FIRST PERSON: Newport's Bake Off star Jon Jenkins

I grew up in New Inn and lived there until I was 20, then I moved to Newport and I’ve been here ever since.

My childhood was great. My mum was a nurse, my dad was a mechanic.

I really enjoyed school life. I went to Green Lawn Junior School, then I went to West Monmouth School and then to Croesyceiliog.

One of my reports said: “Jonathan has some amazing ideas for wasting time and messing about.”

That summed it up, really. I wasn’t a total bad lad or anything, I just preferred to have a laugh than to get on with the hard work.

I moved to Newport after I’d been working for three or four years.

I’ve had lots of jobs, around 25 or so different jobs.

I started off working in Mon & Border Motor Factors, then I worked for an insurance company, I had a few bars jobs, I did some factory work, then I sold computer games from the InShops in Cwmbran.

I’ve been a driving instructor, and I was a photographer for 11 years, doing weddings and then mainly baby and family portraits at my studio in Whitchurch in Cardiff.

Now I deliver blood between hospitals, but I really want to set up my own bakery.

I’ve got four children, James (22), Emily (20) who is expecting my first grandchild in December, Lucy (11), and Hannah (10).

I’ve been married to my wife Debbie for 13 years. We met working together with people who had learning disabilities – that’s another job I’ve had.

We got engaged on Tredegar House lake. I think we were on the last boat out there before they took the boats away.

It was when Debbie and I got married that I started cooking seriously, but I’ve always loved my cooking and the baking side of it.

I’d never thought of baking as a separate thing. It was always just part of my cooking, but then baking sort of took over about five or six years ago.

I’d bake bread on a regular basis and I liked trying new things – part of it was watching Bake Off. The kids were always watching it and say: “Dad, can you make that?” or I’d see something and fancy having a go at it.

Last year, when I first applied for Bake Off, they kept talking about baking and I was talking about cooking – then I realised they only wanted to know about the baking side of things.

I didn’t get on the show but I got to the final stage, but then this year I was lucky enough to get on.

My family were brilliant, but the girls didn’t know until about week five that I was actually on the show.

It’s a big secretive thing and we were afraid they might blab, so we invented a story that I was on a TV show cooking but I didn’t know the name of it because it was a new show.

Then after around week five Lucy guessed – she’s not dull!

They were amazing at keeping it quiet. It was difficult for my wife because she hates lying.

I treated it as a sort of game. I loved it.

I had to go to film every weekend and then I was home during the week, carrying on with my day job and having a normal life, but also having to prepare my recipes for the following weekend.

The atmosphere with the other contestants was absolutely brilliant.

It wasn’t like you were competing with them. It was more like you were competing against yourself with other people in the room.

It’s very hard to describe, but we helped each other out.

It’s not like you’re on the football pitch. The other team doesn’t say “Oh, you nearly scored then” and give you a hand, but in the tent it’s not like that.

There’s a really good atmosphere and you’re like a family because you’re all different.

We were 12 completely different people who came from all walks of life, from someone who drives for a living to somebody who was a physicist.

I was watching The Apprentice the other day and I said to my wife that it was the complete opposite to the tent.

But it was tense in the tent at times, when it was against the clock.

People might say “it’s only a cake” but Bake Off is like the Olympics of baking, so you wouldn’t say to an athlete that “it’s only running around a track”.

It does get really tense. You’re doing something you love but baking is so volatile.

You see the accidents happen in the tent and that’s because you’re inexperienced, you’re a home baker and you may never have tried baking before in that type of environment.

It was a very hot summer, too, so you were up against a lot of things, but it was fun – don’t get me wrong – I loved it.

Filming only took up about eight hours of the weekend. We’d all sit down and have dinner together afterwards, and we’d all have a laugh on the bus.

It was great fun and the crew were amazing, they were so professional.

After about ten minutes of the first-ever bake, you didn’t worry about the cameras any more.

You always had to explain [to the cameras] what you were doing in full sentences, but sometimes the cameramen would come up when we were really busy and they wouldn’t leave us alone until we’d given them a full answer.

I remember one of the contestants got quite irate at one point.

The judges were great. They were firm but fair, and always told it like it was, which didn’t please my mum at times.

She would ring me up and say: “I can’t believe [Paul Hollywood] said that” about my baking.

There’s a big barrier between you and the judges at first, but they got chattier as the weeks went on and we got to know them a bit better.

The presenters were lovely, they were really good fun to have around.

There were a lot of good characters in the tent this year.

Rahul had no sense of humour and of course, with Noel [Fielding] having a great sense of humour, it made brilliant TV.

My favourite memories were having the handshake from Paul Hollywood and coming in first in the technical bake – they were the two highest points for me – and also the amazing friends that I made.

Hopefully that can keep going.

I lost weight in the tent, some of the shirts I wore are a bit baggy on me.

I think the stress of it all made me lost the weight.

I think the kids still find my shirts a bit of a novelty, but my wife isn’t always happy with it.

She puts up with it and that’s a big part of our relationship – she puts up with a lot from me.

Next, I’m setting up my own little home bakery, doing celebration cakes, and I’m doing some events in December and judging a few competitions for some charity events.

I’ll be at a few food festivals next year, and I’m looking forward to doing more of it.

But I’m still an amateur home baker, I’m not a professional at all.