In May 2026, a website posted what it described as an obituary for the Sewing Bee presenter. Quotes attributed to the production team described warmth, a career the public had followed for years, and the loss of “our dear colleague and friend.” The person mourned was never named.
No Great British Sewing Bee presenter has died. Sophie Willan is hosting Series 12, every former presenter of the show is alive and working, and both judges are still in place.
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Who Presents the Great British Sewing Bee in 2026?
Sophie Willan took over as host in late 2025 after the BBC confirmed her appointment in September of that year. She made her first appearance in the role on 24 December 2025, presenting the Celebrity Christmas Special on BBC One with judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young. Her son Elijah had been born twenty-four days earlier.
Willan is a BAFTA-winning comedian, writer and actor from Bolton. She created and starred in Alma’s Not Normal, a BBC Two comedy that ran from 2020 to 2024 and drew directly from her own life, winning two BAFTAs: Best Comedy Writer and Best Female Comedy Performance. She grew up with a mother who was a heroin addict, was raised largely by her grandmother and spent time in the care system. In 2015, she founded Stories of Care, a charity giving writing and creative opportunities to people from care backgrounds.
BBC commissioning editor Cal Turner confirmed her appointment in September 2025: “We are delighted to welcome Sophie Willan to The Great British Sewing Bee. With her boundless enthusiasm and energy, Sophie will bring her own unique spark to the sewing room alongside Patrick and Esme. We’d also like to thank Sara Pascoe for three brilliant series. Her humour and charm have been a joy for viewers and stitchers alike.”
Why Did Sara Pascoe Leave the Great British Sewing Bee?
Pascoe hosted the show across Series 8 in 2022, Series 9 in 2023 and Series 11 in 2025, taking Series 10 off on maternity leave while Kiell Smith-Bynoe stepped in. Her final episode aired on 16 September 2025, with the BBC announcing her departure five days before that broadcast and confirming Willan as her replacement at the same time. After returning from maternity leave for Series 11, Pascoe told the Radio Times she had valued the break and “came back feeling very comfortable in the role.”
All Great British Sewing Bee Presenters, in Order
The show launched on BBC Two in April 2013, went off air after Series 4 in 2016 and returned on BBC Two in 2019. It moved to BBC One from Series 6 in 2020.
| Presenter | Series | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Claudia Winkleman | Series 1 to 4 | 2013 to 2016 |
| Joe Lycett | Series 5, 6 and 7 | 2019 to 2021 |
| Sara Pascoe | Series 8, 9 and 11 | 2022 to 2025 |
| Kiell Smith-Bynoe | Series 10 | 2024 |
| Sophie Willan | Series 12 onwards | 2026 |
Claudia Winkleman is currently presenting Celebrity Traitors 2026 for the BBC and launched her own BBC One chat show earlier this year. Joe Lycett appears alongside her in that cast.
Who Are the Great British Sewing Bee Judges?
Patrick Grant and Esme Young have judged the Sewing Bee since 2013 and 2016 respectively, across five different presenting teams, without either of them missing a series.
Patrick Grant
Before Grant arrived on Savile Row, he had spent years in the United States working as a ski instructor, a nanny, a camp counsellor and a model agent. He is a graduate of the University of Leeds, where he studied Materials Science and Engineering, and later completed an MBA at New College Oxford.
While finishing that MBA in 2005, he came across a small advertisement in the Financial Times: For Sale. Please write to 16 Savile Row. He visited, sold his house and car, borrowed from a bank and from friends, and bought Norton and Sons, a tailoring business established in 1821 that had dressed King Edward VII, Winston Churchill and three American presidents.
“I had never planned to move into fashion,” he has said, “but I had always loved handmade things, historic brands and men’s style. Purely by chance, I found out that Norton and Sons was for sale. It sat perfectly at the intersection of all of these things.”
Since taking on Norton and Sons, Grant has founded Community Clothing, a social enterprise supporting garment manufacturing across the UK, and in 2015 acquired Cookson and Clegg, a 160-year-old clothing factory in Blackburn, rescuing it from closure. He writes a monthly column for the Financial Times, holds an honorary professorship at Glasgow Caledonian University and has published a book on Savile Row tailoring. He has been in the judging chair since the show’s first episode on 2 April 2013.
Esme Young
Young joined the judging panel for Series 4 in 2016, when she was sixty-seven years old. Born in 1949 and trained at Central Saint Martins, she co-founded Swanky Modes in Camden Town in the early 1970s, a fashion label that became influential in London’s art and music scene. Her film costume work includes Trainspotting and the black bunny suit Renรฉe Zellweger wore in Bridget Jones’s Diary. She has also worked with Cher, Grayson Perry and Leonardo DiCaprio. She has been partially deaf since childhood and has rented the same one-bedroom flat in Islington since 1982.
A producer who met her at a dinner party put her forward for the role, and after auditioning alongside sixteen other candidates, she was offered the job. “I’ve never been frightened of cameras,” she has said. “It’s such a positive show to be a part of.” She has since published an autobiography, Behind the Seams.
When Does Great British Sewing Bee Series 12 Start?
As of June 2026, the BBC has not confirmed a broadcast date for Series 12, which is currently filming with Sophie Willan as host and Patrick Grant and Esme Young returning as judges. Based on how recent series have been scheduled, the show is expected on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the second half of 2026.
The claim that a Sewing Bee presenter had died spread without ever naming anyone, because there was no one to name. The show has had five different hosts across thirteen years and remained the same programme throughout. Sophie Willan stepped into the presenter role twenty-four days after giving birth and is now hosting Series 12. Patrick Grant has been in the judging chair since the show’s first episode, and Esme Young, who took the role at sixty-seven, is still there.
