”
Fellow judge Prue Leith: “I tell you what, Matt got to drive just as fast as Paul Hollywood. In the end, he was zipping around with that bug. And I kept thinking, ‘That’s a guy who can’t drive!’.”
Paul added: “Now he wants to do his test. The buggies did the trick.”
During filming of the latest series, all of the cast and crew had to live in a self-contained biosphere for six weeks so they wouldn’t have to socially distance on camera.
All of the hosts, judges and bakers lived alongside 80 members of the production team, 20 hotel staff, and around 20 “children, chaperones and dog walkers” during the six-week shoot.
Prior to moving in to the hotel, people had to self-isolate for nine days and take three Covid tests to ensure they did not have the virus.
The shoot, which was described as “gruelling” by the show’s bosses, saw the team work on a two days on, two days off basis, while they also built 12 practise kitchens for the bakers to use on their days off.
Kieran Smith, who is the creative director at the Channel 4 show’s production company Love Productions, previously revealed that there was only one coronavirus scare during the shoot, which turned out to be a false alarm.
“It was a massive operation,” he said. “It felt like the safest place in Britain.”
The Great British Bake Off continues on Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4.