'Great British Bake Off' 'Will Never Be As Good On Channel 4', Says Graham Norton

Graham Norton has admitted he doesn’t have high hopes for ‘The Great British Bake Off’ when it makes the leap to Channel 4 next year.

After seven successful series on the BBC, ‘Bake Off’ will get a new home in 2017, after Love Productions signed a much-publicised £75m deal with Channel 4.

However, following the departures of presenting duo Mel and Sue, as well as much-loved judge Mary Berry, BBC presenter Graham says he thinks it’s time for ‘Bake Off’ fans to lower their expectations.

Speaking about the “very sad” situation, he told The Telegraph: “Love Productions is looking bad, Channel 4 looks a bit stupid, for everyone else it’s collateral damage.

“’Bake Off’ was about the four presenters and there’s an alchemy which will be very hard to replicate. No matter how good it is on Channel 4, it will never be as good as it was on the BBC: even if all four had gone, somehow it would have been sullied.”

However, he concluded: “In the end it’s a show about cakes and we’ll all get on with our lives.”

Attention now turns to who’ll be replacing Mel and Sue at the helm of ‘Bake Off’, with a number of stars already having ruled themselves out for the job.

So far, despite being named as potential replacements in the press, Davina McCall, Alan Carr and Clare Balding - all of whom have regular presenting gigs on Channel 4 - have insisted they won’t be joining the show.

More recently, comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders also addressed rumours that ‘Bake Off’ was in their future, with the ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ actress branding the claims “complete bollocks”.