Tag Archives: celebrity

Great British Bake Off and Other Thoughts

42 Replies

I’ve just been watching GBBO and shouting abuse at the TV screen. It’s amazing how worked up you can get about sponge cake.

After the change of channel following the last series I was prepared never to watch it again. I even thought I might not bother giving this series a chance. I didn’t really fancy Noel Fielding for the job because I think he’s a bit over the top, and I’ve never found Sandi Toksvig as entertaining as she seems to find herself. As she’s the same age as me and much more rich and famous it’s possible I’m in a minority here.

Having watched the series so far I have to say I can’t really tell the difference, despite the change of personnel. Despite my misgivings they seem to be doing a good job. Being a fan of light-hearted banter and cake this really is my sort of show.

One of the things that fascinates me, apart from the cake, is the careers that seem to open up for some of the bakers. Nadiya Hussein, the 2015 winner, seems to be popping up all over the place. She’s on TV, has a newspaper column, is an author and has been up for several awards. She’s even been a question on Pointless, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

Compared to the general run of TV “celebrities” she’s way ahead of most of them, as are all the GBBO winners.

It’s a tricky thing to judge, and I don’t have a clue how we’ve arrived a a situation where people can make a career from being stupid on TV. Despite my cluelessness it looks like we’re in for a long spell of exposure to people who went on Big Brother, TOWIE, Made in Chelsea and whatever other dross we seem to fall for.

I’m thinking of pitching an idea called Dancing on Thin Ice where a group of spurious celebrities is made to skate on a frozen lake as the spring thaw arrives. Depending on the audience phone-in results they will be given bricks to put in their pockets as the series progresses. It will be filmed on location in Russia, as they have the the ice, and the right sort of attitude to Health and Safety.

I’d better start rehearsing my speech for the award ceremony.

 

Second post of the day

Leave a Reply

Sorry if it seems like I’m running a bus company, no blogs for a while then two come along at the same time…

It was quite a good week last week and it mostly got steamrollered by Open Farm Sunday and the scarecrows.

We saw a red kite over Screveton for the first time in the four years we’ve been here. It was a great view too, with a really good silhouette against a beautiful blue sky (and who had left his camera in the back of the car? Yes, me.)

We had chocolate slab cake after one of the mothers made cakes for a volunteer event that was cancelled. Sadness at the cancellation was, I’m sorry to say, short-lived when I looked into the tin.

I know I lead a dull and boring life, but they are surely highlights even in the life of an exciting celebrity. Did Demi Moore see a red kite? Did anyone give Barack Obama a chocolate slab cake? Does my choice of celebrity mark me as being out of step with the modern world?

Anyway, far from the lifestyle of the rich and famous, we also had around 325 children in the activity tent over the course of Open Farm Sunday.

I was quite pleased with that – 325 kids who now know a bit more about food, farming and the environment., though I know it’s a drop in the ocean when you look at surveys like this that tell us 40% of people don’t know we grow oats in this country (I selected that one because of the next paragraph, but some of the other findings are equally worrying).

Then I started thinking about future events – it will be World  Porridge Day in  October and part of that is about Mary’s Meals – we’ve supported them in the past and they’ve just fed a million kids. A million! I’m now slightly less impressed with our 325.

However, we have another 30 coming in tomorrow (leaving me just 999, 645 of the million) and we’re doing insects and habitats with them. This calls for less blogging and more reading as I’m hopeless with insect ID.

Watch this space…