When Bake Off bosses persuaded David Schwimmer to join the show, they certainly landed the cream of showbiz.
But while the Friends star, who confessed to being a superfan of the show that raises awareness of cancer, jumped at the chance to take part, there was a heartbreaking reason for him accepting.
David revealed his gran and ex-wife’s mother died from the disease while sister Ellie faced her own battle with it.
It is a tragic personal insight into the normally-private actor, who played Ross Geller for 10 years in the US sitcom. But also helps explain how the native New Yorker came to be fretting about cake recipes in a field with Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.
The dad-of-one, 52, says: “I lost a grandmother to cancer, my daughter lost a grandmother to cancer and my sister is a cancer survivor, so it’s important to me.
“I am just grateful I can help in any small way raise more awareness.
“I am here to have fun. I am here to raise money for a great charity. It’s a great cause and I happen to be a massive fan of the show.”
David, who divorced Zoe Buckman in 2017, says his family, including 11-year-old daughter Cleo, will be rooting for him in the Channel 4 show.
He even brought her favourite “stuffie mushroom” to bring him luck. David says: “My friends and family are very excited for me.
“They are all fans of the show.”
But while his on-screen sister Monica in Friends, played by Courteney Cox, was a chef, David does not share her culinary skills. In our exclusive peak at Sunday’s first episode, he says: “I do not bake.”
But David is competitive, which comes from years of trying to make it in acting before he got his big break.
He says: “A lot of actors and performers kind of have to be. It is like a dog fight.”
David appears in Celebrity Great British Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer alongside Tom Daley, former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson, actor Rose Matafeo, TV presenter and cancer survivor Adele Roberts, Coleen Nolan, Gemma Collins and Paddy McGuinness. In the first show, stars have to make a meringue depicting their “biggest celebrity fail”. David’s is a giant rabbit.
Explaining his blunder in a play, he says: “I am a Roman governor. I am supposed to ask Jesus, ‘Is it true when you entered the city of Jerusalem you came through the golden gates accompanied by a large rabble?’.
“Instead the line came out, ‘Is it true when entering the golden gates, accompanied by a large rabbit?’.”
David caused a stir on Bake Off as fellow celebs and judge Paul are big fans of Friends, which ran from 1994 to 2004 and also starred Jennifer Aniston as Ross’ on-off girlfriend Rachel.
Recalling the moment the legend arrived on set, Paul says: “I was like, ‘It’s David Schwimmer, he’s here, he’s here.’ I was like, ‘Wow’. I wandered up, pretended I wasn’t that bothered and he was like, ‘Oh hiya guys, how are you doing?’ And I had to let it out.”
Paul and Prue were both surprised how prepared David was for the show.
Paul says: “He took it seriously.” Prue adds: “He genuinely wanted to be on the show
“Partly because he wanted to support Stand Up to Cancer but also because, like most who come on the show, they want to get into that tent.”
* Celebrity Great British Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer returns to Channel 4 on Sunday, 7.45pm. To donate, visit standuptocancer.org.uk.
