Is Paul Hollywood about to launch naked Bake Off?

So is this how Channel 4 plans to claw back viewers distraught at the loss of Mary, Mel and Sue?

Paul Hollywood, the only Bake Off star who’s decided to ‘follow the dough’ and up sticks from the BBC, has been pictured chewing the fat with a bunch of German nudists on his Instagram account.

The, er, striking image features the 50-year-old baker – fully clothed, sorry ladies – sitting alongside five nudists, and was apparently taken in the German city of Wolfsburg.

Luckily Paul’s naked pals are all seated and it’s a nice day, so there’s not a soggy bottom in sight.

However, sadly it looks like Naked Bake Off on Channel 4 isn’t on the cards, after all. The photo is actually a still from Paul’s new solo show City Bakes – presumably from a sequence highlighting the dangers of operating a Kenwood Chef without your trousers on.

“[City Bakes] sees me travelling to cities all over the world visiting local bakeries and meeting the bakers who work there,” Hollywood wrote on his website recently. “So far I have been baking in Copenhagen, Munich, London, Madrid and Paris.”

The photo has now rather curiously been deleted.

Meanwhile, the BBC is working on a new show featuring Paul’s former colleagues, and even hinted that it could appear on our screens before Bake Off airs on Channel 4.

“We’ve not ruled anything out, and we could well reunite Mel, Sue and Mary,” a source told The Guardian. “And yes, we could probably get a show out before Channel 4, if we chose to do so. We are looking at lots of ideas, although we are not yet ready to make an announcement.”