Loyalty is not a quality usually associated with the cut-throat world of television but last week the presenter Mary Berry gave the genre a rare and welcome sprinkling. Careers of television personalities are so fickle, that wallets must often be put before finer judgement.

Yet when the independent producers of the BBC’s Great British Bake Off sold their format to Channel 4, Berry chose not to be sold along with it. The 81-year-old presenter is sticking with her beloved Beeb. She is not the only one. Presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins will also stay but – cue loud panto-style booing and hissing – Bake Off bad boy Paul Hollywood goes over to what my parents used to call “the other side”.

Berry has been praised from great heights for her loyalty. We just do not see the like any more, says everyone. Only recently we have seen the departure of the Top Gear team for commercial pastures, a little shamelessly and just a bit too triumphant in the circumstances. Even the very much treasured Clare Balding makes the odd naughty presentational foray to Channel 4 Racing.