From Nigella to Nadiya, who will replace Prue Leith on Bake Off?

Who will replace Prue Leith on The Great British Bake Off? Rumours are rife over the identity of Leith’s successor, following the announcement on Wednesday that the celebrity cook will be stepping down from her judging duties on the show after nine years.

In a light-hearted statement, Leith said: “Now feels like the right time to step back (I’m 86 for goodness sake!). There’s so much I’d like to do, not least spend summers enjoying my garden.”

She also praised the series and her castmates. “Bake Off has been a fabulous part of my life for the last nine years. I have genuinely loved it and I’m sure I’ll miss working with my fellow judge Paul [Hollywood], Alison [Hammond] and Noel [Fielding] and the teams at Love Productions and Channel 4.”

Sixteen series in, The Great British Bake Off is a well-oiled machine, having survived the previous exits of hosts Sue Perkins, Mel Giedroyc, Sandi Toksvig and Matt Lucas, as well as original judge Mary Berry (Leith replaced her in 2017). But a major revamp couldn’t do any harm, could it?

Luckily, many are already theorising about the five names who could take over from Leith – and provide the most significant shake-up for the show in nearly a decade.

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The cookery writer Caroline Waldegrave is the managing director of Leith’s cooking school and was previously the principal of the school from 1975 to 2002. She’s currently the bookies’ favourite to replace Leith as a result, and has Bake Off experience: she stood in for Leith, her real-life BFF, early last year as Paul Hollywood’s co-judge for Celebrity Bake Off.

The only slight issue here is that Waldegrave is more or less exactly like Prue Leith, and it might not be in Channel 4’s best interests to play things safe.

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Here’s where things get interesting. Tabloid reports claim that Nigella Lawson is in the “final stages” of discussions with the show about replacing Leith, with a supposed TV insider telling The Sun: “Nigella’s recognised worldwide. She’s got the cheeky banter down to a tee, with all her work laden with the fun innuendos and naughty patter that are synonymous with Bake Off.”

Sure! Where this doesn’t quite stack up, though, is that Lawson, for all her poshness, is also glam, worldly and cosmopolitan in a way that will probably clash with the cosy, jolly-hockey-sticks middle-Englishness of Bake Off. Selfishly, I’d also like her to just do more of her own shows, which are reliably funny and warm and dazzling, rather than spend months in the Bake Off tent listening to Hollywood pontificate.

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The pastry chef Ravneet Gill has judged Junior Bake Off since 2021 – having replaced Leith there – so it’s not an enormous leap to theorise she could judge the main Bake Off, too. Secretly, Junior Bake Off has been substantially more fun and less tired than its sister show for years, so Gill would be a real asset to it. (Likewise Junior Bake Off host Harry Hill, too.)

However, Gill has previously poured water on the suggestion of jumping ship. She said last year, after Leith stood back from the celebrity edition of the show, that she’s “too busy” for the job, adding: “I’m sure they’ve filled the position already, let’s just say. I’m sure they’ve got a roster of people waiting for that job. I’m really happy on the kids [Bake Off] to be honest. I love the kids.”

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Bake Off’s only legitimate superstar creation, series six winner Nadiya Hussain, has been rumoured as a new judge or a new host several times over by this point. For a while, it made sense why she didn’t – she had her own BBC cookery show, after all – but since the BBC decided not to renew her series (a decision met with understandable public upset by Hussain herself), her time is free for a big comeback. And she’d be great at it! If not exactly the new blood Channel 4 might be looking for.

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Currently, with odds of 100-1, is the man of the moment, Brooklyn Beckham! Which, yes, obviously absurd. But wouldn’t absolutely everyone watch this? Beckham is a man who knows all about… sausage sandwiches? Occasional kitchen activity? He seems very settled in America now, but perhaps he’d like to jump back to Britain for a few months – bring Nicola along! – to become the face of one of our biggest and most recognisable TV shows. “The Brooklyn handshake” – you can just picture it, can’t you? (No, you can’t, but let us have fun!)