Is Prue Leith Bake Off’s new Mary?

Speculation is swirling that cookery expert Prue Leith is to step into Mary Berry’s shoes on The Great British Bake Off when it begins afresh on Channel 4.

According to The Sun, the 76-year-old food critic and campaigner will join Paul Hollywood on the revamped show.

Leith, who has written seven novels, previously spent 11 years as judge on BBC Two’s The Great British Menu.

Channel 4 said it would be announcing the programme’s line-up “in due course”.

Leith’s agent confirmed to the BBC that she was interviewed for a job on show at the end of last month.

But she said neither she nor Leith had received an offer from the show’s producers so far.

Last month Berry was named best TV judge at the National Television Awards

The Great British Bake Off has been without one of its judges since Berry, 81, confirmed she would not be following the show to its new home.

Co-hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins also said they would not be “going with the dough“, leaving Hollywood as the lone holdover from the BBC’s version.

Born in South Africa in 1940, Prudence “Prue” Leith learned to cook at Le Cordon Bleu in London and opened her first restaurant in 1969.

She was made an OBE in 1989, a CBE in 2010 and is the chancellor of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.

BBC