Thread by @thetimes

A new series of #GBBO begins tomorrow night. Yet however many million tune in, its original hosts Mel Giedroyc and @sueperkins won’t be among them.

“I just think it would make me sad to watch it,” Perkins says. thetimes.co.uk/article/mel-an…

They left the show in 2016 when it moved to Channel 4. No regrets, they say. And yet . . .

“We gave it everything we had and we made a decision that was easy to make, but hard sometimes to reflect upon,” Perkins says. “You just wish it well.”

Much as they loved Bake Off, however, they never thought it would be a job for life. So they doubt they would still be with it even if it hadn’t left the BBC.

“I think we would have left when Mary wanted to leave,” Giedroyc says.

“I think we would have done ten years, something like that,” Perkins adds. “A ten-year anniversary and then Mary would have maybe gone on to pastures new and we would have left with her.”

“That’s my only regret, that Mary didn’t get her anniversary show,” Giedroyc says.

“For me there is an element of wistfulness. We could have had a couple more years,” says Perkins.

They campaigned successfully to keep the mood in the tent kind and even threatened to walk out on their first day when they felt the producers were trying to make the show too cruelly competitive.

“We made sure everyone was all right in the tent, and that became the show really,” Perkins says. “The silly jokes and stuff weren’t the show. What made Bake Off was the tone, and I believe we set that tone, and they have run with that tone since.”

Read the full interview with Mel and Sue: thetimes.co.uk/article/mel-an…