‘I’ve got nothing to lose!’
Nadiya Hussain has revealed she is contemplating the launch of her own production company in the wake of her BBC departure, revealing she is “scared, but I’ve got nothing to lose.”
The former Great British Bake Off champion, whose decade-long run of BBC cookery programmes came to an end last year, has turned down approaches from other broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4.
Speaking to Radio Times, the 41-year-old indicated that any return to television would need to be on her own terms.
“Unless it’s with purpose, I’m not doing it,” she said. Ms Hussain added that after 11 years in the industry, she rarely encounters diverse production teams or meetings, expressing a desire to help others from ethnic minority backgrounds gain entry to television.
Nadiya Hussain was told by the BBC her show wouldn’t be returning | PAThe chef explained she is considering launching her own production company, admitting: “I’m scared, but I’ve got nothing to lose.”
However, she made clear that for now, she is happier away from the public eye, as “nobody is calling the shots, nobody pulls my strings, nobody can tell me what I can and can’t do.”
The presenter disclosed that her relationship with the BBC had become strained towards its conclusion, with tensions arising over the creative direction of her programmes.
“I’d had really difficult conversations,” she told the publication.
Nadiya Hussain was the face of a number of BBC cooking shows | BBC
“I was like, ‘These are the people I don’t want to work with any more. This doesn’t align with me any more. I need the recipes to be the focus.”
Ms Hussain said that shortly after raising these concerns, her show was cancelled.
The chef had sensed the axe was coming, noting that the corporation typically followed a strict schedule for book releases and filming.
Though dates had been provisionally arranged, her agent informed her the BBC no longer wished to continue the series.
Nadiya Hussain has been a familiar face on cookery TV since winning Bake Off in 2015 | PAMs Hussain has also addressed reports suggesting she had become “increasingly difficult to work with” prior to the BBC’s decision.
She continued: “If I was less vocal and I’d shut my mouth and did as I was told all the time, there’s a likelihood that I would have jobs that I don’t have now.
Ms Hussain recently tried her hand in the classroom, working as a teaching assistant at a primary school.
However, she emotionally revealed last month that she’d made the decision to leave the role.
Nadiya Hussain worked with the BBC for the best part of a decade | BBC
“I had to make a really tough decision, one of the toughest I’ve ever had to make was stepping away from that job,” Ms Hussain told her followers.
She had been working with Year One pupils at Giles Brook Primary School in Milton Keynes, according to a publicly available school newsletter that announced her appointment in October.
Ms Hussain, who lives with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition causing widespread pain and fatigue, explained that the school environment proved impossible for someone with a compromised immune system.
