Bake Off

[Pagnell]

Yes, I'm a sad bastard but I quite like this program. The production company that makes it (which is 70% owned by BSkyB) has chased the wedge and have signed a new contract with C4 after the BBC rightly refused to be held to ransom and pay the reported £25m a year asking price. Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc have already quit, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood follow suit.

This program could end up ceasing to exist before C4 get to show a single episode. Without these four I really can't see it working.

 

[Abertawe]

Yeah bake off is Hollywood & Mary. BBC should just make a new show with them.

 

[Pagnell]

I reckon that's what will happen. I wonder if the premise is copyrighted, it would be funny if all four just ended up making exactly the same program just with a different name under the BBC. If Channel 4 signed up to a £75m deal over three years for this program without locking in Hollywood and Berry (we already know Perkins and Giedroyc weren't part of the new contract), then they're a bunch of fuckwits.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Oh, I'm an UNAPOLOGETIC Bake Off fan. Bit disappointed with the news, I must say. It just seems like a programme that's tailor-made for the BBC. I'm not particularly down on Channel 4 - they do some things well, and I know they have a public service remit, but I can't really imagine that a commercial operator will handle THIS SORT OF THING quite so well (can't wait for the inevitable PREVIEWS and RECAPS before and after every ad break).

I think the chief problem is that transitions like this are rarely seamless. One of the show's great strengths is its simplicity - it seems to have flourished largely as a result of a refusal to fuck about with a winning formula. Tinker with it in any meaningful way and the magic may be lost. As such Channel 4's failure to ensure all the "stars" are on board does appear a real misstep. The departure of Mel & Sue, so key to the tone of the show, is a big loss imo and the fact that they're seemingly unable to air a regular series until 2018, instead having to plug the gap with a celebrity one, doesn't really seem to auger well. Would be quite funny if the BBC just replicated something similar without the aid of Love Productions.

 

[Stevencc]

I hope it dies a slow and painful death.

I'll find a laughing gif later to rub it in a bit more.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

I doughn't believe you just said that. That's rolly not very nice. I'm not going to rise to it but I think you knead to revise your opinion.

 

[Stevencc]

It's not my fault Mel and Sue flou(r)nced.

 

[Aber gas]

Are Mel and Sue still a thing?
Fair play

This is a bad joke.
I'm quite aware that one of them died so there is no need for any angst.
Good day
Aber gas.

 

[Pagnell]

I read something in the paper this morning that gave me a chuckle.

"Channel 4 have paid £75m for a tent."

It could end up being closer to the truth than first realised. If Hollywood and Berry decide to stay at the BBC (you can pretty much guarantee the BBC are either already in talks with them about another cookery venture or will be soon) then Bake Off has nowhere to go. There is no way in hell this program will work half as well with other judges and presenters, they make the show what it is. Plus, most important of all, I quite fancy Mel Giedroyc in an older woman, mumsy way.

 

[AnimoEtFide]

C4's Bake Off looking set to be the next Top Gear. Maybe Chris Evans should have a go at presenting this too?

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

I read something in the paper this morning that gave me a chuckle.

"Channel 4 have paid £75m for a tent."

It could end up being closer to the truth than first realised. If Hollywood and Berry decide to stay at the BBC (you can pretty much guarantee the BBC are either already in talks with them about another cookery venture or will be soon) then Bake Off has nowhere to go. There is no way in hell this program will work half as well with other judges and presenters, they make the show what it is. Plus, most important of all, I quite fancy Mel Giedroyc in an older woman, mumsy way.

Agree with the rest of the post but...

...are you not both in your 40s?! Apologies if you are far more youthful and she far older than I envisage but I'm not sure you can legitimately fancy someone in an older woman, mumsy way if this is the case.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Contacted Saddlerrad about the matter earlier via PM, but he didn't reply, so I'm sharing it with the group in the hope that we can stage some sort of intervention.

Quite frankly I was speechless to receive this.

 

[RavenBish]

certainly gives a whole new meaning to her "Two-Way Peanut Butter Churros" HAHA

 

[Max]

C4's Bake Off looking set to be the next Top Gear. Maybe Chris Evans should have a go at presenting this too?

That was my first choice, but I don't think Channel 4 would be silly enough to appoint him.

Seeing as what makes Mel and Sue good is there supportive, slightly maternal thing, I think C4 will get someone in this mould, while making it a bit more alternative. Genuinely, I wouldn't be surprised if they got Grayson Perry. Claudia Winkleman would be good, but I imagine her BBC contract stops her working in addition for other broadcasters. Ditto Graham Norton. The rumour I have heard is Jamie Oliver, and I think if this happens the programme will become unwatchably annoying.

Worst case scenario re: judges is that Mary chooses to retire from it, but Paul cocking Hollywood stays. If Mary does go, the obvious choice would be to get Naadiya Hussain, but I think she might now feel loyal to the BBC.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Am I the only one who finds Mel and Sue a bit annoying and repetitive?

 

[Son of Cod]

 

[Pagnell]

Contacted Saddlerrad about the matter earlier via PM, but he didn't reply, so I'm sharing it with the group in the hope that we can stage some sort of intervention.

Quite frankly I was speechless to receive this.

Nice Photoshop skills.

 

[JimJams]

Yeah Pags, "Photoshop".

 

[Pagnell]

I've just looked up which one Candice is, and discovered she was raised in a pub I used to live about half of a mile away from back in the 80s. Small world.

 

[mowgli]

Am I the only one who finds Mel and Sue a bit annoying and repetitive?

I can't stand them,Sue Perkins has to be the worst comedienne on tv right now as she's the female version of Stephen K Amos.

 

[Bobbin']

Am I the only one who finds Mel and Sue a bit annoying and repetitive?

No, never known a 'comedy duo' to be so unfunny.

They were the only thing I disliked about the show, great that they're leaving. Worth the 75mil alone.

 

[smat]

BERRY HAS GONE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37437907

 

[smat]

I can't stand them,Sue Perkins has to be the worst comedienne on tv right now as she's the female version of Stephen K Amos.

I love all her stuff about her Nigerian family though.

 

[Pagnell]

And Hollywood signs a 3 year deal with C4. I believed all four would stay at the BBC, especially after Perkins and Giedroyc almost immediately said they're not moving, but it was obvious all along that Hollywood was the most likely to go with the show given he's the only one that had little to nothing in the way of a TV/Media career prior to the show starting in 2010. Basically, without Bake Off he's a nothing. Channel 4 also likely offered him big bucks as none of the four moving would have been a complete disaster, at least there is a tiny little bit of continuity now, albeit far too little to save the show for me. It will be unrecognisable without Berry in particular.

I fully expect the new C4 show to be a bag of shite, with Hollywood playing out his Simon Cowell of food persona even more now he'll inevitably view himself as the top dog.

 

[mnb089mnb]

Allsopp has been at Location, Location, Location for almost two decades now, but for me she'd be perfect to front up a more right-leaning post-Brexit GBBO.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

That's a GREAT shout for me. She has been doing the craft stuff recently as well, of course. Would you possibly contemplate bringing Phil along too? Their on-screen chemistry is tremendous, and we already have ample evidence that they are a firm favourite of the middle-England, middle-class, aspirant home-owner demographic that Channel 4 were surely looking to court when they signed the deal to bring the franchise under their aegis.

Or (a left field shout here, admittedly)... Kevin McCloud? Worth a punt?

 

[Pagnell]

Nigel Farage? Perfect timing.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Chris Evans.

 

[mowgli]

Jeremy Clarkson.

 

[ZianfrancoGoal]

how about:
Alan Sugar.