From Cambridge Footlights to a certain BBC baking show loved by millions, Sue Perkins has had a varied career. Here she gives an insight into her life, loves and Bake Off co-stars.

As another hugely successful series of The Great British Bake Off comes to an end, presenter Sue Perkins is keen to set the record straight – the revered “male judge” is a softy at heart.

“I adore Paul Hollywood,” she enthuses. “He’s a really sensitive, decent man, which doesn’t always come across on television. But he’s not been picked to judge Bake Off because he’s sensitive or funny; he’s been picked because he knows exactly what’s required in professional baking.”

A whopping 14.5 million viewers tuned in to see an emotional Nadiya Hussain crowned the winner of this year’s series, making the Bake Off final the most watched TV show of the year.

Even Mary Berry had a tear in her eye at the end – so what’s she really like?

“Mary loves a tipple, but within reason,” Perkins, 46, says. “She’s hardly a drunk. She’s so demure. It’s like having the Queen as a mate. She’s a true lady.”

New book

Perkins’ own life is as multi-layered as the cakes she presides over on the hit BBC show – much of which she reveals in her new memoir Spectacles.

The book documents times of deep sadness, but also has plenty of funny anecdotes.

For instance, when she started dating actress and presenter Emma Kennedy (herself the subject of a BBC comedy), she imagined what her mother would say when she came out – Mother: “Oh God, I’m in shock. I’m going into shock. I can’t believe it… I guess my initial worry is that now you’re a lesbian, you’ll have to spend the rest of your life in a fleece.”

However, the real conversation wasn’t nearly as dramatic. An anxious Perkins asked her mother if she could come home to talk to her about something. The response was: “Is it about you being gay? Fine, well, just whenever you like, no rush.”

Perkins, who is now in a relationship with Channel 4 presenter Anna Richardson, recently revealed she has been living with a brain tumour for eight years, which has resulted in her being unable to have children.

In the book, she says that, after telling the consultant she was gay, he said: “Well that makes it easier. You’re infertile. You can’t have kids.”

Meeting Mel

Born in Croydon, Perkins – the daughter of a car dealer – says she suffered from shyness as a child, and had a slight stammer.

“I couldn’t look people in the eye and felt awkward and weird, but underneath that there’s this much more fluid, open human being desperate to come out. I’ve sort of cracked it with age.”

Joining Cambridge Footlights while studying at Cambridge University helped her come out of her shell, and it was there that she met comedy partner Mel Giedroyc in 1988.

As well as continuing to work with Giedroyc, Perkins has some solo projects in the pipeline. She is to make a travel series for BBC2 and plans to write another book.

“I’m attracted to fear and pushing myself,” she says. “There are lots of things in my life that I’ve done that weren’t comfortable, but they’ve always turned out to be the most rewarding.”

She may have fingers in other pies, but wherever she goes she won’t escape shouts of “Bake!”