Paul Hollywood says he was 'p***ed off' with his 'Bake Off' weight gain

Paul Hollywood said he was "p***ed off" when he discovered how much weight he had gained during this year's series of The Great British Bake Off.

The 55-year-old chef said he'd managed to drop a stone and a half during lockdown due to a tight fitness regime, only to undo a lot of that work while in the show's COVID-19 bubble.

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Hollywood told the Sunday People magazine lovesunday he "wanted to take a lot of the cakes home" this year and that staying with the contestants and crew in a Hertfordshire hotel put temptation in his way.

He said: "I put on 12 pounds in that bloody tent. Prue put on a pound. A pound during Bake Off? That’s ridiculous."

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Hollywood added: "I am p***ed off this year for the first time about it, because I was doing really well.

"Lockdown was doing me good, not bad. But my exercise regime changed when I was in Bake Off because I wasn’t allowed to leave the bubble to cycle."

He said he cycled 10 miles every day prior to the filming and so struggled when this became impossible, especially because he was busy writing a book on his rest days outside of the tent.

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Hollywood teased that this year's crop of bakers is a particularly strong one, teasing an "incredible" standard of culinary creations "from the off".

"It starts like that and ends like that, it’s so consistent all the way through," he added.

The Great British Bake Off returns on 21 September, with a new crop of 12 bakers hoping to impress Hollywood and co-judge Dame Prue Leith.

The bakers include a Metropolitan Police detective, a 70-year-old retired nurse and a software developer.

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Last year's series of Bake Off — also carried out amid COVID-19 restrictions — was won by 20-year-old Peter Sawkins, who became the show's youngest ever champion.

The final scored a peak audience of 10.4 million viewers, with an average of 9.2m — the highest numbers since the show made the move from BBC One to Channel 4.

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