On Your Marks, Get Set, Baaaaake! A Thread for Great British Baking Show / Bake Off & all of its sundry delights

Kate's hair fascinated me. Like this amazing curly braided amazingness. And she seemed like she'd be cool to hang out with

Speaking of hair, Chetna's haircut is soooo stylish, love it.

yes! also her grey is so good

Chetna was my baking crush

Russet Gandalf was p cute but I think I kiiiind of fancy Richard? Dimples + pencil behind the ear is a winning combo

and i have a girlcrush on Nancy. She's saucy

It's only natural that the Queen of Spices has pepper in her hair! xxxps

Very distracted by Deborah and those pictures of her husband and child which are just really hard to make sense of given her apparent age.

And why are there only photos to show? Did she steal someone else's photos like she steals ingredients??

dude that's pretty ageist & mean

I mean yeah, sorry...but...don't you wonder about people's lives? There's a story there.

there's a differemce between "wondering" & "side-eyeing"

I finished Season 2 of English bake off & it's pretty marvellous

Jo's such a love - bubbly but terrified, Essex mum finally doing "something for herself". I read online that her husband was doing 16 years in jail for money laundering at the time. Which just made me love her more. she seemed like she mightve had a hard life & that confirmed it

and MaryAnne!! What a treat. Rugby champion, baking historian, mum, wizard. Amazing. She has a book!

Janet was hilarious - mr veg said her facial expressions reminded him of Beaker from the muppets

lots of great women in this season.

As for the guys -

dreamboat Rod turned out to be a bit of a disaster, very disorganized, bit too cavalier. he definitely put the wind up Paul, I've never seen the silver fox come down on a baker like he did with Rod.

sweet baby Jason had sooooooo much potential, very talented for one so young but was just a tad too green for the big leagues. Definitely fun to watch though.

I just finished the Chetna season! I really admired Richard for his ability to laugh at himself, and it was sad to see him crumble in the last week, though I would've been fine with any of the final three winning. (When they showed a picture of a young Richard with a full head of hair, I can see why Veg might crush on him!)

One episode into the next season, and watching Ruby struggle with her lack of self-confidence is so painful (I empathize with her completely), I'm not sure I can handle a whole season's worth (I caught a random episode of this season on PBS and know she hangs around for at least a little while).

Rubes is one of my favorites, I love her so much.

She looks like the daughter of Saffron Burrows and Elizabeth Berkeley, plus her look of utter astonishment when she was Star Baker in bread week was lolz.

That aside, this cast is so much less likeable than the previous one! So many stubborn people and/or people whose insecurities are showing. :(

Yeah... it grew on me though. Francis is kind of a crazy sorcerer with her amazing showstoppers, i'm in awe of her creativity

Slight crush on Kimberley from that season. And Howard is all-time great.

Richard had a weird Martin Freeman vibe, I thought

(in a good way)

I wrote a tl:dr blog post about GBBO for my own amusement...

http://tourdefrump.blogspot.com/2017/03/perfection-failure-and-why-great.html

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/16/noel-fielding-and-sandi-toksvig-to-host-new-great-british-bake-off

Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig to host new Great British Bake Off

New presenters will join new judge Prue Leith and Bake Off stalwart Paul Hollywood in the Channel 4 version of the show

That should kill it off then.

Yay! I love Noel

Veg, are there spoilers in your post?

Oh heavens, just watched the Great Custard Tart Massacre. Those bakers were just brutal to the poor custards!

Hearing that she is/was studying philosophy makes Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby so hot. (Sorry.)

no spoilers (at least I'm pretty sure not)

I've seen Ruby IRL (just randomly crossing the road near where I live) and she is absolutely gorgeous.

ruby def has the most interesting post-show career / life

ruby's cookbooks are both really good - bf also swears by james from s3's brilliant bread

ruby is ofc ace on twitter

(this thread popping up is so bittersweet - love VG's enthusiasm but i still can't believe the greedy fucks at love productions headshotted it right at its peak and it'll never be the same again)

true

the schadenfreude lols that they paid millions of quid for a show and then three-quarters of the presenters told them to fuck off aren't enough to make up for it either

Third time 'round for "Everyone likes Sandi Toksvig, let's sneak her in to replace a irreplaceable beloved presenter"

ruby's cookbooks are both really good

― lex pretend

pvmnic!

i have always enjoyed and taken an interest in delicious food!

yeah after my excitement over Noel Fielding being announced I realized (stupidly) ohhhhh right this will be a totally different show now :/

i find it hard to imagine noel fielding and paul hollywood having much chemistry

what's the mary berry replacment like? i havent heard of her

a national treasure, basically

oh wait, you're talking about prue leith not sandi toksvig

prue leith is... okay i guess? she's always seemed a bit remote to me in a way that i'm not sure will be a great fit for the show

I glanced at the headlines about this and thought to myself "is there another Noel Fielding I don't know about?" Apparently the answer is no.

Mel and Sue are 50-75% of the show for me, so once they're gone, so is my interest. (Are they a comedy team? They have great timing.)

They are.

mel & sue have been a comedy team since the 90's <3

mel & sue also have a cameo as pet shop boys superfans in the (really really good) tour book "literally". iirc they follow the tour to Japan

Daily Mail have gone completely 'drugs, weird dress sense and friend of Russell Brand' apeshit!

Daily Mail have gone completely 'drugs, weird dress sense and friend of Russell Brand' apeshit!

for a moment i forgot which thread i was reading, but with this specific quote it doesn't even matter. it could be about richard ayoade's bin night and this would still be a believable daily mail reference.

Veg was right! The season 2/4 cast has uniformly grown on me.

I also read your blog, and your observation about the kindness of the judges is bang on. Like, on Project Runway, you'd have all the judges competing with each other to come up with the cruelest put-down.

And even though we definitely get to ogle the baking disasters, Paul and Mary aren't trying to be witty and "making good TV," they're simply giving the cast honest feedback! And this low-keyness gives the show its charms -- that and how the show doesn't overwhelm you with musical cues, especially during the judging, and like I said earlier, it's so refreshing.

(But of course, nothing ruins a good show like success.)

I can never not guffaw whenever someone mentions spotted dick.

Veggie, did you make it to the season with Scottish James with the fair isle tank tops etc? I think season three. He was my *hearts with eyes emoticon* and actually he lives locally, it seems, so I've seen him a few times around. So lovely.

Yeah I just finished that one! James was adorable & crazy talented but I wasn't a huge fan of him by the end...bit cocky? The five cakes for the finale had me rolling - ok Icaraus, sure go ahead LOOOOL

John was my heart-eyes emoji. Loved Brendan too. Big fan of dorky Sarah Jane, and was big into Kathryn - she was like a Spice Girl! She backsassed Paul Hollywood like no-one I've ever seen, str8 fire

Lotta good sorts in that season

i dont but i have friends who do. mr veg is often baffled by what heavily-accented ppl are going on abt but says he doesnt care enough for subtitles

(i had to use subtitles to watch Happy Valley though.)

Conversely, we used subtitles all the way through The Wire.

I've started using subtitles on almost everything, because I'm 50, I have a kid who loves watching TV almost as much as she loves talking all the way through a TV programme, and because modern TV is mixed for televisions much more sophisticated than our 16yo bog-standard flatscreen.

same plus the multiple humidifiers my partner insists on running at all times

I finished collection 5 on Netflix (UK season 8). It was a kick, really enjoyed the format, the judges, the contestants, the drama, and the look of all the amazing things they produced. Started collection 6 (probably UK season 9). Not quite as good so far, think the contestants aren't as fun or maybe it's not a show to watch season to season without a gap.

oh, i understood it just fine without subtitles

kid's show starts again at 5. daily for 3 weeks.

i enjoyed the peep show special over christmas

Pruexit

Our wonderful Prue has decided to step away from judging Bake Off.

From joyful judging to colourful fits to accidental innuendoes, you are simply the best and will be so missed. Please join us in wishing Prue the very best and thanking her for nine brilliant years in the Tent ❤️ pic.twitter.com/NI1JpxXwYc

— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) January 21, 2026

wow

VG for new cohost

pass!

Prue looks good for 85, but she's still 85! Makes sense for her to bow out now.

86 actually!

rip big man

Oh no, Prue! Maybe they'll get Nadiya back, now that the Beeb have ditched her.

I've been watching JBO all this week, and one of the kids on it really reminds me of my nephew, so it has been very hard to see him get upset on occasion when things are not going well. Overall, though, they've been a great set of kids this year, even if some of the challenges have been stupid af and some days it's more like Junior Meecrowaveh Off.

New presenter: http://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk80pzxkexo

Woulda preferred Nadiya! But this could've been worse

Could not have been worse in any conceivable way, her simpering narcissism makes my skin crawl. Bye bye GBBO, not even Noel and Alison could induce me to watch her.

It'll be all about the "SxTensn" between her and PH, now....

i love that they treat being on GBBO now like being knighted by the queen. like, who else to replace matt lucas than alison hammond of course? who else to replace prue than nigella? it's sort of fan servicey but also there's a sort of like, british pride... elevating our best to this newfound emblem of the country.. i love it personally. i also binge old nigella episodes off iplayer when i'm in the UK so i may be biased

finally catching up on the most recent season - up to quarter finals & kinda love this group!

i have a crush on Toby <3

I loved Toby, he seems to be cast from the same mould as Stephen from this last series of The Traitors