BAKED ALASKA-GATE [edited by MNHQ to say that this thread contains many, many GBBO spoilers. Many Many Many]

[amotherfuckingquiche]

She took Iain's ice cream out of the freezer did she not?!

But grunt, he won't come back because of the twitter shit storm. It was filmed months ago.

Of course, not pipbin! I'm well aware of that. I'm not quite that stupid. I meant that maybe we will see that the judges decided to give him a second chance given that it was not his fault that the dessert was taken out of the freezer and as Diana left the competition because of illness, they were one contestant short. After all, Kirsty Wark asked him on Newsnight about whether he went back in and Iain said "Wait till next week", which IMO, although it's fairly unlikely that it did happen, introduced an element of doubt. I know that the contestants have to be secretive about what went on so he wasn't really free to say either way, and that was probably the only reason for the cryptic reply.

I'd assumed (maybe wrongly) that the editing was done at the end of the whole series (to put us off track as to the winner etc.). So, as Diana had had to drop out due to her fall, this episode was edited to show her in a bad light because the production team knew she'd no further role in the series.

I don't really see that that could have happened, because she fully admits that took the ice cream out and put it down, and Iain only discovered it because he came looking for it. So it's pretty damning anyway, though they could maybe have made it clearer if it was only out for a short time.

If Diana left, then presumably they needed to do something, otherwise they'd be one episode short. But it would be tricky to sneak Iain back on at the last minute (although this would be a brilliant set up for that and stop people complaining how it was unfair he got a second chance) because the other contestants would have been practising their bakes all week and he'd have to rustle up a show-stopper with a couple of hours notice.

Of course, not pipbin! I'm well aware of that. I'm not quite that stupid. Sorry Grunt but I have seen enough people online campaigning to bring him back, including past participants, to assume that people don't realise that.

Still undecided overall. Diana had no business going anywhere near another contestant's container thing, and what the hell was she thinking taking it out of the freezer and leaving it?!

That said, Iain was having major issues with his ice cream freezing even before that and he admitted himself he didn't deal with the situation well - no blame to him, he's just seen 4 hours of his work ruined but I think he'd done well enough in the previous tasks to be safe even with a disaster in the showstopper, if he had just presented something.

The way the media (general and social) have responded is appalling however, and I feel desperately sorry for Diana.

God. Is this still going on?!

Ofcom consider launching ivestigation

What next the UN? A tribunal at The Hague? Diana placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list?

I'm leaving some ice cream out of my freezer this weekend in protest.

The BBC must have acres of footage shot from all different angles, surely the answer is just to post it all online and everyone will be able to see and hear exactly what happened.

I wonder if the unedited versions will conveniently "get damaged"

Good lord, poor woman. Seems she has been sacrificed for cheap thrills and a PR stunt.

She has an accident and is too ill to carry on, so the bbc decide a fitting leaving present is to trash her reputation and make it appear she left under a cloud.

Nice.

The more that comes out about this unpleasant little episode the more the bbc and GBBO looks seedy and rather foul. Ethics? Nooo. Standards? Nooo.

Ugh.

I dunno, she did take the ice cream out, she didn't tell Iain she'd done it, and to be honest her immediate reaction - "You should have used your own freezer" - wasn't great. Is it really that seedy and unethical to show all of that? Were they supposed to pretend it didn't happen and depict Iain as having a tantrum totally out of the blue?

her immediate reaction

The reaction they showed may not have been her first.

I thought it was fabulously dramatic TV until the twitter storm and some of the unspeakable comments earlier in this thread. Poor soul, I really hope she has been protected through this by someone from the BBC. A lady of that age would, I imagine, be really upset by the undiluted hatred posted online about her which, if she's anything like the old lady I look after, she will think is the same as The News and be terrified they are coming to get her.

'I'll call the manse,' Squoosh, neatly made me sick with laughter though.

She has an accident and is too ill to carry on, so the bbc decide a fitting leaving present is to trash her reputation and make it appear she left under a cloud.

This is the worst thing about it for me.

I've only really got into GBBO at the end of the last series, so I was really looking forward to watching this one right from the start. But I'm not sure I want to any more. I don't like this at all.

Well, what did we all think about Extra Slice?

I think that yon chappy piping in the freezer was as much to blame.

Yes - Luis with the freezer wide open for who knows how long was a bit of a shock no hint of that on GBBO

New evidence!!! No wonder it didnt freeze with the door open for that long!!!

The freezer Luis was piping in was a chest freezer and they lose heat very slowly. I inadvertently left mine with the lid up overnight recently. and even the food at the top stayed solid.

Poor Iain, he didn't have much luck there did he. It now looks as if he bailed on the chest freezer as the lid was being kept open. He went to another freezer and he was evicted from there.

Just saw the episode. What a let-down. Have been duped I fear. Now all I need to do is catch up on Extra Slice.

Well, I don't think Iain was any great loss and after his silly tantrum I was glad to see the back of him. If he comes back, I'll be seriously pissed off. Like they say on the other thread, it just gives anyone whose food turns out crap an excuse to chuck it in the bin and get a reprieve.

Can't believe Newsnight gave it airspace. Shame Paxman wasn't there to give it his particular flavour of disgust.

My husband is in catering. He has a beard. He has to wear a beard net, why didn't he?

He threw his rattle. The other chap coped when his sponge went wrong. He just baked another one, and got on with it, and that's why he won star baker or whatever.

Tantrums are just daft in a kitchen.

I did like that bit, when it showed Richard saying he was great at tiramisu sponge and so could relax for this bit, then him looking in dismay at the world's flattest sponge and having to bin it and start again. Pride comes before a fall, Richard!

I missed the extra slice and iPlayer wont work! Any thing else revelatory??

This is presumably the major incident which caused the Home Secretary to upgrade UK's security status to severe. Do you think they called a COBRA meeting to discuss Baked Alaskas...

Sorry, this is all old news but I've been avoiding this thread until I was back from Barcelona and could catch up on the episode. I'm really disappointed that the BBC cut the episode like that and it really does sound like they've just manufactured the whole thing to tie in with Diana's accident. It's really not fair to trash her reputation just for a bit of drama.

As for Iain serving up his sponge, would the liquidy 'ice cream' not have compromised it? I doubt the sponge would have been frozen solid if there had been so much faffing around with the freezers and it did just slop off the tray when he tipped it into the bin. He could hardly serve up a plate of mulch-y sponge and some meringue to Mary and Paul.