Bake Off's James finds sex symbol status hilarious

Bake Off's James finds sex symbol status hilarious
Bake Off's James finds sex symbol status hilarious (Image credit: Love productions/BBC/Toby Merrit)

Great British Bake Off contestant James Morton says he's surprised by his new-found sex symbol status - and insisted it is all down to his choice of tank top. The Glasgow medical student, 21, has become a hit with thousands of fans of the BBC2 show, in which amateur bakers battle it out in front of judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. James told Radio Times that being labelled a heartthrob was 'hilarious', adding: "I had 60 Twitter followers before, now I have nearly 15,000 [actually, now over 20,000]. It all started after the third episode when I got 'star' baker and wore a tank top - I think people confused their attraction to the tank top with liking me. "The Fair Isle jumpers were a deliberate decision as I'm a proud Shetlander. They did get a bit smelly after a long day's filming in that warm tent, I must confess." Meanwhile, fellow amateur baker Brendan Lynch, 63, has revealed the show's contestants got a telling off from TV producers for helping each other. "There was a good sense of camaraderie and support. We were often ticked off for wandering over to one another and offering advice. "In the end they gave up trying to keep us apart because we would always find a way of meeting up by the fridge surreptitiously," he said. James is not the only person on the BAFTA-winning TV show to have attracted sex symbol status. Last month, 'master baker' Paul dubbed his heartthrob reputation 'embarrassing, flattering' and 'quite silly'.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.