Celebrity baker Paul Hollywood surprised truckers at the Chippenham Pit Stop café when he turned up before dawn today to film a new BBC One programme.

Mr Hollywood, who stars in the British Bake Off with Mary Berry, is making a new programme – Paul Hollywood’s Pies and Puds – which will be on television in November.

He arrived at the motorway cafe, just off the M4 at Junction 17, to cook breakfast with the staff there and also created breakfast pies for several hungry truckers.

The pies, which included a pie with puff pastry, brown sauce, beans and cheese, were made out of ingredients which staff at the cafe use every day to serve their breakfasts.

Mr Hollywood said: “The truckers are going to try the pie, they’re my critics and hopefully they won’t be too harsh.

“The café was reccied by the crew. They said it was a neat place, very smart, and it was a different angle on truckers’ stops so we decided to give it a go.

“It’s great fun branching out from the Bake Off and doing something on my own.

“Anything that gets me in touch with the public I’m there, I love it.”

Staff at the café, who often cook around 200 breakfasts a day, said they were excited to be working with a celebrity chef.

General assistant Teresa Maynard said: “It’s quite exciting being on TV, but it depends on what angle they catch me. We don’t normally get this on a day at work.”

General manager Sue Cringle originally comes from Birkenhead, sharing something in common with Mr Hollywood who was born in nearby Wallasey.

She said: “He’s really nice. I tweeted this morning to say they were filming Paul Hollywood here and when he turned up he said ‘who’s Sue?’.

“I had a cigarette with him this morning and we were talking about home. There’s never a dull moment in here.”

The café’s marking director Hannah Hatherell said: “They’re going round different places in the UK to talk to people about great British food, making it, and showing different people how to do it.

“This is the only truck stop featuring on the programme. They arrived at 5am whilst the truckers were asleep and filmed the opening of the shutters and the front door. Apparently breakfast is a real favourite of his.”

Trucker Simon Connell, who works for Lafarge Tarmac, drove up to the cafe from Barry, near Cardiff.

He said: “It’s a bit of a shock to be honest to find him here, but I’m pleasantly surprised. I come here quite a lot but I’ve never seen any celebrities, it’s not the sort of place you expect to find a celebrity chef.

“I know who he is – my wife watches the Bake Off continuously and it’s one of the programmes I enjoy, so I will give her a text when I get back to my vehicle.”

For information on the Chippenham Pit Stop visit www.chippenhampitstop.co.uk