What next for the Great British Bake Off now three of its four stars have quit the show ahead of its move from the BBC to Channel 4, asks Hannah Chapman

YESTERDAY’S news that Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry will no longer appear together on the Great British Bake Off is the biggest celebrity break-up since, well, Tuesday, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced they are going their separate ways.

Hollywood will follow the programme to Channel 4, which has paid a reported £75m for a three-year deal to secure the rights, while Berry will stay with the BBC.

Presenters Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc had already confirmed they would not be making the switch.

So, can the show survive without three quarters of its main presenting line up?

The more cynical online observers have suggested that all Channel 4 have in return for their £75m is a tent and a Liverpudlian bread maker.

But Jay Hunt, chief creative officer at Channel 4, insists the show will be in safe hands. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, she reassures viewers: “Great British Bake Off will have a safe home. The show of soggy bottoms and good crumb will be made by exactly the same team who have always made it. We love it just as it is.”

Love Productions, which makes the show, has also stressed that the format will not change, with creative director Richard McKerrow saying: “Bake Off will be produced by the same team, in the same tent, with the same recipe.”

But fans fear that without the warm wit of Perkins and Giedroyc, and the reassuring presence of 81-year-old Berry, who qualified for official National Treasure status some years ago, Bake Off will just not be the same.

Comments on social media yesterday included: “Not watching Bake Off just for Paul Hollywood. It’s all four of them or nothing,” from Andy Jacksson, while Colin Bell said: “Can’t believe I’m going to have to get Paul Hollywood removed from my tattoo of the Bake Off team. Who’s paying for that?”

Even This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield chimed in: “Mary Berry quits Bake Off ... clang went the wheels as they all fell off.”

MARY BERRY won viewers’ hearts on the show with her hatred of “soggy bottoms”, her floral blazers and her encyclopaedic knowledge of baking.

She brought more than six decades of experience in the kitchen, and the authority that gives her will be hard to replace.

It will also be difficult for a new judge to replicate her easy on-screen rapport with 50-year-old Hollywood, who sent Twitter into meltdown during Wednesday’s episode when he referred to Berry as “Bezza”.

Perhaps Hollywood feels that sticking with the show, which attracts an audience of 10 million in its current home on BBC1 and made him a household name, is less of risk than walking away, after getting his fingers burnt trying a new venture once before.

On the back of Bake Off’s success, he set out to conquer the US with The American Baking Competition.

However, the show was cancelled after one series and also led to marriage trouble for Hollywood, after he embarked on an alleged affair with his co-judge. He and wife Alexandra are now reconciled.

The bookies’ favourites to replace Giedroyc, Perkins and Berry in the Bake Off tent include last year’s winner Nadiya Hussain and TV chefs Jamie Oliver, James Martin, Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson, as well as presenters Lisa Faulkner and Kirstie Allsopp. Davina McCall has already ruled herself out.

Whoever takes the bait should perhaps be wary of the recent goings on at Top Gear. Many fans were left unsure about the merits of trying a completely new line up of presenters in the same format that the previous, hugely successful team had made their own.

Still, the fact remains that 10 million people will tune in to watch a programme about enthusiastic amateur bakers making Bakewell tarts in a tent. Whatever the future holds, finding presenters who can tap into that understated charm will surely be the key.