Bake Off's Paul Hollywood jokes new judge has 'already beaten' Mary Berry and Prue Leith

And it isn't just the celebrities who are new to the tent, with brand new judge Caroline Waldegrave [Lady Waldegrave of North Hill] joining Paul Hollywood following Prue Leith's departure from the celebrity series.

Waldegrave is Leith's close friend and former co-owner and managing director of Leiths School of Food & Wine. She has also co-written a number of cookery books ,including Leiths Cookery Bible, Leiths Easy Dinner Parties and Leiths Seasonal Bible.

While Leith will be back for the civilian series later this year, Hollywood will be getting used to a brand new person by his side, which he had to do once before when Leith took over from Mary Berry in 2017.

Asked if Waldegrave had a hard time following in someone else's footsteps, Hollywood told Channel 4: "Yeah, but following in the footsteps of Dame Mary Berry and Dame Prue Leith, we have a Lady, so she's played the trump card from the off."

"From an aristocracy point of view, she's beaten the other two," he joked. "We were gonna call her Lady, but she said: 'No, no, no! I don't want to be called Lady!'"

To step into a new role on something as established as Bake Off, there are likely to be some nerves, but Waldegrave thankfully got on "really well" with Hollywood, Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding.

"Initially there were nerves," Hollywood explained. "You're dealing with Alison, who's like a bouncing ball. Noel, who's been around since medieval times and me, who's been here since the year dot with Bake Off."

He continued: "It's quite daunting, but Caroline's knowledge is unsurpassable. Within the first couple of hours, she'd settled right in. We're all pretty open and get on with everybody in the tent whoever joins us. There's a sort of collective hug."

Waldegrave has been a teacher at Leiths School of Food and Wine and the Dudwell Cookery School for 40 years, but there was a slither of advice that Hollywood did impart on Waldegrave when it came to filming.

He explained: "The only thing I've ever said to Prue and everybody is: 'Just be yourself, just be as natural as possible, just be your normal off-camera self on camera.'

I always try to be that. The guy people meet on camera is exactly the same guy you meet off camera... although there's a slight difference because I'm not eating cake!"

The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer starts 7:40pm Sunday 16th March on Channel 4.

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