Interview with Harry Hill

This is your seventh series hosting Junior Bake Off. What keeps bringing you back?

Well, it’s always different, because you never know what you’re going to get with kids. It’s a nice crew, it’s a fun show, and a lot of the time I don’t have to write scripts and stuff. I said yes to it in the first instance because the only things I’d ever really done had been heavily scripted by me, so it was a bit of a challenge to just be talking off the top of my head for a couple of hours with children. And, actually, it’s a lot of fun.

Your role, obviously, is to present, but also to put the kids at ease and help them to cope. Do those twin responsibilities sometimes conflict with each other?

No, I wouldn’t say so. I kind of see myself as a way of distracting them from the stress of it, and trying to just keep it playful. I don’t think I always succeed in that, but the idea is to remind them to have fun. Of course it’s a baking show, but to me it’s more about what children are like. It’s about the constant surprises and fun of kids.

Do you modify your approach to each baker, depending on what they’re like?

Yeah, for sure. Some of them might be neurodiverse, and there might be particular subjects you want to steer clear of. What surprises me is that every year I get sent a list and little photographs of the kids, and their audition tapes, and I always think “I’ll never remember their names!” And there’s nothing worse than turning up and not being able to remember a kid’s name. But what’s surprising is you get to know them all really quickly, because kids are so open and up for it. And by series seven, they feel they know me, because they’ve watched it. In the first series, a lot of them didn’t know who I was. Now they know me, they know my angle and approach – as a silly idiot who mucks about. They know what to expect, and I think that’s a shortcut for me. It helps a lot.

Do you find their confidence and cheekiness increases as the series goes on, and they get more comfortable both with you and in front of the cameras?

Oh definitely. They get confident after the first couple of days, By the time they come back for the third day, it’s like we’re old friends. But they’re all really different. If you have one or two big personalities who are a bit naughty, that can swing the whole lot that way. And similarly, if you get a bunch where there’s quite a serious baker or two, that can make them all behave a bit more seriously themselves. So it’s an interesting dynamic.

What can we expect from new series?

More of the same!

What’s the standard like this year?

Of the baking? I don’t really take any interest in the standard of baking. It’s more fun for me if they’re not very good at it. The best ones for me are the bakers who are really good fun, and they appear haphazard, and then they turn out something really fantastic. There’s a few of those this year. You think “How did they manage to pull that off?” Or they’ll make something that’ll look like a bit of a mess, and the judges will eat it and it’ll taste fantastic. That’s always a really great moment. The surprises.

Does it get increasingly difficult to come up with new ways of doing your sketches and links and time calls?

At the start of every series, I have to write 150 jokes about cakes and pastry and buns and stuff, and I always think “Oh god, I’ll never be able to do it.” So it’s always a surprise when I eventually manage it.

Do you always write them in advance, or do you sometimes come up with them on the day?

You have to do them in advance, maybe a couple of weeks before filming, because you have to get the props together and stuff. We don’t have a massive budget for props and costumes, so often I’ll google something I might need, and send an Amazon link to the production team. There’s a dog puppet we use quite a lot that’s £40 on Amazon. Or they might come back to me and say “We don’t have the budget for a bear costume,” and I’ll say “Well, I’ve got a bear costume.” I’ve got a lock-up full of props and costumes, and so I’ll quite often raid that. I’ve just finished a big tour, so I’ve got a few props that we used on that.

What were your favourite challenges in the series?

The funny ones to me are where they have to make their role model, they have to make the face of a well-known person out of bread. It’s meant to be a tribute to this person, but I’m not sure the results are always massively flattering. So that’s always fun. The showstoppers where they have to create something out of their own minds are always great. The other interesting thing to me is, in the challenges, we’ll go round the bakers, and Liam and Rav will say “are you sure you’re not going to do this, or add this to it?” And they’ll go “No, I’m not going to.” And Rav will say “Are you not worried that that’s going to taste acidic or soapy or something?” And they’ll say “Oh no, no, I’m not worried about it at all.” They don’t pick up those hints whereas an adult would be a bit more aware. It’s fascinating.

In another episode, they had to create cakes illustrating their worst nightmares. What would you have made, if given a similar brief?

I have a recurring nightmare where you can’t remember your words. You’re about to go on in a play – not that I’ve ever been in a play – and I’m just wandering around backstage, and someone comes and says “Quick, you’re on!” And I haven’t got a clue what I’m meant to say. So mine is a literal nightmare.

What was the final like?

The final was a funny one. You’d think it would be high pressure, but actually everyone comes in quite relaxed. It’s an odd thing, and I’m surprised, really.  By then, they’re pleased they’ve got to the final, they’re excited about their friends and family turning up, and there’s not quite the same anxiety as there seems to be on the last day of each heat, I would say. There’s really quite a celebration feel to it. And I also think part of them is relieved it’s coming to an end. It’s quite a commitment from these kids. They have a week there, and if they’re successful, they come back from another week. And if you’re from Northern Ireland or Scotland or Newcastle or Cornwall, that’s a hell of a trip. And they come with a parent, but they may never have been away from home for that long before.

The show is all about kindness. Do you feel that message is more important than ever, in our fractured, noisy world?

Of course, yeah. But I think what’s interesting is that you get that with this show in a way that you maybe don’t with other reality shows. And I think part of that is that the kids have watched this show, and they’ve seen kids helping each other out, and they know that that’s a good thing to do. And I’ve noticed it’s happened a lot more in the last couple of years. Someone will finish early, and they’ll say “Does anyone need any help?” And I think it’s because they’ve seen people do that before, and it’s become almost a piece of the show. And if that can translate in any way into real life, I think that’s a great thing.

Do you cook or bake much in everyday life?

No. I don’t bake at all. During the second series, I tried to make Viennese Whirls, and I burnt them. And in the first lockdown I tried to make Focaccia with my daughter, and I forgot to put the olive oil in. So I then tried to add it afterwards, after I’d made the dough, and I was trying to rub the oil in, and it turned into a slimy mess. I don’t do much cooking outside of what you might call meat-and-two-veg. Roast dinners.

Are you conscious of not over-indulging on sweet treats during filming?

I’ve given up trying to resist them, and I always put on half-a-stone during filming. I always start with the best intentions, but Rav’s very naughty. There isn’t actually a bit where I am supposed to try any of these things – that’s the judges’ job, I just stand there like a lemon – but what she’ll do is say “Oh, I’m going to take another slice of that for later.” Which means that it’s for me. And then I’ll eat it while they’re trying to make up their minds about who’s going to go home and who’s star baker.

Do they ever ask you for your thoughts?

No, but sometimes I do pile in. What often happens is it’ll come down to a choice between two bakers, and I always want the funny ones to stay. But even then, what usually happens is if they don’t go that episode, they end up going in the following one. But I don’t have any influence on it. I’ll say “Oh no, don’t let him go, he’s great fun,” but it doesn’t make any impression on them at all. They’re quite rigorous about it.

Do you think you’re more in touch with young people and what they’re into because of this job?

Yeah. But then again, it’s not a normal cross-section of kids we’re talking about. They’re slightly unusual in that they all play the cello or knit or something. They don’t just sit at home scrolling. But it certainly keeps me young. It’s the same working with Liam. He’s only 28. He’s the same age as my daughter. I’m always trying to marry him off to one of my kids. And Rav’s only in her 30s. I’m pretty much the oldest person on the set now.

Indeed, to mark you turning 60, you embarked on a big nationwide tour in 2025. How was that?

it was great fun, actually. I think it’s the best tour I’ve ever done. And the longest – 80 dates. It felt like an awful lot at the start, but actually it went by really quickly. I even enjoyed the travelling – going round seeing different parts of the country. It was nice touring from February to June, you get to see the seasons change. It was really great fun.

What do you tend to eat when you’re on the road? Is it late night takeaways in your hotel room?

The headline would be sandwiches. The problem we’ve got is that it’s really difficult to get anything to eat in a lot of hotels after about 8pm or 9pm. But they will make you sandwiches and leave them out for when you come back. The alternative is a curry. Or you can buy sandwiches from M&S. But there’s no other way of getting food that late. It’s a constant obsession: “Where are we going to eat?” “What are we going to eat?” I don’t want to eat before I go on, I have to eat afterwards.

You did Desert Island Discs this year. What was that like?

I was first asked to do it about 15 years ago, but it felt like I hadn’t really done anything much by then. But actually, being a bit old, I felt ready to do it. I was determined not to take it too seriously, and just have fun with it. Because the temptation is to try to engineer it so you come across in a particular way – as edgy, or well-versed in all types of world music – but actually the tracks I chose just reminded me of particular people, really.

Are you still painting? What do you get from doing that?

I get a bit of peace and quiet, the same way anyone does from crafts or arty pursuits. I think people get the same thing from running. You’re just doing one thing, and you lose yourself in it completely. If you’re someone like me, who is constantly churning around ideas… Us comics are guilty of not being able to sit still, we’re constantly thinking “Oh, there’s a joke there”. So I get an enormous amount out of it.