Mary Berry quits the Great British Bake Off: Who will replace her and join Paul Hollywood?

Just imagine the potential for innuendos if Nigella gets the gig

Mary Berry attends the Baftas with last year's Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain (Getty Images)

So that’s that, Mary Berry is hot-footing it out of The Great British Bake Off tent along with Mel and Sue, sending Britain into understandable meltdown this morning.

Her co-judge Paul Hollywood, meanwhile, has controversially signed a three-series deal to remain with the much-loved baking show when it moves to Channel 4 next year. They had fronted Bake Off together since its launch in 2010 and Twitter has already labelled him ‘the Judas’, so you don’t have to.

Call it too soon in between your sobs, but our thoughts have naturally started wandering to who could, erm, replace (sorry!), Bezza in the tent. Jo Brand and Miranda Hart are our favourites to take over hosting duties, but what about the missing extra judge?

It remains to be seen whether Channel 4 will leave Paul to go it alone or not, but if they get another baker on board, here’s who we think it might be:

Nadiya Hussain

Nadiya Hussain (Getty)

Nadiya won last year’s Bake Off and won over the nation with her good humour and impressive range of facial expressions. She baked the Queen’s 90th birthday cake (the wonky one, bless her) and has appeared on TV since, most notably in her own series The Chronicles of Nadiya.

James Martin

British celebrity chef Martin is best known for presenting BBC cookery show Saturday Kitchen, so it seems unlikely that he would jump ship into the arms of Channel 4. Don’t rule him out just yet though, especially for a rival baking show we suspect might be the works at the Beeb…

Nigella Lawson

(BBC)

Nigella is easily one of the public’s favourite celebrity chefs, although she hates being described like that as she has never had cookery training. Just think of the innuendos potential.

Delia Smith

Smith could be the perfect replacement for Berry. She’s a traditional cook who the people already know and love, thanks to her Seventies cookery shows. Smith did say a few years ago however that she would never make another programme again because she was fed up of having to “entertain”.

Jamie Oliver

(Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images)

The Naked Chef was a contender, but he ruled himself out recently saying he “hasn’t got the time even if he wanted to do it”. He also said Mary is a “legend”, so her not being in it anymore probably means it’s a definite no.

Lisa Faulkner

Sure, she’s best known as a TV actress, but Faulkner won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010 and has recently published her third cookery book, Tea & Cake. She is currently in a relationship with MasterChef host John Torode so hey, maybe they should just both oust Paul and judge the Bake Off together.

Or just don’t replace her. Most Bake Off fans think the show is “dead” already, anyway.