With the Artisan Bread Company making good profits and also managing to hit headlines thanks to his creative ideas, and his family life also in tip-top shape, Paul couldn’t be happier. On top of this, he was able to do a little bit of TV here and there. Slowly but surely he was becoming a well-known face, particularly when it came to baking.
Although he didn’t realise it at the time, in 2010 he was on the brink of becoming a huge household name. While he had tried with limited success to become a fully fledged TV personality, an amazing opportunity was about to present itself. It would see him become, once and for all, a staple on British TV. A new series called The Great British Bake Off was being developed and Paul was destined to be an integral part of it. In fact, the show would propel him to a level of stardom that, quite frankly, he would never have imagined possible.
It all started in the summer of 2010 in the offices of an independent British TV company called Love Productions. The firm was developing a great reputation throughout the UK television industry. Founded in 2005, it had quickly cemented its place as one of the premier production companies in Britain. It had built up a reputation for gritty reality TV documentaries, which had been making waves with viewers and critics alike. Among them was Underage and Having Sex, which took its starting point from the statistic that one in three British youngsters will have sex before their sixteenth birthday. Then there was 8 Boys And Wanting A Girl, which visited the home of 43-year-old Wendy Bowen. As the title suggests, she had given birth to eight sons but was desperate to conceive a daughter. In fact, according to the programme synopsis, her ticking biological clock meant her quest had ‘turned into an obsession’.
There was something about Love Productions that set it apart from the crowd. It wasn’t afraid to get to grips with controversial real-life issues nor did it seem at all concerned if that meant not being considered particularly ‘worthy’ in terms of output by some critics. Ratings were what mattered in the TV industry and Love Productions’ shows were getting these in spades. Now, in the summer of 2010, they were looking for something different. The creative directors behind the company’s success needed a huge new hit – and they thought they might just have the answer.
The genre of show they decided to focus on was one that had become hugely popular over the last two decades. By then it was impossible to turn on the TV at almost any time of day in the UK without stumbling across some sort of cookery show, be it one where the viewers were given recipes to follow in their own kitchens or a more competitive, reality-style set-up where contestants vied to be the very best and beat the rivals.
A decision was made by the powers that be at Love Productions that the time was right to move in this direction. They wanted a competitive cookery show but one with a twist. A resurgent love of all things retro in Britain meant that baking was back in fashion. What’s more, the biting recession would soon encourage people to stay at home and have fun for free. Combining these two elements – competitive cookery and baking – seemed the perfect recipe for success. And so The Great British Bake Off was born. The title was similar to The Great British Menu, another TV cookery competition that saw top British chefs compete for the chance to cook one course of a four-course banquet for a range of people, including HM The Queen and the British Ambassador to France. Talk about pressure!
Announcing the show in mid-2010, Love Productions’ managing director Richard McKerrow promised a ‘warm and celebratory’ series that would ‘tell the history of Britain through baking’. He added: ‘Baking is quintessentially British and it’s the perfect feel-good subject for these rather straitened times. We want nothing less than to get the whole country baking again.’
And it didn’t take long for the show to be commissioned by a major TV channel. BBC2 immediately snapped it up. It came as no surprise that the broadcaster would go for The Great British Bake Off as it had long been the natural home of major cookery competition shows – especially wholesome ones like this. The channel had been the birthplace of MasterChef in 1990, which had recently returned to screens and proved a big success.
With the show commissioned, it was time for the producers to decide on the judges. As with all reality shows, success would stand or fall on who was on the judging panel. So who would be their answer to Simon Cowell? After taking some time to consider this, the producers decided Paul Hollywood was the right man for the job. Not only did he have a down-to-earth, straight-talking personality, but also an intimate knowledge of baking that meant that he would know the bakes expected of the contestants inside out. The perfect fit, he ticked all the boxes.
British comedian and broadcaster Sue Perkins, who would later be picked to co-present the show, played a major role in Paul’s TV breakthrough. Previously, she had met him on a number of occasions, having been involved in a string of food programmes. Already in talks with the producers about her own role, she suggested him as a good choice of judge. Perhaps it was Paul’s single-minded passion for his craft that had sealed the deal. In one interview with the Daily Mail he had said: ‘All I want to do is bake. Whether I do that on TV or on the moon, I’m still just a baker.’ His straight-talking manner would no doubt balance fellow judge Mary Berry’s poise, politeness and gentle nature.
Paul explained in an interview with the Kent Messenger how it all came about. ‘I was approached by one of the presenters, Sue Perkins, to take part, as she had seen some of my stuff on the Good Food Channel. The BBC then rang me to talk me through the idea and introduce me to fellow judge, baking writer Mary Berry. Then, at the start of April, we began filming around the country for the six-part series.’
It was a done deal. Paul had secured his big break at last, and he would be partnered by another great, well-known lover of all things baked: Mary Berry. It was vital, as far as the producers were concerned, that he was alongside someone who was established and well known in the baking world. And Mary was already well established in the British consciousness owing to her incredible, illustrious career as the doyenne of baking. Revered for her straightforward recipes by enthusiasts up and down the country, she had sold over 5 million books around the world. Her 50-plus titles, including her first book, the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook, had been translated into a string of foreign languages.
In addition she was a staple on British cookery and lifestyle shows, often whipping up recipes for audiences on programmes such as ITV’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show and the massively popular This Morning. She had also hosted her own series across various networks. Another reason for Mary’s rise to becoming a household name was her love of the AGA. Over the years she had become a passionate proponent of the trusty heat storage stove and cooker, running workshops for would-be bakers at her home just outside of London and penning numerous books on the subject too. Then there was her personal life. In addition to her vast array of experience in the kitchen, Mary had also had her fair share of ups and downs in life. Tragically she had lost her 19-year-old son William when he died in a car accident while home for the holidays from his studies in Bristol. Mary had life experience – something that made her a real person and someone with whom the public, who had adored her for years, could empathise. In short, she seemed like the perfect fit to judge alongside Paul.
Paul and Mary each had their own strengths; they were similar but different. And they worked a treat together during the various screen tests the producers put them through and the audition process for the show’s contestants, showing a natural chemistry right from the start. As far as everyone was concerned, this was a match made in heaven.
With the judging panel in place, all the producers now needed before they launched was a presenter or, indeed, presenters. Sue Perkins’ name was in the frame. Born in 1969 in Croydon, south London, she was educated at the independent school Croham Hurst For Girls, later winning a place to read English at New Hall, at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1990. It was while at university that she really developed her love of entertaining – and discovered she had a knack for it. She was a member of Cambridge Footlights, the amateur dramatics club with a prestigious reputation responsible for launching the careers of stars such as John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Downton-turned-Hollywood heart-throb Dan Stevens, to name but a few. All had belonged to Footlights while at Cambridge and had gone on to achieve remarkable success.
It was while she was a member of Footlights that Sue, who later went on to become president, met fellow student and actress Mel Giedroyc. Born in 1968 in Epsom, Surrey, Mel’s father was a history writer of Polish-Lithuanian descent who came to England in 1947. Growing up, Mel had shown a real flair for learning and speaking foreign languages. After studying at Oxford High School for Girls, she won a place at Cambridge to read Italian language and literature at New Hall.
Performing together for Footlights, the pair soon established not just a solid friendship but a promising comedy partnership too. After graduating they decided to become an official duo, and set about pursuing joint success. The endless gigging at stand-up comedy events eventually paid off when they were picked to pen material for the BBC television series French and Saunders. The famous sketch show starred another all-female comedy duo, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, who had achieved enormous popularity and success. As Mel and Sue continued to flourish, they would find themselves compared to their comedy heroines.
In fact, things really started to take off when they secured their very own TV show. And as with both Mary and Paul, it would be on daytime TV. In 1997 they launched the popular lunchtime show Light Lunch, on Channel 4. It was an extremely simple concept, but one that really worked. Celebrity chefs would cook lunch for the duo’s celebrity guests, bringing together food and chat. Unlike Mary and Paul, Mel and Sue did none of the cooking, though. Their irreverent, humorous style proved an unlikely hit with daytime audiences. Later, the show was moved to an early evening slot and renamed Late Lunch. To add to the banter, studio audiences were also expected to bring in their own lunch to eat during the show, and were each given £3 to cover the cost of this. They were encouraged to bring in unusual food, their own creations, or food in some way relating to that day’s celebrity guest. The most creative ideas would be shown on camera.
After a successful two-year run, Mel and Sue were very much on the radar of top TV executives, who were clamouring to sign them up for future projects. In 1999, Channel 4’s rival network ITV won the battle, getting them on board to front a new comedy panel show called Casting Couch. The girls hosted the show while radio DJ Chris Moyles and former socialite Tamara Beckwith were the captains of the show’s two teams. The main topic of discussion was celebrity gossip and each team has to vie against the other to prove they know more about the world of showbiz.
It was a great opportunity for the girls to reach a wider, more adult audience, as the programme aired in a late evening slot. Unfortunately, though, for some it didn’t quite live up to the hype. The ratings did not meet expectations and ITV bosses chose not to commission it again after the first series. Despite this setback, Mel and Sue carried on unfazed. Other side projects included returning to where it all started, appearing together again in a French and Saunders Mamma Mia! sketch for Comic Relief in March 2009, and on various radio programmes. The double act proved particularly popular with Radio 4 listeners.
Their friendship remained as solid and steadfast as ever, but before too long, Mel and Sue decided they wanted to take on solo projects. While Sue has tried her hand at a series of different things, including a stint on Celebrity Big Brother and presenting on the now-defunct Channel 4 breakfast show RI:SE, she quickly found a niche presenting food shows. In April 2007, she took part in Edwardian Supersize Me for the BBC with food critic Giles Coren. The unusual programme involved the pair eating the equivalent of a wealthy Edwardian couple’s diet, while dressed in traditional clothes from the era. It proved a winning formula, and the following year she and Giles returned with a new series called The Supersizers Go… In this, they would spend a week eating food based upon certain diets. The first programme saw them survive for a week on Second World War rations. In the second episode, they moved back in time to the English Restoration period, followed by the Victorian ages, the 1970s, the Elizabethan and Regency periods. Then, in 2006, Sue once again displayed her love for all things culinary by appearing on Celebrity MasterChef.
Meanwhile, Mel worked on a range of programmes including co-presenting a daytime chat show and being cast in a BBC sitcom. She also starred in three series of the twice BAFTA-nominated cult sketch show Sorry I’ve Got No Head, as well as the West End musical Eurobeat and popular teen drama, Sadie J.
But after working separately for some four years, it looked like a reunion could be on the cards. With Sue already in talks with the producers behind The Great British Bake Off, it was decided she would be paired with a co-host. Keen to make sure that a show about baking didn’t become too serious or staid, they wanted presenters they could rely on to keep it light and good-humoured. In the end it was an obvious decision – Mel and Sue were a winning combination. Sue first hinted about their reunion when she appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, saying they would be working on something together in 2010. While excited at the prospect of working with Mel again, she did admit in an interview with TV industry magazine Broadcast that she also found it daunting because of the time that had passed. She admitted: ‘We’d both changed hugely as individuals.’ Speaking ahead of the first series, Sue added that she wasn’t sure whether they would work together full time, but they were excited about The Great British Bake Off. ‘We’re keen to keep our new identities but the door’s definitely open,’ she insisted.
With all the judges and presenters in place, the producers could set about creating a format for the show. But there was one important element they were still missing: contestants. They were looking for would-be master bakers who were keen to show their flair, originality and creativity over a series of weeks in the hope of being crowned the winner. And there was no shortage to choose from. More than 1,000 hopefuls put their names forward for the audition process before being whittled down to 10 lucky finalists. Getting to that stage was no mean feat. In this particular reality TV show, there was no room for novelty contestants or sob stories. Anna Beattie, the executive producer and creator of The Great British Bake Off concept, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Every person who makes it into the marquee has passed a rigorous series of tests.’
And Anna – who came up with the idea for the show after talking to a friend who had seen ‘bake offs’ in America, where they were hugely popular – wasn’t exaggerating. The contestants all had to fill out a long application form, which, if it met the requirements, allowed them through to the next stage. They would then be quizzed by one of the show’s researchers in a 45-minute telephone interview. Only then would potential contestants be invited to London with two of their most successful ‘bakes’ to see if their culinary skills really were up to scratch. Following this there was a screen test and a further interview with a senior producer.
Even after all this, there was more. If the would-be baking superstars ticked all of these boxes, they then had to go through to a second audition – the most nerve-wracking of all. This involved baking two recipes for none other than Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, this time in front of rolling cameras, to see how they would interact with the two judges and how they would come across on screen. And the final hurdle, which all contestants have to pass, is a forensic interview with one of the show’s psychologists. The producers have a duty of care to all contestants and they wanted to make sure they could cope with the stresses, strains and overall pressure of being filmed for up to 16 hours a day, potentially for weeks on end. No wonder contestants on reality shows are often told they’re ‘all winners’ for even getting on the show in the first place!
Finally, after the lengthy audition process, Mary and Paul had their 10 contestants. They comprised Welsh bus driver Mark Withers, Scottish freelance food writer Lea Harris, Marks & Spencer commercial manager Miranda Gore Browne, Solihull housewife Jasminder Randhawa, David Chambers from Milton Keynes, Annetha Mills, Manchester police sergeant Louise Brimelow, shop owner Jonathan Shepherd, fourth-generation baker Ruth Clemens and debt collector Edd Kimber. Over the course of six episodes they would get to battle it out, with Mary and Paul eventually finding a winner.
Before too long, filming swung into action. In the first series, the show visited a different location around the UK each week. First up was the Cotswolds. Other locations included Sandwich and Sarre Mill in Thanet, Kent, with a view to enabling the contestants to find out about a place where traditional baking skills are still used. They would later cook puddings in Bakewell, pasties in Cornwall and scones at Scone Palace, in Perthshire, Scotland. The travelling alone must have proved exhausting, but with filming under way, there was no time to think about this for the set was a hive of activity and there was baking to be done.
Mel and Sue kept the atmosphere jovial and lively with their witty asides and comic interludes, whether the cameras were rolling or switched off. In particular, they became adept at teasing Paul, gently poking fun at his hairstyle and patting him affectionately as they prepared to film their own segments. Meanwhile, food producers were constantly on hand to help. While the contestants are by and large left to their own devices, the food producers aid anyone who finds themselves in trouble, giving tips on how to save a recipe or providing new ingredients. ‘We help the bakers to a certain degree,’ Faenia Moore, the programme’s home economist, told the Daily Telegraph in an interview. ‘We do show the disasters, but you don’t want to set anyone up for a fall.’
The first contestants to leave the show were Matt and Lea, both evicted at the end of the opening episode. After her exit, Lea told The Scotsman: ‘Let’s just say cakes are very temperamental and every one of the cakes looked completely different from the other. It was quite stressful and there were some tears, but when you’re on camera and cooking to a time limit it is quite stressful. It’s just off camera, but I managed to drop my signature bake – pistachio and cranberry cake – on the floor. And I almost set my clothes on fire, which you can’t see on TV. With five minutes to spare, I managed to stick the five bits of my cake back together.’
Unfortunately for Lea and her fellow contestants, Paul had little time for excuses. He soon developed a reputation for being quite strict, but insisted he simply wanted to provide constructive criticism so they could learn and improve. Defending his approach, he said: ‘It’s not personal, it’s just about what they do. Some programmes have a pop at the person themselves but I give an honest opinion and maybe they’ve never had an honest opinion before. That’s part of it and, if they get upset, it’s a good thing. If they didn’t get upset I’d be more worried. If they did nothing they’re never going to get better.’ In contrast to other reality shows, The Great British Bake Off took no pleasure in humiliating its contestants. Paul was simply being honest and proved himself a natural-born judge. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror he added: ‘I judge the bake and not the person. It is all about what’s on the plate. I am more than happy to judge. I’ll judge anything. Even this morning, when a croissant was put on my plate, I was judging it before I even picked it up. I am judgmental – it comes with the territory.’
Mary Berry provided the perfect balance, and although the pair more often than not agreed, they would occasionally find themselves at odds because of their different baking backgrounds. Paul explained: ‘Mary came from a home cooking background and I came from a professional baking background – I won’t make one cake, I’ll make 50. So I’ll look at it from a business point of view.’
But one thing they didn’t disagree on was the lunch menu. With his new job involving tasting dozens and dozens of bakes each day, Paul was keen to keep an eye on his weight and so he followed Mary’s lead, who stays trim with regular tennis sessions and sensibly sized portions. He said: ‘Having a good understanding of what I’m eating makes a huge difference. When we’re filming I only have a small taste of each bake and for lunch I try to have the same thing that Mary’s eating – healthy meals, like salads.’
His touching camaraderie with his co-presenter and passion for the job in hand meant that Paul appeared to be thoroughly enjoying the process of working on The Great British Bake Off. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he described the atmosphere on set as ‘lovely and completely genuine’, adding that Mel and Sue are like his ‘naughty sisters’. He went on to say: ‘They’re always pulling faces, or winding me up, and I have to say, “Hey, you two, shush!” We have some real giggles. What you see on screen is genuine. A couple of times I’ve rolled out of that tent in tears from laughing so much.’
After months of filming, the series was scheduled to have its transmission date – 17 August 2010. Despite all the hype and preparation no one knew for sure whether The Great British Bake Off would be a success, but thankfully for all those involved it went on to become a huge hit – both in the ratings and with the critics. The first episode gained a very respectable 2.24 million viewers, but off the back of rave reviews, these figures shot up to an even more impressive 3 million in the second episode, which was sustained for the rest of the series. Naturally, both the controllers at BBC2 and the producers behind the show couldn’t have been more delighted.
Critics are often harder to impress than viewers, but in this case, the reviews were also overwhelmingly positive. In particular, they focussed on Paul’s brilliant relationship with Mary. Despite their ups and downs, their easy rapport translated well to the screen and made them a formidable duo. The Guardian described their double act as the ‘secret weapon’ of the show, going so far as to say that it was potentially one of the best judging combinations to have appeared on a reality TV show. And others agreed. The Leicester Mercury declared: ‘Think MasterChef but with bread and cakes. With the competition being judged by Mary Berry, the undisputed Queen of Cakes, and Paul Hollywood, one of Britain’s leading artisan bakers, the ten contestants have a lot to prove as they push their baking skills to the limit.’
The show prompted debate about the relative merits of different approaches to baking. Later in the series, Anne Harrison from the Women’s Institute said in the Guardian: ‘The judges on The Great British Bake Off have very different styles. Mary Berry is someone even I would be nervous to cook for. The other judge, Paul Hollywood, has obviously spent his life in commercial baking. I don’t always agree with him. To test a scone, the WI teaches that you don’t need to cut it with a knife – you should be able to pull it apart along its natural split. Hollywood said that was wrong – but if you cut a scone with a knife, it compacts the texture as you press down. It’s the same with gingerbread.’
Eventually Edd Kimber, a 26-year-old debt collector who worked for a Yorkshire bank, was victorious. An unlikely star baker you might think, but he excelled at every stage of the competition. His bakes, Mary and Paul agreed, were the standout stars; neither could fault him. But Edd was doubly delighted with his win for it meant that he could give up his day job, something he loathed. ‘It was the worst job ever – I absolutely hated it,’ he told the Daily Telegraph some months after he won series one. ‘People would swear at me hourly and they’d send you round to people’s houses in pairs in case things turned nasty. I used to spend most of my time looking up recipes online – I’m surprised they didn’t fire me.’
Perhaps the real power of The Great British Bake Off was proven when, within 12 months of his victory, Edd had given up being a debt collector and instead had a recipe book in the shops, entitled The Boy Who Bakes. He was also running a series of cookery classes and appearing at food roadshows up and down the length of Britain. Keen to capitalise on his success, he launched his own brand for his produce too, simply called ‘The Boy Who Bakes’. Explaining the thought process behind the name, he told the Daily Telegraph with a laugh: ‘Well, I am a boy and I do bake. I wanted to make it clear that anyone can bake. In the past it’s been associated with housewives and the Women’s Institute but these days you get bakers from all walks of life.’
And that, it seemed, was the beauty of The Great British Bake Off. Finally, baking was no longer reserved for housewives in the kitchen: it was cool, trendy, something that even young men could enjoy. After ticking all the boxes – ratings, great reviews and cultural impact – it was no surprise that BBC2 were quick to snap up a second series of Bake Off for 2011.