World Leaks

ONE of the stars of The Great British Bake Off has revealed a particularly ‘devastating’ moment in the gingham tent.

Noel Fielding admitted that was reduced to tears during filming of the new series of the fan favourite baking show.

Channel 4 / Mark Burdillon

PA

PA

Paul admitted that he becomes good friends with the bakes away from filming and gets annoyed when the judges are tough on them[/caption]

The 51-year-old presenter made his Great British Bake Off debut in 2017 when it first moved onto Channel 4.

He admitted that he’s loved spending time with the contestants away from filming over the eight series he’s been on air.

Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood currently serve as the judges and Noel said that he sometimes finds their ‘tough’ critiques upsetting.

As a result, the star finds the eliminations very difficult to handle and he even revealed that one of the upcoming departures had him in tears.

“I’ve always really enjoyed hanging out with the bakers,” he told The Guardian.

“I befriend them and get them to open up. Nobody expected that to be my strength. I assumed it’d be the sketches and banter.

“In fact, I’m fascinated by the people. I feel protective of them. If Paul and Prue are hard on them, I’m absolutely livid.”

He added: “It’s devastating when they leave. This year I was particularly fond of one baker. When I had to send them home, I cried.”

With the latest series under his belt, Noel has now overtaken Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins as the longest serving host of the programme.

The original duo fronted seven series of the hit baking competition when it originally aired on the BBC whilst Mary Berry served as a judge.

After his previous co-stars Sandi Toksvig and Matt Lucas left, Noel now counts This Morning‘s Alison Hammond as his co-host.

“I loved that original lineup, with Mary, Mel and Sue, as much as anyone,” Noel admitted.

“When me and Sandi took over, we were terrified. We knew it was a massive risk.

“We said ‘Let’s see if we can last one series.’ The fact that I’m still here is amazing.”

After his second outing with her, he’s got nothing but praise about the For The Love Of Dogs star as they constantly laugh together on set.

He joked: “What I love about Alison – and I mean this with the greatest of respect – is that she’s an absolute klutz!”

“If anyone’s going to fall out of a hammock, it’ll be her. She also fell backwards off one of the workbenches while showing off.”

Adding: “Don’t worry, she was OK. No Hammonds were harmed in the making of this series.”

PA

Noel admitted that he was reduced to tears when one of the new contestants was eliminated[/caption]

Splash

He has now become the longest serving presenter on the hit competition[/caption]

INSTAGRAM/ADELE

The presenter has now been a part of eight series in total[/caption]

Love Productions

Noel has fronted more instalments than the original hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins[/caption]

BBC Press Release

He heaped praise on the original line up of Bake Off[/caption]

The Great British Bake Off airs weekly on Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4.

Transformers One perfectly paves the way for a potential sequel that could delve deeper into Optimus Prime and Megatron’s Cybertronian narratives. Although loosely connected to Michael Bay’s Transformers movies, Transformers One presents a standalone narrative that solely unfolds on Cybertron. Unlike the live-action films in the franchise, which focus mostly on human characters and less …

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has revealed reports had shown that young female entrepreneurs in Nigeria are more educated than their male counterparts. This was disclosed by the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, during the Women Entrepreneurs and Executives in Tech Summit (WEETS) 2024 in Lagos. Inuwa, who was represented by the Head …

President Bola Tinubu’s government has declared Tuesday, October 1, as a public holiday to celebrate the nation’s 64th Independence Day anniversary. In an official statement issued on Saturday, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, mentioned that the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, declared the public holiday on the government’s …

Notable industrial goods companies in industrial goods sector of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NGX) saw the cost of purchasing raw materials increased significantly in the first half of the year. A review of the financial statement of Dangote cement, BUA cement, CAP Plc, Lafarge cement, and Beta Glass reveals that raw materials cost rose to …

Police have confirmed that 17 people have been killed in a mass shooting incident in Ngobozana village in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape. Thirteen victims – 12 women and one man – were found in one house, and four others in another homestead. The 18th victim is in a critical condition in hospital. In total, […]

A LUCKY couple who scooped up a whopping £83,000 in the People’s Postcode Lottery revealed that they almost ignored the call after they were convinced it was a scam.

Alan and Muriel Owen said they were sceptical about winning the jackpot until their neighbours confirmed that they had indeed won the life-changing sum.

People's Postcode Lottery

Alan and Muriel scooped up a whopping £83,333 in the People’s Postcode Lottery[/caption]

People's Postcode Lottery

Helen Smith, owner of the local village pub, described the news as ‘fantastic’[/caption]

They were one of 11 winners on a street in Nantymeol, Ogmore Vale, to bag an eye-watering £83,333 each.

Muriel said: “I couldn’t believe it, I thought it was a scam at first, and then I said to [Alan] somebody was playing a sick joke on us.”

Fortunately, the phone call which confirmed their win was real, and now the couple look forward to splashing their newfound wealth.

Alan and Muriel wasted no time and had already booked a trip to Turkey to celebrate.

The lucky pair added that it was “amazing” to share the win with the other residents, describing them as “lovely valleys people”.

Most of the winners in Nantymeol came together to celebrate at the local village pub, with owner Helen Smith describing the news as “fantastic”.

She told the BBC: “It was a lovely atmosphere here, we put on free prosecco for everybody to help them celebrate,” she said.

“It’s nice to see lovely people winning money.”

It comes after a great gran who won £166,666 says her husband will have to write a “begging letter” if he wants to see a single penny of it.

Gill English landed the cash on People’s Postcode Lottery in Rugby, Warwickshire – and is now planning a slap-up carvery dinner for her big family.

The retired carer also said she is prepared to buy her hubby a new pair of shoes – but only once she sees his “begging letter”.

Gill said: “Oh my God! Flippin’ heck! I’ll take the family to a carvery. I also said I’d buy Kev a new pair of shoes.

“He’ll have the begging letter written!”

Retired chauffeur Kev laughed: “I’ve already written the begging letter.”

The couple are both recovering from cancer.

Kev had melanoma and Gill is still receiving treatment after having part of her right lung removed.

But Gill said they are more interested in helping family – including her three sons, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren than treating themselves.

She said: “I love buying presents and love doing things for people. It’s lovely when you feel you have done something for somebody.

“I love giving. I get great joy out of it. If you’ve got money, you’ve got it. If you haven’t, you haven’t.

“I’m not money-motivated, but I am now! This is so lovely. Thank you.”

Gill also revealed she hadn’t told her hubby that she played Postcode Lottery until she got the call to say she’d won.

She said: “Kev didn’t know I even played; I don’t tell him everything. I hadn’t told anyone except my youngest son.

“I’ll never get any sleep now just working it all out.”

Kev said: “It wasn’t a secret, she just never told me.”

COLDPLAY fans have been left fuming as the band appeared to “ignore” the ticket queue chaos in their new social media post.

General sale for the band’s Music of the Spheres UK tour opened at 9am on Friday and immediately the queue was more than 100,000 deep as fans clamoured to get hold of a ticket.

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Coldplay failed to address the ticket chaos yesterday[/caption]

Fans were left frustrated with online ticket website Ticketmaster as many faced long delays and technical problems.

Several buyers reported being asked to “authenticate their accounts” without receiving the necessary verification codes, while others were hit with error messages instructing them to “check their internet connection.”

Just hours later, the band’s official Instagram account posted a video from the European Space Agency.

The clip showed a new LUNA facility in Germany that will prepare astronauts for moon landings.

It was captioned: “Step into LUNA, Europe’s ‘Moon on Earth’.

“The future of exploration is here with LUNA, a groundbreaking facility that recreates the Moon’s surface on Earth!

But some fans were baffled that Coldplay failed to address their current ticket fiasco and instead shared this space clip.

One follower commented on the post and asked: “How are they ignoring all these complaints on ticket sale?”

A second quipped: “I think the flight time to the moon would be quicker than todays long Ticketmaster wait only to miss out to bots and extortionate re-sales.”

A third posted: “I was really excited to try my first concert ever that will happen to be yours, but the horrible way it went with the tickets makes me never wanna attend anything anymore.”

“Was 20k in the queue this morning and only £900 tickets left. Absolutely gutted for my daughter who really wanted to go,” this fan wrote.

Another added: “Joined the queue first thing in the morning with almost 250k people in front of me. After midday a message popped up all tickets sold. Missed out the previous year too.”

It comes after Ticketmaster’s ‘dynamic pricing system’ sparked outrage, with prices for Oasis’ tour tickets soaring as high as £355.

Given the demand, it remains to be seen if the band will follow Oasis’s lead and put on extra gigs for ballot entrants.

Last night we revealed how Coldplay have risked the wrath of Oasis when it comes to their concerts in London next summer.

Noel and Liam Gallagher have sold out seven nights at Wembley Stadium — but Coldplay has leapfrogged them by adding an extra four gigs to their residency at the venue.

The news confirms our story from July that they’d play ten nights at Wembley.

It breaks the eight Take That did on the 2011 Progress Tour and the eight Taylor Swift had this summer.

Swift holds the records for the first solo artist and first international artist in history to ever play Wembley eight times in a single tour. She broke the record set by Michael Jackson with his Bad Tour in 1988.

A pre-sale for Coldplay’s shows sold out on Wednesday.

A music insider said: “The demand is through the roof for both Oasis and Coldplay, and they’ve always got an eye on what the other is doing.

“When Chris Martin and his band realised they could play more Wembley shows than Oasis, it did put a smile on their faces.

“There are bound to be some cheeky digs along the way as the shows get closer.”

In more bad news for Oasis, Coldplay has been named the most-played British group of the 21st century on UK radio and TV.

Licensing company PPL released its list in advance of National Album Day on October 19.

Coldplay’s music has been played more than 40,000 times, the equivalent of 13 years of airplay this century, with Viva La Vida their most popular tune.

Oasis is at No. 6, behind Queen, Take That, Little Mix, and The Beatles.

Getty

Fans were frustrated with Ticketmaster as many faced long delays and technical issues[/caption]

Argentina’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez has been banned for two matches by FIFA for “offensive behaviour”, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) announced on Saturday. The 32-year-old Aston Villa star was also found guilty of “violating principles of fair play” in two separate episodes. Martinez was found to have violated FIFA’s code of conduct when […]

AFTER a spectacular opening live show last weekend, Strictly Come Dancing returns for its second week of the 2024 competition.

All 15 of this year’s couples took to the iconic ballroom floor for the first time, dazzling the judges and audience with their performances.

While the couples earned praise and critiques from the judges last week, the competition truly kicks off tonight, when viewers will finally get their chance to cast votes.

Strictly Come Dancing bosses are reportedly concerned after the first live show of the new series drew a peak of 6.7 million viewers, marking the lowest opening show ratings since the series began.

This is down from 7.3 million last year and significantly lower than the 10.2 million peak in 2020.

On the leader board, JLS star JB Gill topped the scores with 30 points alongside his pro partner Amy Dowden, who made a triumphant return after her breast cancer treatment.

Love Island’s Tasha Ghouri and pro Aljaž Škorjanec, along with Miranda actress Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola, tied for second place with standout performances.

Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke will once again take their places on the judging panel.

Stay tuned to our Strictly Come Dancing blog for all the latest updates…