Peep Show star crowned winner of The Great British Bake Off’s Christmas special

Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman has won the Christmas edition of The Great British Bake Off.

The special episode of the Channel 4 show, hosted by Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding, marked a reunion for cast members of hit sitcom Peep Show, which aired between 2003 and 2015.

Colman, 51, who played Sophie Chapman in the programme, impressed the judges with an apple and cinnamon cake which depicted the Peep Show scene where her character gets buried in a ball pit.

She also made Christmas biscuits featuring a stained glass-look centre and six miniature versions of a turkey pie, as part of the technical challenge.

The actress, who won an Academy Award in 2019 for her performance in The Favourite, said the cake stand will be the only trophy “I’ll have on display” after she was announced champion.

Dame Prue Leith said: “Her showstopper was just so witty, and the cake was wonderful.”

Also competing for the prize was actor David Mitchell, who played Mark Corrigan in Peep Show, as well as Isy Suttie, who played Dobby, Matt King, who played Super Hans, and Sophie Winkleman, who played Big Suze.

Robert Webb, who played Mark’s flatmate Jeremy Usborne, did not compete.

Mitchell, 51, who recently starred in BBC hit Ludwig, previously appeared on The Great Comic Relief Bake Off and said he had not baked since.

After the first round, which saw the contestants make identical biscuits, Mitchell received a handshake from Hollywood, who said: “I’m going to give you a handshake, I’ll tell you why I’m going to give you a handshake, because that is a very, very good shortbread.”

Impressed by her angel biscuits, Hollywood, 59, also gave a handshake to Winkleman, 45, who said: “It was almost erotic when I got that handshake.”

The technical challenge, which saw the contestants bake pies in the shape of the eye featured in the title sequence of Peep Show, was won by Colman, with Mitchell in second place.

The last task was to create a showstopping cake inspired by their favourite moment on Peep Show.

Mitchell created a cake in the shape of a cauliflower, in homage to the scene where Mark’s father shouts “cauliflower is traditional” during Christmas dinner while King, 57, made a cake inspired by the scene where his character accidentally runs to Windsor.

Also on the show, Mitchell recreated the famed Peep Show scene where he shouts at Jez for joking he had forgotten to buy the turkey, and yelled at Hammond: “A turkey! A turkey! I’m vegan.”