Noel Fielding will return to host this year’s Great British Bake Off, according to his spokeswoman.
Questions had emerged over whether Fielding would present Channel 4‘s most popular show following the revelation last week that his Apple TV+ comedy The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin was being scrapped after Fielding pulled out around three-quarters of the way through the shoot. That show will not be salvaged and reports stated that Fielding had “failed to come to work.”
Fielding’s spokeswoman has since issued a statement saying: “There has been absolutely no discussion about Noel stepping down from Bake Off. We have been in contact with Channel 4 and Love Productions throughout all the speculation and his ‘stepping down’ has never been part of that dialogue. We can confirm he will be returning to co-host the next series of Bake Off.”
Love Productions, which makes Bake Off (titled The Great British Baking Show on Netflix), is also understood to fully expect Fielding to return. Channel 4 declined comment.
Fielding, who broke out on The Mighty Boosh, has presented Bake Off since 2017. He has missed filming in the past, including being absent for some of the Bake Off finale in 2022 because of illness. His Bake Off hire was rubberstamped by then-Channel 4 content chief Jay Hunt, who subsequently greenlit the Turpin series at Apple.
His departure from Turpin came out of the blue. Producer Big Talk is currently picking up the pieces of the multi-million-dollar shutdown, including informing an array of British acting talent that their performances are unlikely to ever be seen on Apple TV+. Stars who signed up for Season 2 included Jason Isaacs, Dawn French, Miranda Richardson, and Jamie and Natasia Demetriou.