The Great British Bake Off 2014 – cooking up a storm

Mark Savile 

‘On your marks… Get set… BAKE!’

The Great British Bake Off 2014- it's back and as a traditional

Briton what more could you want from a television programme than this, short of the Queen herself appearing, corgis at heel, the national anthem sounding out proud.

A dozen bakers from across the land, from a budding 17 year old to experienced Diana at 69, are here to be crowned champion baker. With contestants whose origins span from India to Spain to the North of Scotland, we are in for a surprising series oozing with variety and originality. The programme has switched from BBC2 to BBC1 and is being filmed in a new location. There will be an extra helping served up by Jo Brand every Friday and we are one participant down on last year’s baker’s dozen, but don’t think they will be any less eccentric or quirky.

Some things, though, haven’t changed. Sue and Mel are nothing but brilliant, bringing a touch of class as the icing on top of an already very appetising cake. Their almost childish enthusiasm and playfulness is the perfect antidote to experts Paul and Mary’s more sober and solemn demeanour. The opportunity to highlight a mischievous innuendo is rarely passed up, giving the show part of its charm which it so heavily relies on to attract and retain its audience.

Yes the programme might not be as gripping or tense for the viewer as MasterChef or a Gordon Ramsay special, but that’s not to say the pressure isn’t on the bakers themselves; just see how violently some of their hands shake whilst drizzling decoration over their cakes. The show is layered with jollity and radiates warmth across our screens and into our front rooms.

Yet despite how great the Bake Off really is, it does have one major, demoralising drawback: however pleasing it is to watch all these delectable creations, the impossibility of smelling and sampling them is frustrating beyond belief. Supermarket pastries don’t even come close!