Great British bake off back 5th August

[Helgathehairy]

Seems slightly earlier than usual? Very excited anyway!

my six year old loves this he hates going to bed when his fav shows are on we had such a humiliating experience once sunny evening trying to get him to bed he was howling and screaming like we were slaughtering him all because the hairy bikers were on and he wanted to watch it the neighbours were very amused by him bless

Right according to wikipeadia the first episodes of each series were broadcast as follows:

Series 1 - 17/08/10 (6 episodes)
Series 2 - 16/08/11 (8 episodes)
Series 3 - 14/08/12 (10 episodes)
Series 4 - 20/08/13 (10 episodes)
Series 5 - 06/08/14 (10 episodes)
Series 6 - 05/08/15 (10 episodes)

So slightly earlier this year and last year. Can you tell I'm REALLY excited?

I will be glued to it. Mainly for Mel and Sue but I love it all. Except perhaps Paul, not a big fan of him.

I especially enjoy the use of the word "flan".

It would be boring if all the contestants were dullards with cold pastry hands tho 123Jump

But it is highly unlikely that all of them would be 'dullards'. I just don't want people picked purely on their sensationalist abilities.

123 I did think that last years IceCreamGate debacle was somewhat contrived and the editing was done to make it all a bit sensationalist. I hope we don't have any of that silliness again.

The last series was a disappointment so hope this is a bit more exciting. And I hope they've picked good bakers rather than just 'the hot girl', 'the quirky guy', 'the blokey guy who bakes - how amazing'.

I'm looking forward to it but really hoping the producers don't try to manipulate events in the edit again.

It's the general niceness of Bake Off that got me watching in the first place. I don't want to watch I'm a Celebrity/Big Brother-style shenanigans.

I forgot about icecream-gate! Ugh that was so annoying. Poor woman was ripped to shreds and beardy bloke was made to look like an ice-cream martyr all because of a bit of dishonest editing.

Hopefully the backlash by the viewers will prevent another 'ice-cream gate'. One of the reasons GBBO works is because it is nice, that is it's USP it will crash and burn if it's turned into the baking equivalent of The Apprentice.

I picked out a few contestants in an earlier post as I'm intrigued by what they will bake.

You're right, the niceness is key. And the humour.

Another thing I'd like them to change is the final, they just aren't given enough time to produce a properly jaw dropping cake so the end result is often a bit disappointing. They should give the contestants carte blanche to make whatever they like, I bet that would make for much more impressive results.

Squoosh yes the finals are getting less satisfying aren't they? And the technical bakes getting more & more obscure - they could revisit some from previous years, classics like 12 iced buns, instead of something you've never heard of!

I am trusting Mel and Sue to maintain the niceness. I hope they don't want to be associated with sensationalist nonsense like icecreamgate. Or Bezza for that matter.

at 'ice cream martyr'. That did lower the tone of the show. Lets get back to nice-smiley-huggy this year, with the odd bit of smut from Mel and Sue

Bake Offis the absolute highlight of late summer for me. I think series 3 was my favourite.

I'm low carbing at the moment though. The cakes and pastries and pies and bread are going to make me weep with longing.

seaoflove, tons of sympathy here. I try to do zero processed sugar during the week so I drool myself stupid during every episode. I do allow myself a nice bit of cake for the final though rock and roll

I cannot bloody wait.. I love this programme... and it's been on my calendar since I saw an advert for it a few weeks back!

And will also be eagerly awaiting the Mighty MonkSeal Blog every week which is almost like another taste of the pudding, so to speak..

Bake off is my TV highlight of the year. I can't wait.

Mel and Sue are perfect for the show because whilst they joke around you do get the feeling that they appreciate how important it is for the contestants and aren't there to poke fun at them.

In previous series I've loved the young lawyer who won, the Indian lady (Chetna, I think) and lovely Howard with his hemp bread.

Another fan here, my dds love it too, it's great telly for us all to watch, and the fact that & are compulsory while watching helps

marshmallowpies yes, it's almost as though iced buns are too commonplace for the mighty GBBO.

Justice for humble iced buns!

I agree the technicals are far too obscure. In fact, with every passing year the contestants have got more knowing and the challenges less aspirational. I wouldn't even consider trying to recreate most of what they do now, because it's not the sort of baking I would particularly enjoy doing.

A tea party would be a great idea, I feel sorry for the finalists that their winning cake is often the least impressive thing they've made.