The hardest thing in television is to know when to call it a day. The very concept of going out on top is seemingly anathema to TV executives when the alternative is to squeeze a format until its juices have all run dry. A shame, because to go out on top is to cement a programme’s legacy forever; to do otherwise is to test our patience until that love turns first to indifference, and ultimately to loathing. (Hello to Big Brother and The X Factor; a warning shot to The Traitors.)
All of which is to say that with yesterday’s news that national treasure Prue Leith announced her retirement from The Great British Bake Off, one might have hoped that the show’s makers, Channel 4, would take the hint and pull the plug on it. But, no. A new presenter, it seems, will be announced in due course. (Nigella Lawson, according to current rumour.)
The Great British Bake Off was once a giddy delight, a television cookery show whose quirk was that it ignored completely the unnecessary faff of starters and mains, and focused entirely on the fun stuff – dessert. Each week, it paraded an array of amateur bakers, many of them with intriguing personality quirks, to whip up, say, a crumble delight or a fondant galore, and each week its judges – initially Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, later Hollywood and Leith – adjudicated which was the best. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins presided over it with the most impish glee.
Paul Hollywood, Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding and Prue Leith on the first series of Bake Off to air on Channel 4 (Photo: Love Productions/Channel 4/Mark Bourdillon/PA Wire)squareTV REVIEWSSorry, Peep Show Bake Off - I'd rather just watch the sitcom
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Down the years, it would go through several transitions, most seismically its shock transfer in 2016 from the BBC, where it was a massive ratings winner, to Channel 4. Mel and Sue would leave, replaced variously by Sandi Toksvig, Matt Lucas, Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond. Berry herself went in 2016, replaced a year later with Leith. Through it all, we continued to tune in, in the millions.
Its appeal remained rather quaint: in an era of streaming, and the mass appeal of apocalyptic shows like The Last of Us and Squid Game, we still wanted to watch something set in what appeared to be the middle of a quaint English village fête, where people panicked over pavlovas and occasionally forgot to turn the oven on.
But no matter how winning a format, all shows begin at some point to wane. Bake Off continued year after year, but grew increasingly unremarked upon, merely part of the televisual firmament. The last time it properly hit the headlines was in 2017, when Leith accidentally revealed the winner of the competition via Twitter, a mistake she blamed on the time difference between the UK and Bhutan, where she was on holiday. Let’s face it, we’ve all been there. (Slipping up on social media, I mean. Who goes to Bhutan on holiday?) But Leith owned it beautifully. “I f***ed up,” she admitted.
Prue is now 86 and decided it’s time to step back (Photo: Channel 4/PA Wire)Of course, Leith’s announcement yesterday has given rise to new headlines. This won’t hurt the show at all, at least in the short term. “Bake Off has been a fabulous part of my life for the last nine years,” Leith said in a statement, “and I’ve genuinely loved it. But now feels the right time to step back. I’m 86, for goodness’ sake!”
Wisdom, always in short supply, might suggest that now feels like the perfect time for the show itself to step back. Seventeen years is a terrific run for any series. With each passing year, the soufflés seem a little less impressive, the Eton Messes increasingly soggy. It’s all beginning to curdle.
Television thrives on good ideas, but also on fresh ideas. Bake Off has simply passed its sell-by date. Pop it in the freezer, will you? Bottom shelf, beside that red box from Deal or No Deal and the head of Simon Cowell.
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