The comedian and TV presenter on finding the confidence to write a novel after ‘bluffing it’ in TV for 30 years – and why, come spring, she still feels that Bake Off pang
Mel Giedroyc’s first novel, The Best Things, is published on April Fools’ Day. It was her family that pointed this out. “I’m such a dolt, I hadn’t cottoned on,” she laughs – although, comedian that she is, she thinks the date well chosen. April has always been important to her: it is the month when filming used to start for the BBC’s The Great British Bake Off, which she co-presented with her chum Sue Perkins (“Perks”), along with their other greatest hits such as Mel & Sue and Light Lunch. While she has no regrets about the decision to leave Bake Off, she will admit to “a pang” every spring: “As soon as the daffodils are out, especially on cold mornings when you’re hit by a nice patch of sun, I think of Mary, the tent, the excitement of meeting a new batch of bakers…”
Since Bake Off, Giedroyc has multitasked as a television presenter and today is particularly thrilled by her latest Channel 4 show, Good With Wood (Sundays, 8pm), a competition to find Britain’s best wood-worker. “I’m obsessed. Who knew that woodworking was such a brilliant, life-affirming pastime, with such wonderful people doing it?”
