Sandi Toksvig explains why she quit The Great British Bake Off: ‘Longest three years of my life’

Sandi Toksvig has described her time on The Great British Bake Off as “three of the longest years of [her] life.”

The presenter and comedian, who co-hosted the reality competition show alongside Noel Fielding from 2017 to 2020, said: “It’s not for me. I walked away from the biggest pay cheque of my life, but that’s fine.”

Speaking to The Times on Sunday (6 October), Toksvig went on to say she didn’t like the show’s format and hasn’t seen even one episode.

“I still haven’t watched it, I didn’t understand it. Cakes are readily available in the shops. I didn’t enjoy the process.”

The star was advised to quit by her wife, psychotherapist Debbie. “There was this showbiz thing, [that] you’d made it with Bake Off, it was a big show, getting a lot of attention. But Deb said: ‘It’s not making you happy’.”

She was replaced by Matt Lucas, who was in turn replaced by Alison Hammond last year.

Filming the show was exhausting and dull, Toksvig added, and often meant standing around in silence “for hours” while the judges tasted the bakers’ end results.

“We didn’t speak or taste anything,” she said. “I used to say, ‘Can we not sit down? I’m not contributing’, but no.” Asked if she tasted any of the culinary delights after filming, she said: “Not really, my thing is cheese.”

Since leaving the show, Toksvig, who still presents BBC’s QI, has kept in touch with Prue Leith, saying they were “joined at the hip”, but not co-judge, Paul Hollywood. “He’s so busy. He drives cars so fast it’s impossible to catch him,” she joked.

When asked about Fielding, she simply replied: “No.”

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