Mary Berry says adverts might be putting people off The Great British Bake Off

MARY BERRY has said adverts may be putting people off the rebooted version of the Great British Bake Off.

The TV cook heaped praise on the show’s Prue Leith – who replaced Berry on the popular programme after she quit when producers Love Productions announced they were leaving the BBC for Channel 4.

Berry, 82, told Good Housekeeping magazine: “If I could have chosen someone to take my place, and if they’d given me all the cookery writers set in a row, I would have said that Prue (Leith) would be the one.”

She said the new presenters, Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, were doing a “good job” but added: “It’s just people get a bit crabby about the ads.”

“I did seven years and loved every minute of it. But you have to go some time, don’t you?

“It is all about the brilliant format. All the family can watch and there’s no bad language. It has continued in exactly the same format and place,” Berry said.

Earlier this year, 2015 winner Nadiya Hussain confessed to recording the show to skip all the adverts.

Love Productions sold Bake Off to Channel 4 after seven series on the BBC with presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins as well as Berry opting to leave the series following its move.

Berry also spoke about her annoyance over fad diets such as clean eating, explaining: “It’s really about eating a balanced diet. You are what you eat.

“Everybody wants smoothies, but I’d rather have the texture of vegetables and fruits. If you want to have kale and spinach made into a smoothie, you have it. But for me, I just want a balanced diet – fruit, veg, meat and fish.”

The full interview appears in the October issue of Good Housekeeping out on December 8.