A famous neighbour of Dame Mary Berry has given insight into the true nature of the baking legend, describing her as an "icon". As culinary favourite Mary celebrates her 91st birthday today (March 24), radio presenter Vernon Kay has mentioned that he occasionally sees her "in the village", revealing that he and the former Bake Off judge are actually "local" to each other.

Vernon, who resides in a six-bedroom house in the town of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, with his wife, Tess Daly, disclosed this revelation on Tuesday morning's episode of his BBC Radio 2 programme. After acknowledging that it's Mary's birthday today, Vernon aired a BBC archive clip from her 90s series Mary Berry at Home, where she guided viewers through the process of making a Canterbury tart. Following this, Vernon stated: "I see her every now and again in the village, Mary Berry. She's local to us, or we're local to her. Very, very sweet lady. Always good value and an icon."

He didn't specify the exact village he was referring to on air, but previous reports have located Mary's former residence in the village of Penn, where she is believed to have lived for more than 30 years in a Grade II-listed property.

However, it's thought that Mary has since resided in Henley-on-Thames, a town situated on the left bank of the River Thames in south Oxfordshire, with her husband, Paul J.M. Hunnings, from 2019.

Penn is merely a nine-minute drive to Beaconsfield, whilst Henley-on-Thames is somewhat further afield, approximately 28 minutes by car, which would indicate that Mary and Vernon continue to reside within 30 miles of one another.

Meanwhile, an amusing anecdote has recently re-emerged about Mary's encounter with the law, which she previously recalled during an episode of The Graham Norton Show, whilst speaking to Claudia Winkleman.

She explained that 25 years earlier, she was invited to travel to the US to participate in cookery demonstrations. However, she would ultimately find herself in trouble as she's "very particular" about "getting everything right".

Mary said: "I also try to look ahead, so I thought I ought to have my recipes, all the ingredients, weighed out in case the plane is late, or in case the connections aren't right.

"I can go straight on stage to do my cookery demonstrations. So, I weighed out each recipe in little bags, and I had the flour and the sugar and everything grouped together, so that I could lift it out for the first recipe and so on.

"When we arrived, there were dogs, and I love dogs, and I was just ready to go and they all, three of them came up with their noses sort of like this [does the impression], and I thought 'come along', but they didn't want to know me.

"They just began and then suddenly the airport became empty, and there were just uniformed people, and I was with Lucy Young, my assistant. They parted us - Lucy there, me there - into two cells."

Claudia jokingly remarked Mary was in a cell with a "selection of packets containing white powder". It was additionally revealed that police enquired whether Mary was anticipating to "make money" from them.

She responded: "Oh, I do, and my fee has already been agreed."