Great British Bake Off co-host Matt Lucas has told how his dad's death inspired him to dramatically lose weight - and he's gone from a size XXXL to a medium.
The comedian, 48, admits he ate so many roast potatoes during the coronavirus pandemic that he "couldn't really fit on screen anymore", but he has since slimmed down for fear of going the same way as his father, who passed away aged 52, just four years older than Matt is now.
He said: "I'm 48, my dad died when he was 52, very suddenly. His dad died when he was, I think, 56. I was looking at the law of averages here. I was very big and I was getting bigger in the pandemic. Not being very active, not going out, eating a lot of roast potatoes. I was so big I couldn't really fit on screen anymore.
"I've still got a proper tummy. I'm not skinny by any means. I've just lost some weight. I've gone from a XXL, sometimes I was XXXL, down to a medium now I think.
"Although sometimes medium is big on me and sometimes it is small on me.
"I do feel a bit better. I feel a bit relieved. I don't do any drugs and I don't smoke and I hardly ever drink. It's just the food really. But now I don't eat as much. I eat sweets still, I love sweets.
"I think I'm naturally predisposed to be horizontal. I'm just one of those horizontal people. I rather enjoy it."
Matt joked he ate so many spuds during lockdown he was probably responsible for a worldwide shortage, and admitted he is so fond of roasting potatoes that he started doing so in various shapes to give him "something to do".
He added: "I can't tell you how many roast potatoes I ate. If you went into your supermarket and you couldn't find potatoes, there were a lot of food shortages and people found things hard to get hold of, that was me. I have to own up to that. No matter where you were in the world, that was me. I was eating so many roast potatoes because there was nothing else to do.
"I had my housemate and he stayed really fit, because he's a personal trainer. He was eating the roast potatoes but he was also going and doing huge fitness routines. I was not. I got to the point I was eating so many roast potatoes that I started making them into different shapes to give me something to do.
"I ordered an apple corer off Amazon and I started coring potatoes just to see how differently they might roast. I'd have a roast potato with a massive hole in the middle, like a doughnut, but I was also cooking the thing that comes out of the core. So I was cooking cylinders of potatoes as well. I still love them [roast potatoes], I just don't eat as many."
In the opening episode of Bake Off this week, fans commented about how well he looked and how much weight he had lost, and some were so impressed with his figure they took to social media to ask him for tips.
One viewer tweeted: "Can't get over how much weight matt lucas has lost!! #GBBO"
Another posted: "Kudos to Matt Lucas he's lost weight and looks good. He's looks like he did in 1995 on Shooting Stars.#GBBO"
One fan tweeted: "Dear Mr Lucas, you is looking well svelte. Can you pass on your diet tips to us mere proles?"
Matt landed his Bake Off presenting role after his co-host Noel Fielding, 49, requested he screen test for the job after having a dream that he presented the show alongside the Little Britain star.
The Come Fly With Me comedian has now told how his agent insisted he wouldn't get the role because it would "almost certainly" be a woman who replaced Sandi Toksvig, 64, on the Channel 4 show.
He said: "I was doing this TV pilot in America for Fox and that was all going to happen. A really nice acting job on American TV. I loved the script and it was a nice character. Then I got this call from my agent saying, 'Please don't tell anyone because they keep everything under wraps, but they want you to try out for Bake Off. It's almost certainly going to be a woman and they've only been seeing women so far, but Noel has asked whether you would try out.'
"I said, 'That's very nice, but I haven't seen Bake Off.' "
Matt later watched a few episodes and agreed to a screen test, which took place in a garden centre, but he "didn't really mind" if he didn't land the job because he had the American show to fall back on.
He said: "I was in the garden centre and, I say this in a nice way, I didn't really mind if I wasn't the host of the Bake Off. Just because I had this other job. I was quite free and easy and mucking about.
"I said, 'It's very nice but I'm not a TV host. You've seen me on the TV, no one wants to see that.'
"I loved the show, but it was more like, 'I don't want to turn on and see me on it. Get someone who can do it properly.' In the afternoon me and Noel got together and we were just improvising and he told me he'd dreamt I was his co-host and then he'd suggested me."
Matt is well known for working alongside David Walliams on sketch shows Little Britain and Come Fly With Me, which have been removed from some streaming platforms due to several controversial scenes, which included the pair using blackface to depict some characters.
When asked if he thinks he was "cruel" or "of the moment" when making Little Britain, he said: "I think empathy is something, usually, that increases as you get older. Until you get really old, then you go the other way. I'm not at peak empathy now. But I think I'm more empathetic.
"Also, I do think the culture of comedy is very different now. In some ways yes [for the better], in some ways no. I'm generally pro-woke. I think woke is about equality and empathy and fairness and all of those things. I don't see those as being bad things. They feel like progress, generally. There are always examples of things not working the way they should, but, generally, I think it's a good thing."
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Matt has now admitted he and David are looking to create a more modern version of Little Britain, and a Come Fly With Me-style show.
Speaking on The Mid Point podcast, he added: "We message each other virtually every day. We have actually come up with an idea for a show. We've got two ideas for TV shows that I think are really, really strong. One is a bit like Come Fly With Me, in terms of it is a particular environment where all our characters would exist.
"The other is almost like how you would do Little Britain if you were creating it today. We like both of those ideas. The thing is, we'd spent 20 years together non-stop and 14 and 15 of those writing in a room together. Very intense.
"There are moments where we would've, organically, taken breaks from each other but we couldn't because of our schedules. So we had a period where we didn't really work together for a long time and we needed a bit of space, really.
"Then I think it was important to reconnect as friends, let's just hang out as friends. So, we've had that period and it's been great. The thing is, right now David writes numerous books a year and he's an amazing father. He's very close with his family. He has a child and obviously the child, should, must, rightly, always come first.
"I don't think anything we do together is going to be as big as what we did before, but it needs to be better than we did before, or at least as good. But for the two of us to sit down and write together, we really want to do it, but it's the practical challenge of being able to. But it's not a lack of desire."
Asked if he would ever want a child, Matt said: "Maybe one day, with the right alchemy."
* The full interview with Matt is on the Mid Point podcast with Gabby Logan, out now.
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