'If I could have chosen, Prue would be the one!' Mary Berry insists she's more than happy with her Bake Off replacement... but understands why 'people get crabby about the ads' on Channel 4

Published: 02:06 GMT, 2 December 2017 | Updated: 13:15 GMT, 2 December 2017

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She's been vocal in the past about how highly she rates Prue Leith as her Great British Bake Off replacement.

And Mary Berry has insisted again that Prue was the ideal choice.

'If I could have chosen someone to take my place, and if they’d given me all the cookery writers set in a row, I would have said that Prue would be the one,' she tells Good Housekeeping in the January 2018 issue.

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'If I could have chosen, Prue would be the one!' Mary Berry insists she's more than happy with her Bake Off replacement... but understands why 'people get crabby about the ads' on Channel 4

Of the new presenters Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, Mary, 82, said: 'The others I don’t know so well, but they’re all doing a good job.

'It’s just people get a bit crabby about the ads.'

The cookery star was referring to the fact that Bake Off now airs on Channel 4, after it's production company sensationally sold the rights, pulling it from the BBC.

While C4 does indeed feature commercial breaks, the new show is still allocated the same amount of time as the old one - airing in a 1 hr 15 min slot to account for the ad breaks.

High praise: She's been vocal in the past about how highly she rates Prue Leith as her Great British Bake Off replacement

Passing the torch: Mary insisted again that Prue was the ideal choice

Continuing to talk of the show - which saw her leave the the BBC lost the rights to it - Mary told the homemaking publication: 'I did seven years and loved every minute of it. But you have to go some time, don’t you?

'It is all about the brilliant format. All the family can watch and there’s no bad language. It has continued in exactly the same format and place.'

Ahead of the festive season, Mary shared some Christmas do’s and don’ts with the magazine.

'I hate fake decorations. Quite honestly, you can do absolute wonders with table decorations with a bit of Oasis foam,' she said. 'I always buy a Nordic Pine Christmas tree because it won’t drop needles.'

Her new book, Mary’s Household Tips & Tricks, is out now, and catalogues Mary's advice for running a tight ship around her house that she has 'gathered over the years'.

She's a fan: Continuing to talk of the show - which saw her leave the the BBC lost the rights to it - Mary said 'I did seven years and loved every minute of it. But you have to go some time, don’t you?'

A worthy successor: Prue was brought in when the show moved to it's new home on Channel 4

Co-judges: 'It is all about the brilliant format. All the family can watch and there’s no bad language. It has continued in exactly the same format and place,' Mary said of C4's GBBO

'In college, we were actually taught how to run a house. I scorned it at the time,' she said.

On what irritates her about current eating habits, she added: 'All these fad diets – clean food and the like. It’s really about eating a balanced diet. You are what you eat.

'Everybody wants smoothies, but I’d rather have the texture of vegetables and fruits. If you want to have kale and spinach made into a smoothie, you have it. But for me, I just want a balanced diet – fruit, veg, meat and fish.'

Read the full Mary Berry interview in the January 2018 issue of Good Housekeeping, on sale 8th December. Also available as a digital edition.