Great British Bake-Off Loses Third Presenter

Celebrity chef Mary Berry has annonuced her intention to leave The Great British Bake Off upon the conclusion of its current seventh season.

Since the week-by-week baking contest began in 2010, Mary Berry has been one of four mainstays in front of camera.

Along with presenters Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, as well as bread-making expert Paul Hollywood, the quartet guided participants and viewers of The Great British Bake Off through the trials and tribulations of a high pressure competition to become Star Baker and, eventually, the season's ultimate winner.

But after production company Love Productions successfully negotiated the transfer of "GBBO" from the UK's BBC to Channel 4 on September 12, three of the shows' four faces have departed the annual cultural event.

Berry joins Perkins and Giedroyc in leaving The Great British Bake Off and will continue working with the BBC, the broadcaster announced in a news post Paul Hollywood subsequently confirmed his intentions to remain on board with a tweet: "I'm staying in the ['GBBO'] tent with the bakers where I belong. I want to thank Mary. I'll miss her but she has made the right decision for her."

Season 7 of The Great British Bake Off began on August 24 and its ten episodes are scheduled for weekly broadcast until October 26, 2016. In syndication, the format currently covers nearly 20 other territories.