Great British Bake Off starts Tuesday 13th September

[5foot5]

I couldn't see an existing thread on this, apologies if there is and I missed it.

Anyway, as it says in the thread title. New series starts tonight.

Yay!

Just seeing it get worse and worse - Paul's sleazing, Noel and Matt's idiocy, increasingly ridiculous challenges, and then . . .

<drum roll>

. . . Paul's really horrible attire towards the older women, and being spiteful towards anyone he took against for whatever reason.

I just realised that I wasn't getting any joy out of it any more. The last series was bad enough with the nastiness towards Jurgen (which I am convinced was motivated by sheer jealousy - Jurgen was a better baker than PH, and such a lovely, popular contestant), but from the start of this one it just didn't seem to have the charm that it used to possess.

I don't mind Prue (though I prefer Mary), but I do miss Mel and Sue - none of the other presenters have come close, in my opinion.

However I am still obsessed enough to come on here and see what shenanigans have been taking place my absence. Nothing has persuaded me that I might want to watch again, I'm afraid.

JUST GIVE ME NICE FOOD AND LOVELY KIND PEOPLE! 😩

Is that so much to ask?

*attitude - Paul's ATTITUDE, not attire

I feel like viper.

I think when you start shovelling in the drama and dumbing programmes down to make them less about skills and more about dramz and ishoos and characters /flirts you lose everything that is magical about a programme.

I think most programmes which are skills based go down this road.

As a result I watch these on fast forward. I miss bits and of course that nips but I save myself hours of watching mince I didn’t tune in for.

@Emotionalsupportviper... 'Just give me nice food and lovely kind people' never mind GBBO this should be life's mantra! I love it.
@ArcaneWireless exactly right, don't, whatever you do, get me started on Sewing Bee, I've got a whole other threads worth of rage on that!

Janusz and Sandro hissing at each other was the comedy highlight for me

sad about Australian bake off. Felt like they had the formula right

Has anyone mentioned their nan yet this series?

We watch strictly on catch up so we can fast forward all the waffle/people visiting their old school/the zoo/their nan etc.... but that's harder to do with bake off because you'll miss their actually baking.

I'm sure last year Crystelle had some tenuous link to her nan (why don't grandads have the same emotional value??) in virtually every recipe she made.

Did anyone here watch Junior Bake Off? Paul did a few episodes in place of Liam (who was sick) and he was actually really good! Spoke to the kids like he was taking them seriously, praised and gave good, constructive criticism and suggestions. I thought he was great and it was nice to see someone relating to the child contestants in the way that he did.

It's still on All4, so you don't have to take my word for it 😉

If there is anybody left who is actually enjoying the series - rather than coming on here to tell us how crap it is and you've stopped watching-

Oops, not sure what happened there!

Was going to say...you might enjoy this podcast which is previous contestants Jane, Howard and Dan dissecting each episode. They are clearly immensely proud and fond of the show but also happy to be mildly outraged at poorly designed challenges and gently scathing about Paul and his ego. I really like them on it.

www.bakewithalegend.com/podcast

I agree. And Junior Bake Off is a thing of joy.

I love Junior Bake-Off.

I believe they have reduced the upper age limit this year, which eliminates my main gripe. It was never quite right watching 15 year olds compete with 9 year olds, even though some of the younger contestants were amazing. Love Liam and Rav, and mostly enjoy Harry Hill though he occasionally misjudges the tone of his jokes and strays onto dodgy ground. Him breaking his shoulder while pratting around on an exercise ball was horrifying but hilarious.

hurrah some actual baking!!

Evening all

Evening

I love junior baking as well

Oooohhh don't think I've eaten a vol-au-vents in 20 years!

Me neither. They look a good thing

Bit mean of Prue!

2 hours is a ridiculous time isn’t it?

Oooh, some of these flavours are lovely.

Oh here we go, Sandro has already mentioned he wants a handshake

I would eat any of them right now.

omg this episode making me drool

he will need to turn the oven on then...

Massive fail for the quarter final 🤣