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Word from The Great British Bake Off set is that new presenter Nigella Lawson and veteran presenter Paul Hollywood are getting on like cold eggs and warm butter. Lawson has reportedly labelled her Bake Off co-star Paul Hollywood “cringe” – which suggests, among other things, that she had never watched a minute of Hollywood at work before signing up for the show.
This, obviously, makes us want to watch the new Bake Off all the more. When presenting teams fall out, it can lead to some of the juiciest TV of all, like a nice family dinner before the kids are told about the divorce. Here, we list some of the best behind-the-scenes (and sometimes in front of the cameras) fallouts on British television and radio.
Quentin Willson and Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear
1991-98
When the former Top Gear presenter died last November, Jeremy Clarkson was the first to pay tribute. But when they worked together on the BBC series in the mid-1990s, Willson, a Leicester-born motoring journalist, regularly referred to “the tall fella” (Clarkson) as “a very difficult bloke to work with” and, euphemistically, “a challenge”. Notably, their views on fossil fuels and the future of motoring were opposed, with Willson repeatedly calling Clarkson “rooted in the past”. While Willson escaped to Channel 5’s Fifth Gear in the early 2000s, Clarkson confirmed that assessment of being “a challenge” by punching a producer in 2015 after he failed to provide him with a steak supper.
Mark Lamarr and Terry Christian on The Word
1992-94
Both of the original presenters of the chaotic Nineties magazine show, the posh Amanda de Cadenet and Mancunian Terry Christian, were meant to get up people’s noses – but Terry Christian getting up the nose of his co-presenter Mark Lamarr was not part of the plan. Nonetheless, when a fierce rivalry sprang up between the pair – one that became obvious on screen as well as in the tabloids – it only added to the show’s anarchic edge. At one post-recording party, producer Charlie Parsons said he had to separate the two when they came to blows. Reflecting on the programme after he quit, Lamarr rued: “I’m sure if I watched the show now, all I’d see is a man trying too hard to distance himself. I didn’t want to be known as one of these Word people.” It turns out he wouldn’t do anything to be on TV.
Eamonn Holmes and Anthea Turner on GMTV
1994-96
When your co-host gives you a nickname that somehow finds its way into the papers, you have a problem. That’s what happened in the mid-1990s with Anthea “Princess Tippy Toes” Turner and Eamonn Holmes on the ITV breakfast show as part of a bitter feud. Their backstage rows turned so nasty that, in 1996, Holmes gave producers an ultimatum: he would leave if Turner weren’t axed from the show. A decade later, the pair claimed their warring was behind them. Last year, they posed together, beaming, on Instagram, with Holmes adding a line that attempted to gallantly compliment his princess’s looks: “We’re the same age… but my paper round must have been harder than hers!”
Patrick Kielty and Richard Parks on Fame Academy
2003
As the BBC’s rival to Pop Idol struggled in the ratings, the stress started to show. Fame Academy’s stern headteacher Richard Parks began to take pot shots at its cheery presenter, Patrick Kielty. “He is there to host the show, but he is desperate to voice an opinion,” Parks told Radio 5 Live. Reports at the time said the two had asked to have their dressing rooms moved further apart, while it emerged that they had never spoken to each other outside the TV studio. Most notoriously, in an episode that prompted complaints to Ofcom, Parks was caught on camera making a hand gesture and mouthing the word “w-----” at Kielty.
Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton/Holly Willoughby on This Morning
2002-09/2009-23
Beware the leaked nickname (see Anthea Turner, above)! When it somehow emerged that Philip Schofield referred to Fern Britton as “Minty M-nge”, it was the final nail in the coffin for an on-screen relationship that had bestrode daytime telly for seven years. Fern quit that year after a blazing row in the make-up room over Phil’s supposed “meddling” in the content of an episode. Things didn’t go much better with Fern’s replacement, Holly Willoughby. When Schofield admitted to an affair with a “much younger” colleague, he had lied to Willoughby about what had happened. Their relationship, on screen and off, was broken beyond repair.
Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie on How Clean is Your House?
2003-09
A series about dirty linen contained plenty of its own – star presenters Kim and Aggie never liked each other, although they always claimed it was the “friction” that made the Channel 4 show a success. In 2007, they had a major falling out while doing panto together and didn’t speak for the next 12 years. In 2023, Aggie claimed that Kim was the aggressor: “I think for her it’s kind of normal to have conflict, and I think that if things are calm and easy, she found that quite difficult. That’s not me. I like it easy-peasy.” Sadly, lemon-squeezy cream cleaner was the nearest they got.
John Torode and Gregg Wallace on MasterChef
2005-25
The signs were there – although Wallace and Torode were co-hosts of the hit cooking show for 20 years, on camera they somehow rarely appeared in the same shot, with conversations between the two always looking as though they’d been spliced together. In 2017, after Wallace gave an interview describing how apparently close the two were, Torode issued what amounted to a denial: “We’ve not been to each other’s houses ... If we do go out for a drink, I’ll invariably be at one end of a big old table and he’ll be at the other.” When allegations against Wallace emerged in 2024, Torode never once backed his co-host, and in the subsequent reporting the BBC was told that Wallace was briefing against his former co-presenter. TV fall-outs don’t get much tougher than this.
Sharon Osbourne and Dannii Minogue/Cheryl and Mel B on The X Factor
2007/2014
The X Factor loved a judges’ spat as much as it loved a hilariously bad audition, but although Sharon Osbourne fell out with Dannii Minogue (“I feel bad for her because she knows she’s there because of her looks, not for her musical contributions to the music industry...” Osbourne told Graham Norton in 2007), the show’s greatest feud was between former girl band members Cheryl and Mel B. Their rivalry peaked in 2014 with a much-publicised backstage stand-off after Mel rejected one of Cheryl’s acts. “A lot of the stuff she says I couldn’t bring myself to say,” said Cheryl of Mel. Perhaps such as Mel’s reply when asked about the former Girls Aloud singer in an earlier interview: “Who’s Cheryl Cole?”
Rachel Riley and Anne Robinson on Countdown
2021-22
Anne Robinson was known for her sharp tongue as host of The Weakest Link, but when she took over Countdown in 2021, she turned it on series regular Rachel Riley. There were clashes on set and tension that only grew, even after Robinson left, having spent only a year in the chair. Indeed, it continues to this day. Last year, Robinson told this paper: “Rachel was a bit talkative when I was interviewing the contestants, but once we shut her up it was fine.” To which Riley responded: “If Anne needs to mention me for publicity, then good luck to her.” Now make a four-letter word from the letters D, U, F and E.
Emma Barnett and Nick Robinson on Today
2024-ongoing
When it emerged last year that Emma Barnett, the newish kid on the block, and Robinson, the old leviathan, had somehow managed to avoid presenting together for several months, that dreaded word, “friction”, was suddenly all over the airwaves. Reports suggested that Barnett had complained to BBC managers that Robinson was “overbearing”. Barnett was instead being paired with Justin Webb or Amol Rajan to keep things “amicable”. Robinson, for his part, denied the rumours: “We all present with each other, and we will all present with each other from now on. We all love each other!” Which, as a sentiment, is about as convincing as Thought for the Day.
The Great British Bake Off returns to Channel 4 in the autumn.
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