The Great British Bake Off final proved the value
of the communal television experience now enhanced by social media. For all
talk of on demand tv there is something to be said for everyone watching
something unfold at the same time even more so if they can comment live to
everyone else about it. Even this year’s twelve bakers watched it together
despite knowing the result. Over all more than 14 million tuned in though
anyone looking for clues about the show’s impending change of channel would
have been unlucky as the final was filmed in June before anyone knew it would
be the last BBC Bake Off. As for the
result, unlike previous years, it was never really in doubt that steely Candice
would take the crown though her reaction to the win was quite unexpected.
There are
fewer doubters these days than back in 2010 when people scoffed at the very
idea of a tv show set in a tent in which competitors would bake but GBBO has soared since those modest
beginnings to become one of the most watched series of this decade. It has done
so because, unlike many other reality shows, the public does not get a vote.
All the frantic tweeting cannot influence the two judges’ decisions which are
based on exactly what they should be based on – the quality of the baking.
There’s no studio audience either, in fact there’s no studio. The tent is a key
reason for the show’s success creating an intimacy between us and the bakers.
Over the weeks we really do feel like we know them. They’re not celebrities,
they have no particular tales of woe to encourage our support. All they do is
bake and chat to the camera.
Bake Off is also a masterclass in the underrated skill
of editing. When you think that somehow they manage to boil five hours of three
separate bakers into about 12 minutes, it is a marvel. Yet you don’t seem to
miss a thing. Every slight spill, every triumphant tray emerging from the oven,
every quip from a roving Mel and Sue is captured in delightful packages that
make the hour sail by. And if you pay close attention, you’ll pick up plenty of
baking do’s and some don’t’s as well.
The four
presenters have also gelled together so well. Mel and Sue were already an
established double act but here they have reached a new plateau with their
mixture of funny voices, surreal observations, innuendo and the many different
ways they find to shout “Bake!” at the start of each round.
Mary
Berry and Paul Hollywood are like the oddest couple ever. She is as regal as a
monarch with a barely disguised delight if any of the cakes contain a soupcon
of alcohol while he is gimlet eyed and unforgiving of even the slightest
sogginess. Though the show sticks to a formula- signature bake, technical bake
and showstopper, it somehow seems as fresh as a fresh scone every week.
It has
also retained it’s amiability. However seriously some of the bakers really,
really want to win they are supportive of each other and seem to want to make
the best of the experience. A diverse age range also makes things more
interesting; this year we had contestants from their early 20s to 60s. There
are always some stand out characters and 2016 brought us a particularly rich
mixture whisked down until we ended up with the final three. There was Jane, a
mother who rather wonderfully threw caution to the wind and guessed her way
through timings for the five hour finale showstopper baking by instinct alone.
Engineer Andrew on the other hand had a spreadsheet that marked out what he should
be doing every five minutes or something. Both of them seemed so delighted to
be there whereas Candice had the stare of someone who knew the trophy was in
her grasp. She’d been the most consistent of the three throughout the series
and already had one hand on the title the week she made something in the shape
of a peacock. The result is announced during a picnic of friends, family and
the rest of the year’s contestants (finally someone to eat all this baking) and
when Candice’s name was announced she seemed totally shocked, her steeliness
peeling away in moments.
I’m going
to really miss Bake Off I think. It’s
still going to be there of course, but on Channel 4 complete with four sets of
adverts, that annoying post ad recap and no Mary, Mel or Sue. I bet they even
change the opening credits to make them more funky. The very essence of Bake Off’s success is its congeniality
with just a soupcon of rivalry showing. If C4 do try to make it faster or
change the ingredients too much then they may find the show develops its own
soggy bottom.
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