Great British Bake Off contestant from Littlehampton 'can't believe' she's on the show

Speaking ahead of series 11 premiere, airing on Channel 4 at 8.15pm, pantomime producer Lottie, 31, said she was 'absolutely terrified' to see herself on television.

She said: "I 100 per cent never imagined I would willingly put myself on TV. I’m notoriously bad at having my picture taken so I thought filming would be a nightmare but when you’re baking you just forget everything and focus on what you’ve got to do! The producers were so lovely too that I just felt like I was having a chat with a mate whilst baking."

According to the show's producers, 'Lottie describes herself a ‘perpetually frustrated perfectionist’ and, while her baking has become more refined over time, she hopes it retains an element of her dark sense of humour. When she’s not baking or busy with her job producing pantomime, Lottie will be playing computer games with her young cousins, or practising yoga'.

As a child, Lottie watched a lot of cooking shows, and believed she inherited her skills from her Lancastrian nana.

But she admitted she was 'absolutely awful in food tech at school': "I burnt something in the ovens and was encouraged to take history instead for GCSE...it definitely came to me later in life!"

Having started baking properly two years ago, Lottie's friends and family had been trying to make her apply, but she lacked the confidence. Eventually, she sent in the form 'to shut them all up', she said, and a few months later found herself face to face with the judges: Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.