Dame Kelly Holmes: "Baking is a skill I have never had!"

Virgin Radio

14 Mar 2021, 12:53

The Great British Bake-Off is always a highlight of the TV calendar, and the celebrity version is no exception.

Dame Kelly Holmes took part in The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer, and she appears this week along with James McAvoy, David Baddiel and Anne-Marie. She’s known for winning medals for her athletic career, but could she win the coveted Star Baker apron? She joined the Graham Norton Radio Show to tell us all about it. 

“I have a really sweet tooth, but baking is a skill I have never had,” she laughs. “After the show, I'm not sure if I still do have! But I really enjoyed it. I do have a sweet tooth but I've never really been into cakes and baking, but my Mum was, hence why I decided to go on the show.”

Dame Kelly says she wanted to do the show as she has many fond memories of baking with her beloved Mum. “She would never have imagined me going on! She liked baking, and she made Eton messes, which is the meringue with strawberries and all of that.”

“I know, my mum would never ever imagine me on that show. I could just imagine her laughing her head off that I would be on it, so I decided to do it. I have no experience. I took a picture of my mother there too because I did an Eton mess tart” she recalls.

The show is raising money for Stand Up To Cancer and it’s a cause Kelly was keen to get behind: “It’s such a great cause. A lot of people have been affected by cancer of some kind in their life or know somebody. For me, it was about going on there because of the cause and also doing something with my mum in mind and just knowing that she would be laughing, and it made me laugh more than anything.”

James McAvoy was also in the tent, and Kelly thinks he’d been getting in the practice: “He must have had some secret training,” she jokes. “You know when you look at your opposition like you would on the track? Ooh, he’s good. I could just tell, he was so calm.”

She says the whole experience was overwhelming: “Most places you see on television look bigger than they are. Now, this looks huge. You get given this station, I was so excited like a little giggly kid. Then it kind of dawned on me that I actually had to do something,” she laughs.

A friend came round to help Kelly practice her baking: “We were there for hours, like literally hours and I finished it. I'm telling you if I put the pictures of what happened that day up they look like I am a pro. I turn up a week later, it’s a different story,” she laughs.

We can’t wait to see it.

Watch The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer on Tuesday, 8pm on Channel 4.