GBBO2018

I woke up with cold symptoms and so laid low today. Luckily, I have good entertainment. I’m reading a really good book, The Truth Commissioner, and the fabulous Great British Bake Off is back on, as is Extra Slice, where a group of comedians sift through the events of that week’s contest.

I may have noted this when the first new GBBO season started. I’m amazed by how good the cast is. Three-quarters of the cast changed when the show moved from the BBC to Channel 4, an independent channel. Everyone was devastated by the break up of the GBBO family, particularly the loss of the legendary Mary Berry, who has published 75 cookery books, including the Baking Bible. She was like your favourite aunt, by turns indulgent and strict, and always beautifully dressed. But her replacement, Prue Leith, is even better. She opened and ran a Michelin starred restaurant for decades and ran her own cooking schools, so her cookery chops are even more impressive. And she has a very quirky sense of style, including an ever changing selection of artsy necklaces.

British TV is famous for its detective dramas--there is one after another that the public get behind. I have a hard time watching them because they are SO intense. GBBO also is tense--the bakers creating complicated cakes/breads/biscuits under very tight deadlines. But there are two comedians on the show to keep things like--Sandy Toksvig and Noel Fielding. And the contestants, while competitive, are incredibly nice to each other. Here is an excerpt from an interview with the team that underscores what makes GBBO so wonderful:

Is the show reality TV?

Prue Of course it is, in the sense that these are real people and we’re watching them and seeing their journey and all that stuff. But what makes it different from most reality shows is that the results are not cooked by the producers. They genuinely just film what happens.

Noel It’s filmed like a documentary.

Prue No one wants to humiliate them, they’re not chosen in order to be laughed at, there isn’t a desire to set people up for a fall.

Do you think that’s what’s given it such a long life? The niceness?

Prue I think so. I think the whole world needs a comfortable place which is not aggressive and scary and tiring and stressful.

Noel A happy place.

Casey Amen.

Speaking of happy places, this is one of mine, which I visited last week. The walled garden at Rowallane, a National Trust property.

9-7