Sandi Toksvig says she left Bake Off because it stopped being fun
"I was literally standing there watching meringues dry and thinking, 'Oh my God, my brain is atrophying.'"
As Sandi Toksvig enters her eighth season of hosting QI, she has revealed the reason that she stopped presenting The Great British Bake Off after three years.
Being interviewed in this week's Radio Times magazine, Toksvig was asked whether she ever considers how long she has been presenting QI, which she started fronting in season N and which is now on season U.
She replied: "I’m still enjoying it, that’s the thing. To be honest, I left Bake Off because I stopped having fun. I was literally standing there watching meringues dry and thinking, 'Oh my God, my brain is atrophying.'
"So after three years, I thought, 'That’ll do, go and do something else!'
"I’m in love enough with the business to think, 'OK, that’s a nice pay cheque, but it doesn’t work for me. I’ll move on and do something else.'
"I hope QI will be one of my legacy projects. By the time we’ve finished the alphabet, I will have done exactly the same number as Stephen [Fry, former host]. We’ll have done half the alphabet each."
Toksvig hosted The Great British Bake Off when it first came to Channel 4 in 2017, alongside Noel Fielding.
Since then, Fielding has worked with three different co-hosts, after Toksvig left at the end of 2019 and was replaced by Matt Lucas, who himself left at the end of 2022, to be replaced by Alison Hammond.
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Before Toksvig took over, QI was fronted by Stephen Fry, who has recently returned to a hosting role with ITV's reboot of Jeopardy!.
He said of that series, which comes off the back of the successful US iteration: "The only real difference is that the UK version is a little longer with an extra round.
"The signature Jeopardy! oddity of the questions being answers and the responses having to be given in the form of questions remains the same.
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"I was fairly insistent from the outset that we shouldn't compromise on the standard or d***er about with the rules and procedures which are time-honoured and proven. Fortunately, ITV and Whisper, the production company behind the series, were in complete agreement."
The Great British Bake Off is available to stream on Channel 4. QI season U continues on Mondays at 10pm on BBC Two.
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
