The Wombles helped Sandi Toksvig beat school bullies at boarding school

Sandi Toksvig says she learned to talk like a Womble to avoid being picked on at school.

The former Bake Off host watched the 1970s kids’ teatime TV show about Uncle Bulgaria, Orinoco, Tomsk and their litter-picking chums to lose her American twang.

Danish-born Sandi spent her early childhood in the States before moving to the UK. But when she started at a boarding school aged 14, other girls ignored her because of her US accent.

So Sandi, 62, copied the Wombles, who were voiced by actor Bernard Cribbins.

And she perfected her English vowels by mimicking the posh star of classic 1945 film Brief Encounter.

The QI presenter said: “I arrived with a thick American accent and I had never lived in Britain. None of the other students would speak to me.

“One night we watched Brief Encounter and Celia Johnson has got a wonderful clipped accent and I thought I will just speak like that. It was just that or the Wombles of Wimbledon. There really wasn’t a lot of choice.”

Sandi says booze sometimes makes her slip back into an American accent.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, she also admitted she was not into Bake Off before being hired to host the C4 hit. “I think that my finger is not on the cultural pulse,” she said.

On quitting the show in January, Sandi laughed: “Never look back. I had three years of watching other people make meringue and then I thought that will probably do. And I went off.”

Bake Off returns later this year, with Matt Lucas, 46, replacing Sandi.

The Wombles, based on books by Elisabeth Beresford, chronicled the lives of furry creatures who recycle rubbish they pick up on Wimbledon Common, south west London.

It even spawned a costumed pop band – with hits such as Remember You’re A Womble – a film and stage show.