Mary Berry, along with Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins will be on a new BBC cookery competition, after Paul Hollywood became the only one of the four to follow the Great British Bake Off to its new home on Channel 4.
Sources from the BBC have said they’re thinking about launching a rival show to Bake Off. This unsurprising news comes after Berry announced on Thursday that she’d turned down the transfer to Channel 4, rushed forward by the BBC after Hollywood’s Wednesday evening announcement.
It’s understood that Berry will be at the centre of the cookery line-up, and styled as the BBC’s number one TV chef until she retires. Their Director of Content Charlotte Moore said there are plans to: “cook up more unmissable shows with [Berry] in the future”.
Berry even refused formal talks with Channel 4 – they had apparently only had sporadic contact with her agent since the announcement that the Bake Off was moving.
Love Productions will oppose the show if it’s too similar however – they’ve already made the BBC pay damages after accusing them of ripping off the format they used to make Hair, a BBC Three show.
Great British Bake Off still needs three new members and will be 90 minutes instead of an hour, after it was decided to not cut the running time to accommodate adverts.
The final BBC series of the Great British Bake Off airs Wednesday nights at 8pm. Watch the latest episode below:
