met his fellow judge eight years before being reunited by independent TV
production company Love Productions during screen tests and casting calls for
BBC2. Back then they were both working on the Good Food Channel, originally
launched on 5 November 2001 as UK Food – a channel dedicated to cookery
programmes previously broadcast on the increasingly crowded UK Style
channel. The channel uses a large amount of programming from the BBC’s
archive. It resembles a former international channel run by BBC Worldwide
called BBC Food, as both use similar content and have a similar format. The
channel changed its name on 8 March 2004 to UKTV Food.
As part of the rebranding of all UKTV’s channels to a unique name and
identity, UKTV Food rebranded as Good Food on 22 June 2009, the last of
UKTV’s brands to do so. The name is based on that of the Good Food cookery
magazine, published by BBC Magazines. The channel and the magazine
continue to operate separately. When Paul and Mary first worked together, they
were on a show called Great Food Live. It was a simple format, which ran
through easy-to-prepare recipes that viewers could simultaneously follow with
the live show at home in their own kitchens. Although neither of them stayed on
Great Food Live beyond that series, they got on well right from the start.
‘I was really glad it was her and she was really glad it was me,’ Paul told the
Liverpool Echo. ‘I look after Mary. I make sure she’s always got a comfy seat
and it’s not too chilly. I think of her like my mum and I want to make sure she’s
looked after. I think it’s a Scouse thing. We’re like a big Bake Off family. Mel
[Giedroyc], Sue [Perkins] and I are like the naughty kids and Mary is our mum.
She keeps us all in line.’ For all the banter that the pair may have enjoyed on
screen, as well as the various little scraps that they might have had over the
judging process, it was clear from what Paul was saying that he had a deep-
rooted respect for his on-screen judging colleague, who was fast becoming a
close friend.
But certainly, while they may have been like a family on screen, their
backgrounds and approach to judging were completely different. And as each
episode was filmed, they appeared to embrace their ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine
– with Mary decidedly playing the good cop. Meanwhile, Paul came from the
school of judging attended by the likes of Len Goodman in the BBC’s hit show
Strictly Come Dancing or the X Factor’s Simon Cowell. He only judged the
finished product and never minced his words. His blunt and to the point one-
liners included: ‘It just feels a little bit stodgy, which I wasn’t expecting.’
Meanwhile, compassionate Mary was always measured in her criticism. The
