Sue Perkins

Sue Perkins originally came to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in Mel and Sue, but the Cambridge-educated comedian is a formidable talent in her own right. Partly, it must be said, because she isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. 

Mel and I didn’t have a pot to piss in when we started doing stand up and writing for radio in our early twenties, but they were some of the happiest days of my life. 

I’ve never really responded to peer pressure. What I do respond to, however, is someone categorically telling me I can’t do something. I trill at the sound of a gauntlet going down. It feels like a dare. And I’ve never been able to resist a dare.

In April 2007, she participated with Giles Coren in the television series, Edwardian Supersize Me for the BBC. The series focused on spending a week eating the equivalent of a wealthy Edwardian couple's food, whilst wearing period clothing.

Perkins and Coren were commissioned to present a new series called, The Supersizers Go... which focused on other notable periods throughout history.

In August and September 2008, Perkins appeared in the reality television series Maestro on BBC Two (she went on to win). During the series, Perkins conducted three pieces, two of them with soprano soloist Lesley Garrett.

In 2010, Perkins and Coren presented Giles and Sue Live the Good Life, a celebration of the 1970s BBC series The Good Life, where they were challenged to live a self-sufficient lifestyle.

She has since become best known as a radio broadcaster and television presenter, notably of The Great British Bake Off (2010–2016) and Insert Name Here (2016–present).

Perkins won the Broadcaster or Journalist category in the British LGBT+ Awards 2018.

Being gay is not my identity but it calms people to know that I’m out and relaxed with myself. I probably knew at 16 I was gay but only in a very latent way. I didn’t have a girlfriend ‘til I was 22

In October 2018, she released an autobiographical travel book East of Croydon: Blunderings Through India and South East Asia, which was shortlisted in the Autobiography of the Year category at the 2018 National Book Awards.

If the translator starts laughing as you put something in your mouth, spit it out immediately. If your choice of dinner is making a local giggle, then you can bet it’s not a good choice…

In September 2019 she presented Japan, a two part BBC travel series.

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