When Channel 4 nabbed The Great British Bake Off from the BBC back in 2016, hosts Mel and Sue decided not to 'go with the dough' and bowed out, along with judge Mary Berry.

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Fellow judge Paul Hollywood was the only member of the original on-screen team to follow the show and got a lot of stick from viewers accusing him of being disloyal or mercenary.

A year later, and after a successful first series on Channel 4, those accusations clearly still rankle.

“I stayed with Bake Off. The girls abandoned it. But I was the one put under siege," says Hollywood in an interview in the new issue of Radio Times.

"I became the most hated man in the country! It’s not fun for someone that doesn’t like being in the limelight. I didn’t set out to be on the telly, I set out to be a good baker. And I didn’t want this...”

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Hollywood also talks about comparisons with Simon Cowell – "I'm much stronger than him" – and that Twitter gaffe from co-judge Prue Leith...

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Read the full interview with Paul Hollywood in the new issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale from Tuesday

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