‘They’ll Keep You Till You're No Use’: Nadiya Hussain hits-out at BBC after show cancellation
by StephenRigley · LBCBy StephenRigley
Former Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has claimed she was given "no definitive reason" for the cancellation of her BBC shows.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The 40-year-old, who won the sixth series of the baking competition in 2015, claimed the corporation will "keep you till you're of no use to them" in an interview with the We Need To Talk podcast, after the BBC announced it would not be continuing with her cooking shows last month.
Asked whether she felt she had been sacked for speaking out, Hussain said: "I worked with the BBC for a really long time, and there's points where I've kind of looked at working with other channels and other broadcasters, the feedback they gave us was you're too BBC.
"I kind of accepted in my head that I was very BBC, I suppose it means that they've got me exactly where they want me, I'm utterly unbiased, and just... you're neutral, and I am not neutral, I have opinions and I have things to say.
"They'll keep you 'til you're of no use to them, and I think that's what happened.
"Essentially, I got lots of reasons why they couldn't commission the show, I had kind of rough reasons as to why they said that they couldn't commission the show, but no definitive, 'this is why we are not commissioning your show'.
"Considering my show got great ratings every year, like really good ratings, I can't see there's a reason why my show wasn't recommissioned."
Hussain said that when her show was discontinued she was told by the BBC to say that she was leaving to focus on "different projects", despite the fact the statement was "not the truth", and adding that she refused to agree to it, instead posting on social media that her show had been cancelled.
Speaking about her departure, Hussain added: "My husband and I always spoke about it, and he just said, 'There's going to be a point where they're not going to need you anymore', and the second you don't fit the box, like they have a neat little box, when you don't fit that box anymore, there'll be no space for you.
"And I suppose I don't fit that space anymore, and to be fair, I'm not comfortable in boxes anyway, I prefer glass ceilings to smash through, thank you very much.
"But, yeah, I suppose there's no space for me and and I'm kind of worn out with that, and that made me realise, and it was really interesting, because there was a lot of back and forth between how we how we talk about the fact that my show is no longer on the BBC."
Following her departure, Hussain said she would "start from scratch, as if I had won Bake Off 10 years ago".
During the interview, Hussain, who hosted BBC shows such as The Chronicles of Nadiya and Nadiya's Family Favourites, also mentioned that she had made complaints about "a really big breakfast show" and a co-worker who was bullying her, however she did not specify whether these were at the BBC.
She claimed presenters on the breakfast show had been "mocking a recipe out of my book", changing the name of her "chaat in a bag" dish to "shat in a bag".
A BBC spokesperson said: "After several wonderful series we have made the difficult decision not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya Hussain at the moment.
"Nadiya remains a much valued part of the BBC family, and we look forward to working together on future projects."
It comes after the BBC's annual report was released and saw director-general Tim Davie field questions on MasterChef hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode as well as the Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary.