Sue Perkins: we use innuendos to calm the Bake Off contestants down

But it turns out the real reason behind the pair's racy asides is to reduce heart rates among stressed bakers as they negotiate elbowed muffins and stolen custard. "We use the innuendos as a way of calming down the wonderful contestants," Sue tells RadioTimes.com. "I'll go up and just be smutty because it's a way of defusing tension.

"There's a lot of tension. I'm very used to the vocabulary of television and how insane it is. You take people who've never done it before and obviously it's very, very frightening. I suppose I use that quintessential British smuttiness as a way of defusing any kind of anxiety and to make them understand that I'm just an idiot, which I am."

The host of More4's Cooks' Questions also went on to berate the effects of munching on baking products during filming of the ten-part series. "What I need is the BBC to invent The Great British Diet Off and I can present that and lose the volume of mass that show's given me.

"The rumour has gotten around that I'm actually pregnant. I thought I'd let it play out because it's hilarious and then my mum rang me and said, 'There's a woman at choir who says you're pregnant.' I thought, right, if it's hit a small amateur singing group in Croydon it's time to stop working because that's basically what I do – I run around eating."

Cooks' Questions is on Mondays at 9pm on More4

The Great British Bake Off begins tonight at 8pm on the show's new home, BBC1

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