It’s fair to say that I totally missed this the first time around. And the second. And probably would’ve kept ignoring it in the same way that I do with things that Normal people watch on terrestrial TV. Liz got interested though, so I spotted various bits of it as I breezed through the room, and couldn’t help but form a mild interest. Competitive baking’s one thing, but the fostering of a tense and increasingly brutal environment made it less pleasant to watch. And starting as we did with the more recent seasons and then working backwards demonstrated how much more complex and sophisticated the show has become (compare Season 7 and its near-constant stream of Genoese Sponges to the episode of Season 1 where the judges remarked “Oooh, we’ve never had a Genoese Sponge on this show before!”). I enjoyed the Perkins/Giedroyc/Berry dynamic far more that the Fielding/Toksvig/Leith series, albeit the prime drivers were Fielding’s disappointingly banal presence and Paul Hollywood’s increasing meanness. Hey ho – it inspired a bit of baking in the B. Standing house, and Liz bagged a new Kitchen Aid for Christmas as a result. 👍
The Great British Bake Off
