Mary Berry: I have no desire to be a centenarian
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Version 0 of 1. Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry has said she does not want to live beyond 90 and would like her children to be able to "give me a pill" if she became a burden to her family. The cookery writer turned TV star, 79, said she had no wish to live as long as her mother, who died aged 105, saying very old age had no appeal "if you haven't got your marbles". But she said the law meant "you can do nothing about it". Berry told the Radio Times: "I have no desire to be a centenarian. I think 90 is a great time. You've had a good innings. You have to deal with the cards that have been dealt, of course, but I don't think very old age, if you haven't got your marbles, can be very nice. "My mother was in very good health until the last few months. And health is key, isn't it?" Berry, whose father died in the 1990s aged 85, added: "I certainly don't want to be a burden, although under British law you can do nothing about it. "But I would love my children to be able to give me a pill, although of course I do understand that could be abused." Berry appears alongside fellow judge Paul Hollywood on The Great British Bake Off, which transferred from BBC2 to BBC1 last month. Last week's episode, watched by more than 8 million viewers, proved controversial after a contestant was accused of sabotage for removing a fellow participant's baked alaska from the freezer. Berry said of her parents: "My father was the leader of the family and we thought [my mother] would go downhill after he died, but far from it. "She was very cross that everyone kept dying around her: 'Another member of the bridge team gone,' that sort of thing. She drove until she was 95, when we had to persuade the doctor to say she couldn't do it any longer." The issue of assisted dying has been keenly debated in the UK, with research published last month showing that one in five of more than 600 people who travelled to Switzerland to end their lives were from the UK. Campaign group Dignity in Dying said the numbers showed that the law was not working. Berry said she was "totally happy" with her life. "I have no remaining ambitions," she said. "I want to continue to be a good granny and a good wife. My great privilege is I can say 'no' to other things, so I only do what I love. And I really do love Bake Off – they're my other family." Berry addressed the issue after taking part in BBC1 genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? which revealed that her great-great-grandfather was a master baker. "I almost had a seizure," she said. "It was really thrilling." |