Great British Bake Off (Channel 4)
Like the last straw- berry in the dish or the one remaining choc-ice in the freezer, The Great British Bake Off final offers a valedictory taste of summer.
Once it’s gone, winter is here. And this year, Dame Prue and company made the most of it with a menu as summery as a vicarage tea party.
For the opening challenge, the three bakers were asked to produce 24 sweet and savoury scones, as light and fluffy as possible. ‘They should feel like little clouds,’ said judge Paul Hollywood.
The technical round was worthy of a bank holiday picnic, with egg and cress rolls, plaited strawberry tarts and lemon sponge.
And after a bizarre showstopper with cakes suspended from hooks like hanging baskets, the trio emerged from the tent into the sunshine, where their families and former contestants were enjoying a fete.
Watching in late November, when half the country is underwater and the rest is clearing up after gale-force winds, it all looked idyllic. Even a splash of rain, with bakers sheltering under clear plastic umbrellas, couldn’t dampen the scene.
To cap it all, as the champagne popped, Paul performed a flying leap to catch the cork, like cricketer Jonty Rhodes plucking a ball out of the air. Oh, I say!
Bake Off judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood with hosts Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond. Like the last straw- berry in the dish or the one remaining choc-ice in the freezer, The Great British Bake Off final offers a valedictory taste of summer
Dylan, the 20-year-old skateboarder with a shaved eyebrow, suffered an attack of self-doubt, and needed constant encouragement from Noel and Alison
Surprise winner Georgie, a nurse and mother-of-three from Carmarthenshire, was apparently the first Welsh baker ever to reach the final
Some Bake Off finals are tense affairs, with supporters split over rival favourites. Not this year: the contestants were a perfectly pleasant bunch but the big characters went out early.
Remember car mechanic Andy, who couldn’t stop talking — one anecdote about an escaped pig seemed to go on for most of an episode — and Nelly from Slovakia who made Alison Hammond appear shy and retiring. She chased Alison’s co-presenter Noel Fielding around the counters, shouting, ‘Come on! I love you!’
Those contestants remaining for the big showdown were low-key by comparison. Surprise winner Georgie, a nurse and mother-of-three from Carmarthenshire, was apparently the first Welsh baker ever to reach the final. That’s extraordinary, when you consider other Great British Bake Off finalists have been born in Italy, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Malaysia and India.
Dylan, the 20-year-old skateboarder with a shaved eyebrow, suffered an attack of self-doubt, and needed constant encouragement from Noel and Alison. When Paul’s charmless side broke through during the judging of the tea party round — he dismissed Dylan’s sponge as, ‘a little bit ropey, not good’ — the poor lad’s eyes were brimming with tears.
Dutchman Christiaan was the most composed of the three, and found time to steady Dylan’s nerves by giving him a hand with piping the filling for his scones.
That’s the Bake Off spirit we love, where camaraderie matters more than criticisms. The show’s format is unchanged in more than a decade but, if the producers ever felt the need to introduce a spin-off, they could do worse than a competition for pairs of past favourites, where the bakers have to prove they can collaborate.
Call it The Great British Double Bake.