All Alison Hammond wants is to “bring happiness and spread joy”. She’s so devoted to this mission she even did it straight after the death, five years ago, of her beloved mother Maria. “My mum died in hospital at 5.30am,” she recalls. “At 6am, I went out to my car and this woman stopped me for a selfie. I said sure, no problem. I knew it would make her happy, so I hid behind my own smile. Little did she know my mum had just died but looking back, oh my God – I’ll always remember it.”
The 50-year-old Brummie whirlwind loves to make someone’s day. At her local supermarket recently, she met a fan called Kate who’d just lost her own mother. “I’ll never forget how hard it was when my mum passed, so I invited Kate to the Bake Off final. She met Paul Hollywood and he gave her a handshake. She said it was the best day of her life. It doesn’t take a lot, does it? Kindness truly does make a difference.”
Hammond’s high-wattage enthusiasm and infectious humour have won her a devoted following but she’s fully aware that hers can be a divisive screen presence. “Not everyone likes me. Look, I’ll show you a video that tickled me.” She plays a TikTok of a woman grumbling about her joining the cast of Celebrity Gogglebox. “Give somebody else a chance, love,” she rants. “We’re sick of the bloody sight of you.”
“I like these, because they humble me,” says Hammond. “They remind me I’m not all that. She hates my guts but that’s all right. People say Pete Wicks would be better than me at presenting For the Love of Dogs. He might be but I’m doing it. Deal with it! I know my worth. Besides, my mum would have been so proud. That’s the reason I do this. She’s my guiding light.”
TikTok trolls haven’t dimmed Hammond’s glow. Perched on a chaise longue after a long day of Great British Bake Off promotional duties, she exudes energy and warmth. When people wander past – including her partner-in-cake Noel Fielding, sporting a skull jumper – she involves them in our conversation. She shows me gossipy messages on her phone. That trademark laugh peals out regularly. “I don’t think I laugh that loudly, then I hear myself on telly and think: what do I sound like? It’s like a horn. A literal foghorn.” At which point it peals out again.
We’re meeting to discuss Bake Off’s imminent 16th series and Hammond’s third as co-host. “I still see myself as the new girl,” she says. “Paul has been there from the start, obviously. Noel and Prue [Leith] have been there for nine years. So I’m still the newbie and they’re still bullying me. Only joking. I bully them too, to be fair, especially Paul. I take him to task for being mean to the bakers. He’s dead stingy with the handshakes this year. Even I haven’t had a Hollywood handshake in real life. He’s funny about them. That handshake is worth a lot. His hands are probably insured for millions!”
This year’s batch of 12 amateur bakers are a typically diverse bunch: “We’ve got the whole spectrum, from age 23 to 59. There’s an engineer, a hairdresser, a medical student, a wedding dress designer. But the one common denominator is that baking is everything to them.” Hammond has genuine empathy for them because she’s seen both sides of the reality TV experience. “I was a contestant on Big Brother, in the jungle, even on Celebrity Bake Off,” she nods. “I know what they’re going through. There’s one baker who can’t even make caramel but they learn on the job and do brilliantly. I love watching them progress. They go into the tent as one person and come out as another. You can’t help being emotionally involved. What often moves me is hearing about who they’ve left behind to take part. Some have kids. They’re not seeing their babies because they’re working so hard at this. You’re willing them to do well. When they leave, you find a lump in your throat.”
Last year, Hammond took a hilarious tumble off a workbench. Any pratfalls to look forward to this time? “Loads. It’s me you’re talking to. I’m always awkward and clumsy. Hopefully they’ll edit out the mishaps, but knowing our team, they’ll leave them in.” Things go awry for the bakers too. “A technical challenge goes disastrously wrong and it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Even the bakers see the funny side. Well, eventually.”
Asked for behind-the-scenes titbits, she grins: “We’ve all got our own deckchairs now. We’ve put them outside our little shepherd’s hut trailers, so we can sit there and chat. Hopefully next year, we’ll get a jacuzzi.” There was plenty of whizzing around the Welford Park grounds in golf buggies. “Noel doesn’t have a driving licence so he’s obsessed. That’s his time to be a driver. He was extra lucky this year: for his birthday, Paul bought him the car that Noel’s dad had when he was a kid. This beautiful three-wheeler. Now he has to pass his test or it’ll be embarrassing. Someone’s bought you a car and you can’t drive it? Bit rude. I made a point of telling Paul that my dad drove a Mercedes, so next birthday, you never know. Fingers crossed!”
Hammond’s weight loss has become a tabloid obsession. She shed an impressive 11st, thanks to healthy eating and weight training, and looks fabulous in a shimmery olive jumpsuit. How much scoffing of bakes does she do? “I tried to hold back but I still put on 2kg this series. When I see a handshake, I’ve got to try it. I always taste the winning technical and best showstopper.” Is she still weightlifting? “I am but I’ve not had time lately. I hadn’t been to the gym for ages but I went back yesterday and, babes, I think I pulled a muscle. I was like, I’m getting too old for this.” Surely she gets free massages from boyfriend David Putman – a masseur who (cue another tabloid fixation) is 23 years her junior? “It was better when I used to pay for them,” she chuckles. “I don’t get jack shit no more. He does everyone else but me!”
This spring, Hammond finally landed her own interview series, Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend on BBC One, in which she spent a weekend at the homes of her famous guests. “I adored it,” she says. “Just holding that space for people to talk. It caught me offguard, some stuff they told me. It was lovely that they felt comfortable enough to open up. Perrie Edwards discussing her struggles with anxiety was really powerful. So was Mel B talking about being a survivor of domestic abuse.”
Comedian Jimmy Carr – when he wasn’t teasing Hammond about her pronunciation of “skeleton” (“I still don’t know what I’m saying wrong,” she laughs. “It’s skellington, isn’t it?”) – spoke movingly about seeing his late mother in his own son. I wonder if Hammond feels the same about her 20-year-old son, Aidan. “Without a doubt. Aidan’s exactly like her, right down to the way he eats and how he’s strict about home security. He tells me off if I haven’t locked the porch, which was exactly what my mum did. It’s like she came back in my son.” A second series of Big Weekend hasn’t yet been announced (come on, BBC) but who’d be her dream guests? “Kylie, definitely. Madonna? Oprah? Let’s aim high and see what happens.”
Hammond has plenty to keep her busy in the meantime. Every Friday, she co-presents This Morning with Dermot O’Leary. It’s invariably the best episode of the week. Would she fancy doing the other four days? “Nope,” she says firmly. “I live in Birmingham and spending all my time in London would be too much. Cat [Deeley] and Ben [Shephard, the main hosts] are incredible. Anyway, I like being the Friday guy. The weekend’s coming, let’s have some fun.”
Last year, she had the unenviable task of taking over ITV’s For the Love Of Dogs after the death of longtime host Paul O’Grady. “I never tried to fill Paul’s shoes. Those shoes are well and truly filled. Mine are a totally different pair. I can see why he did the job for so long. It’s bloody lovely. Being with dogs is like therapy.”
She inherited her ferocious work ethic from Maria. “Mum was a proper grafter and I am too. I’m a single parent like she was. She understood what that’s like and helped me so much. With every success comes sacrifice. I wasn’t always around for Aidan but she was. We called her his second mum. When Aidan was little, I made a rule that I’d only work three days a week, no more, so I could be there for him. Now he’s older, it’s more flexible.”
Does she worry about becoming overexposed? “No. If I need to rest up or a job doesn’t appeal, I won’t do it. I’m good at saying no. I turn down 10 things per day, no exaggeration. It looks like I’m on TV a lot, sure, but I stand out partly because it’s still not the norm to see a Black woman doing this. I don’t want to bring race into it but no one says that about Davina or Ant and Dec. I’ve worked hard for 22 years to get here. That woman on TikTok is allowed her opinion. It keeps me grounded. I’m not a national treasure. I’m just me, doing a job that I adore to the best of my ability, trying to be better than I was yesterday.”
That 22-year journey began on Big Brother. In the reality trailblazer’s third series, housemate Hammond memorably jumped on a garden table and broke it. Behold, a TV career was launched. “Wow, what a time. The maddest thing is, I was only in there for 14 days but it was life-changing. I’m eternally grateful to Big Brother. If it wasn’t for that show and breaking that table, I wouldn’t be doing what I love now. And I never did pay for the damage.”
Next in the pipeline is new Channel 4 format Your Song, which has been dubbed “The Piano for singing”. “I’d forgotten about that show!” she cackles. “God, I really am everywhere, aren’t I? It’s people singing who probably never planned to. Everyday people with a connection to a particular song.”
She scoffs at any notion of a career plan. “I just do what makes me happy, and I do it with grace and love. I’m 50 now. I only want joy in my life. What links all the shows I do is people and joy. I enjoy talking to the public because I am the public. I’m normal too. I just happen to laugh like a horn.”
The Great British Bake Off returns on 2 September at 8pm on Channel 4.
