Bake Off. Too many Bake fails this year?

[Notmorecake]

Not once this series has Paul said that immortal line ..." this is taking baking to the next level" . I don't recall as many failed attempts and lack lustre show stoppers in previous series put together than this series alone has thrown up.

Maybe to add a bit of drama the contestants are being given less time to complete the task but I would rather see beautifully executed bakes than some of these poor failed attempts!

Not even any long lingering shots of tonight's show stoppers, were the cameras trying to hide something I wonder.

So what I'm asking is are this year's contestants a little bit less talented than those from previous years ?

I'll brace myself for a back lash of "could I do any better?" but no I couldn't. I restrict my bake fails to the privacy of my own kitchen!

I agree that it used to be nice trying to guess who was going to end up being the best of the best. There was always one or maybe two at the beginning who you'd think 'ah, they'll be out early', with the rest all being good enough to make it anyone's guess. But this year i honestly could have bet good money on who the first 6 out would be. It's been a case of ploughing through to get to this point really.

It's a subtle difference, but watching bakers scrape through every week just because there's a few on there who are usually worse hasn't been good telly.

I feel this year that the mediocre people get through every week whereas those who are great at a few things and rubbish at one thing get sent home. I also get very annoyed by the cooking they have to do - yorkies aren't baking!!!

My idea for C4 is to have a 'professional' doing the challenges behind a screen but with someone constantly opening their fridge etc. so we can see if it really can be done in the time!

Lemon. I spotted that too! And laiste you are right , its been a bit predictable who will go. I did love last night's show mind you. It got all a bit show stoppy again.

I am loving the gossip that Delia, French and Saunders might be in line for the show when it comes to C4. That would be like Bake Off on steroids !!!!

As much as i've moaned about BBO twice on MN this year it will really be missed :( It's the only programme that DDs and i watch together and i enjoy that.

(even though i often have to sit through each episode 3 times as each DD is ready for their weekly watch on different days )

Although after Mary had said that it then proved to be the most not-having-a-problem-with-time Technical Challenge yet. They all produced something that looked approximately right and they all seemed to have time to decorate it more-or-less properly (barring Tom's piping technique).

I watched the last episode today on catch up, and tried to imagine it a) without Mary, Sue and Mel and b) with advert breaks. It's just not going to be the same programme, at all, is it?