Great British Bake Off 2024

[Suffs]

I don’t watch tv news nowadays … I can’t bear the pictures … I’ve seen enough of folk with injuries recently.

[Pepper Pig]

Wow. Just watched episode 1. I think it’s going to be a very good series. Those illusion cakes!

[scullion]

i watched it while doing something else.
i agree, a few people chosen for their 'presence' rather than ability.
i think they should have no evictions for the first three weeks then evict the four weakest on the fourth episode - at least they will have had a fighting chance to show whether they were good enough - and the shock could make a bit of an impact.

to my mind the young girl who's loaf cake was beautiful as well as having really good flavour should have got the handshake over the one that had the flavour but looked a bit messy. maybe there's an agreement that one should have been given and they'd run out of candidates when they got to that one...

[Pepper Pig]

Yes. I’m sure it’s highly edited.

[Stokey Sue]

Yes. I’m sure it’s highly edited.

Sometimes Alison says " 5 minutes" - queue edited sequence of people rushing, obviously most of it probably at ~30minutes since they all actually finish, though occasionally they catch one tweaking as they putit on the end of the bench

Scullion, I find a crossword goes well with it

[scullion]

Yes. I’m sure it’s highly edited.

oh, god, yes - i find the 'one minute left' announcement ridiculous when you look at where they are then compared to what they produce after that theoretical minute. it surprises me that the programme makers think we can't see that - they must be far denser than they think we are!

[Suffs]

You all seem to be very literal when you watch TV. I usually employ the ‘suspension of belief’ mode for such programmes … I regard it purely as ‘entertainment’.

As with so many similar programmes I believe they’re shown in the run up to Christmas to prepare us for Panto season

[Stokey Sue]

You all seem to be very literal when you watch TV.

Not at all - but when discussing it it is reasonable surely to speculate on how and where the manipulation occurs?

[Suffs]

You all seem to be very literal when you watch TV.

Not at all - but when discussing it it is reasonable surely to speculate on how and where the manipulation occurs?

… in the edit suite.

[Earthmaiden]

If I am watching a timed cookery programme, is it unreasonable to expect '5 minutes left' to mean that? Of course, it doesn't in this case. As has been pointed out, I am not the target audience, bewildered.

[Suffs]

It’s not a cookery programme any more … hasn’t been for years if it ever was …. as I said it’s an entertainment show and has more in common with I’m a Celebrity than any cookery programmes in which a chef or cook demonstrates how to cook something.

[Pepper Pig]

Pru is looking her age.

[Uschi]

I managed to watch an episode for once, being interested in biscuits.

An interesting group with interesting skills. Some quiet ones, that might go the distance and very flamboyant ones. I had trouble understanding Andy (?) the mechanic.

As for the tasks, I would have failed miserably at most tasks. Viennese I rarely do, but given the right equipment I might have managed. The mint cakes ... I've never had one and would have struggled at how to get the proportions right and the flavours.
As for the showstoppers, having built witch's houses galore in my youth I agree with Paul and Prue, chocolate and royal icing won't firm up quickly enough in four hours. I used icing, but gave the house (heavily flanked and propped up by tins) two or three days to settle, before doing the rest.
I was quite taken with Gill's theatre, the construction was great! I think she may be one that goes a long way, even if she is not as obvious as Christiaan or some of the others.

[Suffs]

If it’s any consolation Uschi, I too have trouble/find it impossible to understand most of what Andy says

I only watched the first two tasks last night … I’ve recorded the showstopper phase and will watch it later today.

[Pepper Pig]

It was certainly an interesting episode. I was rooting for the girl who fainted, Illim? And poor Jeff. The person who left was dreadful last week as well.

I don't think I could have made one single thing they did.

[Stokey Sue]

I have made Vienna whirls, they tasted good but weren't pretty at all, never liked the mint biscuits - for Uschi here they are, Lyons Mint Viscount biscuits
https://www.artfinder.com/product/visco ... till-life/

I think Andy works a bit at being a "diamond geezer" but living here my ears are quite attuned to that kind of accent/dialect

Twitter is very taken with Nelly

[scullion]

i think the young girl who made the theatre with wheels will go quite far.

i, too, find the mechanic easy to understand but then it's a common (as in everywhere...) variant of the accent from the south east.
a german friend asked why he could understand everything when i spoke but not when another friend spoke. i pointed out that 'i speak english and he (the other friend) is liverpudlian'.

[Suffs]

I get Andy’s accent … but there’s been an awful lot of mumbling and garbled unfinished sentences … so perhaps its nerves. I watched the showstopper portion today and took particular note of Andy’s speech and he certainly seemed more coherent after he’d finished the task than when describing it beforehand.

[Stokey Sue]

The girl (Sumayah, had to look up the spelling) is clearly good - the duck in Ep 1 was astonishing, but I do find her voice quite irritating