There are few shows these days which seem to inspire a nation, and none in the United Kingdom nearly as successful as The Great British Bake Off. In 2015, the top five most-watched television broadcasts of the year were all Bake Off episodes, with the season six series finale winning a whopping 15.16 million viewers as Nadiya Hussain’s iced buns brought us all to an emotional climax. Now boasting an average audience almost five times the size of its inaugural season, Bake Off has risen more than even the most implausibly well kneaded dough.
If something rises so unexpectedly, perhaps it ought to be punched down and left to prove itself a second time through. But Bake Off has been roughly handled indeed by Love Productions, the show’s owner and maker. Having gone with the BBC like jam and sponge or scone and currants, now Bake Off has been sold to the highest bidder, which in this case happens to be Channel 4, who have reportedly paid £25 million per year for the pleasure. The current season – the seventh in total and the third on BBC One, after the switch from BBC Two in 2014 – will be the last on the national broadcaster.
It will also be the last for Mel and Sue, the light comedy duo who have hitherto hosted Bake Off. The sudden news has cut to the soggy core of an already deflated Britain. The move from the BBC to Channel 4 has been portrayed as a betrayal, an act of sabotage, even something akin to murder, with numerous analysts suggesting Love Productions have killed off their golden goose, whose fat will presumably be rendered for a peculiar form of suet pudding.
Such fears seem fair enough, because The Great British Bake Off is all about immersion. It is effectively a form of slow television, something cosy and quietly aspirational, whetting the taste buds while providing respite from the sheer nonsense of British comedies, crime dramas, and biased news reporting. We transfix ourselves for an hour watching the gentle rise and fall of flour goods in a warm tent. More than concerns about advertising deals and other changes in format, the simple breaking up of the hour will spoil the careful lattice which holds Bake Off together.
Of course as cakes well know, nothing is as immersive as sticking one’s head in the oven. And that is what thousands of viewers have done in a form of protest over Love Productions’ money-grubbing decision. With faces pressed against the grimy glass, reddening as the warm air circulates by convection, they mouth almost indecipherably ‘Give us back our Bake Off!’. The nation might be listening, but this is one bake that ought to be cut short, for nobody wants to slip on the oven mitts and open the door only to find a human crispily well done.
