Great British Bake Off 2018: Who is host Sandi Toksvig?
GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF 2018 continues tonight. Sandi Toksvig co-hosts the show alongside Noel Fielding. Here’s what you need to know about the Danish presenter, comedian, activist and author.
Celebrity Bake Off: Nick Hewer TERRIFIES Sandi Toksvig
Even before she became co-host of the Great British Bake Off alongside Noel Fielding, Sandi Toksvig was one of the most recognisable faces and voices on TV and radio.
Although best known as the host of Bake Off, QI and the ex-host of BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, Sandi Toksvig is also a comedian, women’s and LGBT rights activist, author and playwright.
However, hosting GBBO has raised her profile higher than ever before.
Before Bake Off returns tonight at 8pm on Channel 4, here’s a recap of the many accomplishments of Sandi Toksvig.
For the first six weeks I lived in the UK, nobody spoke to me
Who is Sandi Toksvig?
Sandi Birgitte Toksvig is a 60-year-old presenter, author and activist born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The 4ft 11in comedian came to the UK at 14 when she attended a girl’s school near Guildford.
When she arrived in England, she had what she called on Dave show Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled “a thick New York accent” from time spent there with her foreign correspondent father Claus.
According to Toksvig, “for the first six weeks I lived in the UK, nobody spoke to me... so one night we were shown a film in the hall and it was Brief Encounter... I knew by then I had to change my accent, and so I thought ‘I’m going to speak like that'.”
Sandi and her new accent then went to Cambridge University, where she law, archaeology and anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge.
While there, she worked for famous Cambridge comedy society the Footlights, which at the time contained fellow members Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson.
She then got her TV break as a children’s presenter for a number of 1980s shows.
Whilst presenting shows like No. 73, the Sandwich Quiz and The Saturday Starship, she also continued her comedy career in improvisational troupe The Players.
This led to guest spots on TV comedy shows like Whose Line is it Anyway? and Call My Bluff.
Throughout the 1990s, she juggled appearances on TV shows like Have I Got New For You (whose first episode she appeared in), Time Team and Jackanory with writing fiction and non-fiction.
In 1994, she released her first two books, Great Journeys of the World for adults and Tales From the Norse’s Mouth for children.
She has since written 20 books, and written a number of plays which have played on the West End, including Bully Boy, a play about PTSD among servicemen.
In 2006, she took over the role of host of long-running BBC Radio 4 panel game The News Quiz, a show she hosted for nine years before leaving to found the Women’s Equality Party.
In 2014, Sandi Toksvig was given an OBE in the New Year Honours.
The following year, she also took over hosting duties for QI following the departure of Stephen Fry.
Then, in 2017, she was announced as the new co-host of Great British Bake Off alongside The Mighty Boosh’s Noel Fielding.
The Great British Bake Off continues tonight at 8pm on Channel 4