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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be seriously considering giving up on GBBO?

238 replies

FancyPantSusan · 26/09/2018 17:18

I've always been a devoted GBBO fan.

However, I'm really struggling to cope with the C4 version.

I absolutely hate the adverts and I don't think the programme is gripping enough to cope with adverts. I find myself chatting with DH during the adverts then carrying on our conversation over the top of GBBO when it comes back on. When it was on BBC with no adverts, me and DH never uttered a word Grin

I find Noel Fielding very tiresome. He's just not particularly funny and his childish "I have no idea what baking is, I'm just going to stand near you and make jokes" interactions with the contestants I'm finding quite hard to put up with. Having said that, I always found Sue Perkins to be a bit of a knob so I guess I can't be too harsh on Noel.

I'm also finding this year's crop of contestants very challenging. It seems to be edging towards a typical C4 "personality parade" and I can't help but feel that some people are putting on a bit of a show for the cameras. We have:
Kim Joy's "Oh I'm so crazy and whacky but also a little bit adorable";
Ruby's "I'm completely gorgeous look at my pout. Oh a little swear word slipped out accidentally on purpose. Aren't I naughty and foul mouthed and hilarious";
Jon's "Look at my loud Hawaiian shirt, I'm clearly crazy and a really good laugh. Oh and I love my daughters, aren't I just swell?";
Karen's "I'm also hilarious. I'm an older woman very painfully and performatively not giving a shit. Wasn't it hilarious when I sat shoveling crisps into my gob when everyone else was still cooking that one week? See, told you, hilarious";
Briony's "Oh look, I'm so lovely and mumsy"
Rahul's "I'm still learning lots about the UK and, conveniently, fitting into the cultural stereotype of the acceptable immigrant. I'm very quiet and apologetic and that makes me adorable"

I really need to give up on this programme I think. Who's with me?!

OP posts:
scottishlovely · 26/09/2018 18:08

Nenic I was really surprised when I saw it for the first tine and found that it is identical, except for the presenter changes. And so pleased.
Re the adverts, just start watching a bit later or record it. I haven't watched adverts in years, and I watch a lot of Ch4 stuff.

RatRolyPoly · 26/09/2018 18:09

I like it when I'm paying attention to it, but like you OP I just can't make myself!

Redglitter · 26/09/2018 18:11

I only got into GBBO when it moved to C4. I downloaded earlier ones & hated them. Can't stand the completely unfunny Mel & Sue and Mary Berry and her eating like a bloody squirrel annoys the hell out of me.

Love the C4 version

TinyWee · 26/09/2018 18:12

Agree that Noel isn't funny on this. I like both him and Sandi but they don't have the spark of Mel and Sue.
Paul Hollywood's handshake is unbearable.
Rahul just tipped into not believable this week with the low self esteem.
Kim Joy annoys me but her baking is fabulous.

I'm still gripped.

Chocolatecoffeeaddict · 26/09/2018 18:14

It's a TV show. Chill.

catherinedevalois · 26/09/2018 18:14

Only really watch it for Prue and she wasn't there for the second half!

chequeplease · 26/09/2018 18:14

You leave Rahul out of this. He's a pure delight.

theredjellybean · 26/09/2018 18:15

I much prefer c4 version.
Mar Berry was far to pious and smug and passive aggressive mean for me.
Love prue much more real and sandi and noel are sweet, gentle and the stupid forced double entendre have stopped.
But this years lot arw painful... I agree it's like c4 had a list of characters... I can see the producers now... 'OK one immigrant, one pouty girl, one oddball, one loveable rouge, one hunky stay at home dad... Now what haven't we got? Oh yes an older woman and someone with some kind of disability but not a bad one, we don't want to actually mention it'... Tick.
And Rahul makes me cringe, with his 'poor little immigrant me' act... Keeps going on about how he doesn't feel he knows anything and he is so ooo lost in our culture... But he managed to download and apply for gbbo and get himself to various audition heats etc... Not quite so useless...

Chewbecca · 26/09/2018 18:17

I'm still loving it, despite expecting to hate the change on moving to C4.

Noel and Sandi are equally as good to me.
Prue has a bit more 'spunk' than Mary which I like.

The ads I hate but I just fast forward them.

The contestants are always a mixed bag and I like this year's bunch, some are fab bakers.

PiperPublickOccurrences · 26/09/2018 18:18

I used to be a huge GBBO fan. Loved it. Watched last series for a bit, until I realised that I really didn't care who won. Started off again with this series, again, don't give a stuff who wins.

Mel & Sue were an absolute joy on the show, they had real rapport with the contestants and poked fun at the judges. Sandi and Noel have zero chemistry and neither of them are funny. They don't even appear to particularly like food.

Put it this way - I've not even bothered to download the last episode on iplayer, and I probably won't.

Almostfifty · 26/09/2018 18:18

I've not watched it since it moved to C4.

BertrandRussell · 26/09/2018 18:23

“. Keeps going on about how he doesn't feel he knows anything and he is so ooo lost in our culture.”

Has he actually said anything like that at all? I must have missed it.

FormerlyFrikadela01 · 26/09/2018 18:23

It doesn't seem that much different to me tbh.

as for it being a personality contest, that has always been the case to some extent. Let's not forget Candace won the final bbc series despite making inedible bakes during bread week.

Boblingoblino31 · 26/09/2018 18:23

I Preferred it on the beeb too. The showstopper round just gets madder and madder and Pru seems a bit bitchy. The ad breaks I don’t mind because I have bladder issues and am glad of the loo visit time. Noel seems bored and is boring. I can’t warm to any of the contestants and like having some one to root for so I’m feeling rather ambivalent all round. I’ll stay with it because I can barely find anything i want to watch at the moment. Rahuls modesty is a mystery. Can’t work out if he is for real or it’s an act.

FormerlyFrikadela01 · 26/09/2018 18:25

It doesn't seem any different to me.

And it's always been a personality contest. Candace won the last bbc series despite one of the worst performances on bread week I've ever seen. They didn't even try her first bake because it was completely raw.

Stupomax · 26/09/2018 18:25

I'm in Forrin Parts and if you think you have problems .... they take out the Technical Challenge here so they can get more ads in. We only get two rounds

If you watch it on a laptop using SmartDNS (Overplay.net is good) then you get the whole program and almost no ads.

I'm really enjoying it.

FormerlyFrikadela01 · 26/09/2018 18:25

Sorry for the double.post. thought it hadn't worked.

Livinglavidal0ca · 26/09/2018 18:26

Does anyone else think Prue and sandy look the same?

Aspergallus · 26/09/2018 18:27

Totally agree OP, it’s too gentle to survive the ad breaks.

And the increased frequency of Hollywood handshakes is really, really cringey.

MarthaArthur · 26/09/2018 18:27

I never saw the bbc one but i love the c4 one. I love kim joy she is hilarious. I also love noel and my god Manon is beautiful.

cantfindname · 26/09/2018 18:28

Noel and Sandi are so much better than the ghastly Mel and Sue with their childish smutty comments. I love Mary Berry but I do think Prue is doing a better job, there is a lot more clarity in her comments. PH is a knob and I do begin to wonder how much of a baker he really is after he didn't know what a tangzhong was in bread week. The handshakes are also getting boring.

The contestants? All the ones I wasn't keen on have gone. Yay!! Briony is a PITA with her face pulling and grumpy expression but is a good baker. Rahul is adorable... I get the impression he is someone who has found life tough and possibly been bullied, hence his low self esteem.

I would hate to lose GBBO, its the highlight of my years TV.

PawneeParksDept · 26/09/2018 18:29

I gave it up really early on in the switch. It's not the same.

YANBU.

colouringinpro · 26/09/2018 18:29

I'm with you completely OP.

it's totally lost its heart and warmth without Mel, Sue and Mary.

Original poster
FancyPantSusan · 26/09/2018 18:30

Thank you to the person who said I could be a TV critic

Don't get me wrong, Kim Joy's a great baker. The hangy thing she did last night was absolutely beautiful but I find her very very irritating.

As PP said, the jokes about Prue (and Mary) and booze are very very annoying and, I think, deeply misogynistic

Also, yep, watching Paul Hollywood's incarnate mid-life crisis every week is pretty tragic. Last night my DH asked why on earth anyone who loved themselves quite as much as Paul Hollywood would be that fat, have such shit hair, and wear shirts like he's just rolled out of a 1970s detective drama Grin

OP posts:
bananasandwicheseveryday · 26/09/2018 18:31

Haven't watches it since the move and have no desire to. Can't stand Noel Fielding, it was Prue Keith who finally made me stop watching Great British Menu as I found her very two faced on that and I was never a huge fan of Paul Hollywood - I watched it on BBC despite him, rather than because of him, as I liked Mary, Sue and Mel. Can't imagine it would work with adverts and as I can take or leave Sandy Toksvig, there just isn't anything that compels me to watch it now.