English actor, writer and comedian Reece Shearsmith is best known for the BBC sketch show The League of Gentlemen, which he created, wrote and starred in, along with Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss, and Jeremy Dyson.
He has appeared in many other TV shows over the years including Psychoville and Inside No. 9, as well as Doctor Who, Good Omens and ITV drama The Widower, opposite Sheridan Smith.
His latest challenge? Baking for The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer.
Can you bake?
A little bit. I would never say I was expert, and I do it all the time, or that it’s a hobby. When I turn my hand to it, I’m quite exacting, so I get the recipe and I just follow it to the letter, I don’t deviate, and I do exactly what I’m instructed to do. It normally turns out alright, it’s not like it always goes wrong.
I know some people think “Oh, it says that, but I’ll just put another blob in.” I’m big on not doing that. I think the recipes and amounts are there for a reason, so I stick to it.
But I think maybe my downfall is that I’m too exacting, and I will get too hung up on trying to make it all perfect, and therefore time will run away from me. That’s the danger for me, I think I could end up getting completely swamped in the minutiae and not see the bigger picture.
Have you ever had any culinary disasters?
Oh yes. I remember when I was at school – this didn’t happen to me, but I got blamed for it. We had to make apple crumble, and the crumble part was fine, but the apples got forgotten. So, it was crumble crumble.
And the teacher was like “This is great, this is very nice,” and he was digging down for the next part, and it was just all crumble.
So that was an early home economics disaster that I hope not to repeat, where you actually miss an entire main ingredient.
What’s the worst thing you could be asked to make?
Oh, I think something quite delicate, like eclairs, or some very fine pastry that requires a lot of specificity to it. I think I can do something like a Victoria Sponge, probably, but something that is either right or wrong, and there’s no leeway, I think that would be hard.
It’s like meringue, you can either do it or you can’t. And no amount of working on it could get it right in the time we’ve got. The whole experience is very stressful. The clock ticking is quite a scary thing.
Have you done any practise or preparation for the competition?
Yeah, I did a bit more baking over the last week. I thought, generally, I should just try and be in the world of mixing and adding butter.
I made a few sponge cakes, and I did some icing, because I thought that might come up. They get very particular about what it is that you’re doing. So, I thought a general practice would be good.
I haven’t gone to town anywhere else. I didn’t make pastry, I didn’t make bread, so if I wander off the sponge road, I’m in uncharted territory.
Did you do any baking during lockdown?
Yes, I did. We did a lot of cooking, that was something that kept us going really, so it was nice to do stuff that you wouldn’t normally do and be a bit more adventurous with the cakes and the biscuits. I did try making a couple of batches of scones, so that was nice to do. We often go to Cornwall, so we like a cream tea.
I think I’m cream first; I don’t know if that’s wrong. I always think the jam sits better on the cream than the other way around.
Why is Stand Up To Cancer important to you?
You can’t get around the fact that cancer, at some point, will and has probably affected the lives of everybody that we know. It’s the dread that hangs over humankind, I think. It’s great to bring awareness to it, with a lovely show like this, that’s fun while you’re doing it, but carries with it a message about awareness, it’s there for a reason.
Hopefully it will encourage people to put some money towards beating it. How could you not do it? It’s a lovely thing to be part of. And very important – probably the most important thing you’ll ever do, because you’d be very lucky to get through life without knowing someone on the receiving end of a diagnosis.
To get involved donate at channel4.com/su2c or sign up to fundraise at standuptocancer.org.uk__. 100% of your donation goes to Cancer Research UK in support of the Stand Up To Cancer campaign.
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