Former Great British Bake Off finalist Richard Burr has hit out at newspapers as "horrible" for dredging up candidates' past.
Mat Riley, one of this year's contestants, was revealed as having been involved in a fatal car crash that saw him given a one-year ban for careless driving while another, 49-year-old Sandy Docherty, was exposed for having a 10-year affair with a married primary school headmaster.
"(The papers) were horrible to Sandy, bringing up her past," said Burr. "I think Mat coped very well with people dredging up his past. I don't think he would have gone on (the show) if he wasn't able to deal with what people might say."
The 39-year-old builder was forced to defend himself during the previous series when he was accused of not working on a building site.
The finalist, who came runner-up with Luis Troyano to Nancy Birtwhistle, responded to accusations that he only had a "managerial role" by posting a picture of himself and his father repairing a roof with the joking hashtag #massivetoffs.
"I've been really lucky. The worst I got was the papers trying to pretend I was a toff and wandering around all the builders merchants here trying to ask if I work," he said.
"What can you do? You could make the most perfect beautiful signature and there'd be someone willing to taint it for a few column inches. I try and take it all with a pinch of salt," he added.
Despite being busy since he released his first cookbook, BIY: Bake It Yourself, in August, Burr said that he still gets on site two days a week and that his work had helped him slim down after gaining a stone throughout the show.
Bake off judge Mary Berry's faced backlash for her recent choice of words in the Sunday Times that: "You don't want somebody who's judging cakes to be large."
Burr also took umbrage and said: "I couldn't disagree more with Mary. A large person is someone who likes to eat. Mary's awesome and unless she pays attention to what she puts into herself then she'd be the size of a house. But I don't see anything wrong being someone with a bit of meat on their bones, it shows they love what they do.
"You see Paul (Hollywood) gradually inflating as the series goes forward, but it's because he likes it. Same happens to me, I put on a stone throughout the series," he said.
Not only have this year's candidates dealt with stressful intrusion into their personal lives, Burr thinks some of the technical challenges from Mary and Paul have bordered on "torture".
"Some of those challenges have been tough: the gluten free one was a real toughie. Those mokatines and the souffle session sound like torture," he said.
Burr revealed he was backing Nadiya Hussain as winner in Wednesday's final and that he had tweeted and chatted with the three finalists: Hussain, Ian Cumming and Tamal Ray.
"I've liked Nadiya from day one when she did that tiny, really little black forest gateau in the first week and everyone else did identical things. I think it takes a lot of confidence in your abilities to put out something understated, especially on week one. I've been in her corner right from the start."
Warming the hearts of all Bake Off fans will be the news that last year's contestants are still close friends.
"We all meet up for a Christmas party. I'm putting them all up in my house because I'm the Londoner, I'm the way-stop of bakers. I'm just organising how I'm going to cram them onto my sofas and into my daughter's bunk beds," he laughed.
Burr said he was be up for an all-star series, pitting the last three finalists against each other in a best of the best.
"I would do a Bake Off all-stars tomorrow. I'd go back immediately. I loved it so much while doing it and I miss the tent," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article