Mary Berry: I was arrested at the airport and put in a cell

Mary Berry was arrested at an airport on suspicion of drug trafficking, she has claimed.

The former Great British Bake Off judge had packed baking ingredients - flour and sugar - into plastic pouches and attempted to take them onto a flight to the US.

Speaking on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One, Berry said she was put in a cell while police investigated.

She recalled: “I was arrested 25 years ago. I was going to the US to do some cookery demonstrations and was worried that there might be problems so I weighed out all the ingredients - flour, sugar - and put them all in little plastic bags.

“When I arrived at the airport the sniffer dogs made a beeline for me. Suddenly I was surrounded by uniformed people and my assistant and I were put in separate cells. It was alarming.

“When I was asked if I was going to make money from the stuff, I said, ‘I do and my fee has already been agreed.’”

Berry was appearing on the show with Claudia Winkleman to talk about their new BBC series, Britain’s Best Home Cook.

Winkleman joked that the airport incident revealed Berry’s “darker side”.

:: The Graham Norton Show is on tonight on BBC One at 10.35pm