Peep Show stars David Mitchell, Olivia Colman, Isy Suttie, Matt King and Sophie Winkleman reunite for the Great British Bake Off Christmas special

Merseyside-born Hollywood, 59, known for his no-nonsense feedback of contestants’ masterpieces and, of course, the famous ‘Hollywood handshake’ on the popular Channel 4 baking show, takes Christmas seriously.

Having been a judge on the hit TV show since it started in 2010, first with Dame Mary Berry and now alongside Dame Prue Leith, Hollywood jokes: “For years I dressed up as Santa, and now I’ve just naturally turned into him. I’ve got fatter, and my beard’s got whiter.”

The TV presenter and cookbook author, who picked up his MBE for services to baking and broadcasting at Windsor Castle last year, says that during Christmas he’s ‘always in the kitchen’. He adds: “I think, once the tree goes up, which is normally the first or second week in December, and all the decorations are up, and the cats have knocked them down many times, we really get into it.

“I enjoy Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. I like watching people open presents; it’s one of my favourite things, always has been. I used to love watching my brothers open their stockings; I was always the last one to open mine.”

This year, Hollywood will be joined on screen for a festive edition of the Great British Bake Off by Dame Prue as well as Bake Off hosts Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond. But the judges and festive bakes won’t be the only stars, as this year the cast of popular sitcom Peep Show will feature in the Great British Bake Off Christmas special.

The episode will see David Mitchell, Olivia Colman, Isy Suttie, Matt King and Sophie Winkleman reunite to roll up their sleeves and tackle three Christmas-themed baking tasks. The group will don festive jumpers and attempt to whisk, knead and decorate their way to glory with challenges that pay homage to Peep Show.

For the Signature challenge they’ll have to make hangable festive biscuit decorations, for the Technical challenge they’ll have to create a traditional Christmas turkey pie, and then they’ll have to recreate their favourite Peep Show moments in cake form.

Dame Prue, 85, says: “What’s interesting – and this always happens with the celebrities – is that they always get competitive once they’re in there, no matter how they felt before coming on the show. The ones who have read the recipe before and done any kind of practice always do much better. The ones who have done nothing don’t tend to do very well. But, in the end, they always want to win.”

Winning aside, the coveted Hollywood handshake, the highest praise offered by Hollywood and distributed sparingly to competitors who have impressed him with a bake, was on the mind of one celebrity contestant. “Oh, that was such an ultimate fantasy, I didn’t let myself go near it,” says Winkleman, 45, who played Big Suze in Peep Show.

“Too hot to handle, that prospect. Dangerous, too – if you have an image of how it’s all going to be and something goes wrong, it can throw you. And the whole process was definitely nerve-wracking, even though we’re not bakers.

“I had so much empathy, awe and admiration for the amateur bakers for whom the competition is everything and the stakes are sky high. I don’t know how they do it.”

The actress, who is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of the Queen’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent, and is the half-sister of The Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman, said being in the famous Bake Off tent was ‘surreal, heart-warming and jolly’.

Comedian, writer and actress Suttie, 47, who played Dobby, describes walking inside as being ‘a bit of an out-of-body experience’. “I was really excited. The tent’s definitely bigger than it looks on screen,” she says. “I was always a fan of the show and you think: ‘What would it be like to be on there?’”

“Obviously, when you watch, it’s heavily edited. You think, ‘How could they have done that wrong? I would have been able to do that…’ And, as soon as you get in the tent, you think: ‘How could anyone do anything right in here?’ I did feel the pressure. At one point, I thought: ‘If I even get through this, I’ll give myself a medal…’ It was really lovely to see everyone again. Some I hadn’t seen for years. There really was a fun group dynamic.”