Prue Leith has responded to Sandi Toksvig’s recent claims about what led to her resigning from the Great British Bake Off.
Both Prue and Sandi were new additions to the Bake Off family when the show made the jump to Channel 4 in 2017, and while the former still remains a judge on the show, the latter stepped down as a presenter after three seasons.
Last month, the QI host made headlines when she claimed that her time on Bake Off came to an end because she “stopped having fun”.
“I was literally standing there watching meringues dry and thinking, ‘Oh my God, my brain is atrophying’,” she claimed.
During an interview on Times Radio on Tuesday, Prue was asked what she thought of Sandi’s comments, to which she admitted they didn’t correspond to her memories of working with the comedian.
“I don’t think Sandi was [that] bored,” Prue said. “She and I shared a wonderful green room in this posh house, which was where we filmed Bake Off, which was in the library.
“And so we had this wonderful selection of books, and she would [knit] little figures. So she made lots of those. She wrote a few scripts. She did a lot of other things.”
Prue added: “I mean, I can see that for some people as clever as Sandy watching meringue dry is perhaps a bit heavy, but I think she just liked the joke. I don’t think she was really bored.”
Sandi previously told Radio Times: “After three years, I thought, ‘That’ll do, go and do something else!’” I’m in love enough with the business to think, ‘OK, that’s a nice pay cheque, but it doesn’t work for me. I’ll move on and do something else’.”
Back in 2020, long-standing Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood claimed he’d been left “surprised” and “really upset” by Sandi’s exit.
“I’m very fond of Sandi. She was never too busy to sit down, have a chat and put the world to rights. We shared a couple of drinks and had some good times together,” he said at the time.
Sandi was replaced by Matt Lucas, who fronted three seasons before announcing he, too, was leaving. Daytime favourite Alison Hammond then made her debut at the helm of Bake Off last year, and is set to return in 2024.