Bake Off, Chris

Chris Tarrant said this morning that he could not understand why people were rushing home to see a TV programme on which people were baking cakes and, as a consequence, the country was “going to the dogs”. It’s not a programme I have ever seen because I’m not personally interested, but I doubt that Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are taking this country to the dogs.

I never watched Tarrant’s “Who wants to be a millionaire?” either because I am not interested in clapped out quiz shows, but I don’t blame it for somehow destroying the country. Millions of people did watch it, at least in its early years, and good for them. And I was one of those who watched Tiswas a hundred years ago when the great man co-presented a (brilliant) borderline children’s TV show, featuring Spit the dog and the Phantom Flan Flinger. I enjoyed it because it was great fun and highly entertaining, nothing more. It was certainly not on the sophisticated side, which is probably why I loved it.

Although I don’t watch the Great British Bake Off, I know that over 10 million people do love it and it is about much more than a few people cooking cakes. Grown men and women shed a tear when Nadiya won last night and from what I can gather she did more to improve the image of muslims in this country than a million government policies could ever do.

Tarrant has had his best years on TV. All good things come to an end and all stars, unless they are Bruce Forsyth have a shelf-life. His comments were pathetic today, tinged, it seemed to me with more than a hint of jealousy, and it was more than a bit embarrassing to listen to.

At the end of the show, there was a “what’s happened to” all of this year’s contestants section and there were real success stories, including people starting their own businesses. I’m a little old fashioned but I like success stories and I like the idea that there is still a TV show with a simple, homely format that can be enjoyed by all the family about ordinary people making extraordinary cakes.