Great British Bake Off 2017

macjohn

Enjoyed it overall.
Didn't specifically need to know about the contestants individual sexuality in the first 90 seconds.

Caught some of the very first series on good food recently and wow it was really just finding its feet the first year compared to the polished product that they finished with/lost.

On previous series sometimes thought the quality was way better some years than others and if some contestants were in a different year they would have got much further (eg Danny from series 3)

Seems interesting and good contestants this year - my only concern was the high level for week one, the stop stoppers were fairly advanced; the original idea was best ametuer bakers - which I took to be (particularly up to the quarter finals) goods that lots of people would be able to do albeit needing more time and less pressure.
But maybe upping the level is what they needed to do to keep the show gong.

Like Miamee its only when down to the last 6 that get really invested - at that stage each baker is getting more screen time. First week is always very crowded (remember when the Irish version had 12 contestants and loads of breaks (and two bakes) in one hour )

Only problem is as it runs over the hour next week the end of it clashes with Doctor Foster!!!

From mods perspective would it be too messy to have a seperate thread for each episode? (worked well in top gear forum)

Eyepatch

I liked the wqy the judging was done at a fairly fast pace, moving quickly from one contestant to the next.

Eyepatch

miamee wrote: »

LOL, my gran must have mentioned about 3 times how she'd "love to cut his hair" said with disdain and disgust

Yes I think the other two were a bit stilted but hopefully will settle in after another episode or two. I am still unsure of Noel, thought he was an odd choice but he did alright last night

LOL! My Mum, God rest her, would have said: If he doesn't cut his hair, at least let him put a clip in it, so it's not hanging around his face!

Tazzer

Hey all. Well I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this. I was deep down a little bit anxious as I LOVE GBB, and was hoping that it wouldn't be too different. What I didn't expect was it to be near enough exactly the same - although I am not complaining!

I like Prue, and have seen her on GBM and Masterchef before, and while she seems not to be a pushover,she still has a bit of Mary about her,
I have seen Noel on TV before and I do like him. I am pleasantly surprised at how heis coming across. He seems comfortable on this which I would not have expected.
Same with Sandi have seen her before on TV, and I never really paid attention to her. But she is doing well too, not too much in your face and a few good quips alá Mel and/or Sue. Maybe the GBBO writers didn't quit either?
Paul (probably in the minority) - I just don't get the overwhelming adoration for him. He's grand and all, but don't think I would miss him if he left.

Now the contestants (BTW I never remember their names, had to google!)

Chuen-Yan (doesnt look her age of 46!) - not sure, seems a bit annoying, but great name for a cake (Banana Raman) so I will be nice for a bit.

Chris - thought he would go, as who does not know about egg whites especially if you are going on GBB. Ill give him benefit of the doubt as might be first day nerves....

Flo (AKA Vera) - I think she is a brilliant home baker, and seems to be second nature to her.

James - middling at the moment, don't think he will make it far.

Julia (Russian) - I like her, seems to know what she is doing, although disappointed in her signature. Very plain.

Kate - will probably go far, has a bit of knowledge, was raging for her when her atrium collapsed.

Liam - not sure. Thought his pancakes were brilliant, but pity about the actual cake, looked very messy and not nice at all. He is young (18) so lots of promise.

Peter - gone, enough said.

Sophie - myself and OH always pick one person that will be in final before they start baking, and make a bet with each other. Sophie was my choice. Reasons were that she wore white t-shirt, hair tied back and well groomed for baking. She also looked extremely organised. When I heard she was military then that proved my first impression haha. Anyway, I did like her bakes. Her champagne cake looked a bit dodge at first (chocolate pen*s neck, haha) but she pulled it off (see what I did there ) I really liked the ice cubes she made, so might have to try them. And she seems to work well so hopefully I win that €50! (if you are interested my OH picked Julia)

Stacey - felt sorry for her, nothing worked out I didn't think the clutch bag was as bad as they made out though. Hope she steadies the nerves for next week


Stephen - sandwich cake was fabulous!!! needs to keep up the standard now.

Tom (scottish guy) - His bakes were fine, needs to step it up especially that he is an architect. Should be well able to make some great showstoppers. Just read that his twin brother was killed in Afghanistan in 2013 :-(


Also have been TWO Paul handshakes; one for Sophie, and one for Stephen. Seems a bit early in the game for one of these? And Stephens one was for his fruit cake and it should have been for the Sandwich cake. Even Paul said it was perfect, so why not? Is Paul going to give them out willy-nilly?? If so, you can take your handshakes they mean nuttin' :P


Sorry for long post, just went on a little bit of a thought rant.:pac:

RhubarbCrumble

Tazzer wrote: »

Sophie - myself and OH always pick one person that will be in final before they start baking, and make a bet with each other. Sophie was my choice. Reasons were that she wore white t-shirt, hair tied back and well groomed for baking. She also looked extremely organised. When I heard she was military then that proved my first impression haha. Anyway, I did like her bakes. Her champagne cake looked a bit dodge at first (chocolate pen*s neck, haha) but she pulled it off (see what I did there ) I really liked the ice cubes she made, so might have to try them. And she seems to work well so hopefully I win that €50! (if you are interested my OH picked Julia)

I picked Sophie too and for pretty much the exact same reasons. She seems very calm and I don't think she'll let the pressure get to her. I'm guessing her former day job helps there.

Sophie for the win!

Tazzer

RhubarbCrumble wrote: »

I picked Sophie too and for pretty much the exact same reasons. She seems very calm and I don't think she'll let the pressure get to her. I'm guessing her former day job helps there.

Sophie for the win!

you can always tell those military peeps!

SIL :pac:

_Dara_

Steven will make the final, IMO. I don't always think that the first star baker will but there's something about him...

Cannot believe Yan is 46! :eek:

I thought Stacey's clutch bag looked revolting on the inside. Even if it tasted good, the look would put me off.

Poor Peter, he was unlucky because I think it was very close between him, Stacey and Chris.

Rfrip

Really great to have this back and despite the big changes it doesn't feel like it at all. I'm a fan of Noel anyway so I guess that has a lot to do with it

such a high standard, the last few episodes are going to be excellent. Some amazing first episode showstoppers there

Loughc

dee_mc wrote: »

I thought I'd hate Noel but I really like him, he has a fantastic rapport with the bakers and judges alike and comes across as kind and encouraging. I kind of thought he'd be a bit edgy and zany and attention-seeking/distracting based on what I've seen of him on panel shows, but even his voice seems different. He was actually a great choice IMO.

I felt the same way about Noel presenting it, I thought he was going to be the wacky, unusual, crude version of himself we've seen on shows like the Big Quiz of the Year.

But here he was calm, considerate and very engaging, I was pleasantly surprised. He slotted in perfectly as one of the new hosts.

harr

Same as most was expecting to hate Noel on this and could not for the life of me see how he was going to fit in.. but I was pleasantly surprised and I found him the most likeable, Sandi looked a bit lost at times and just didn't seem to fit in..
Was expecting Noel to start getting crazy at any moment.
The baking was definitely a higher standard than previous first episodes, the technical challenge was brilliant.

Missymoohaa

Agree with everyone, I really enjoyed the show and the standards are much improved over last years. Noel was very endearing and it's great that we can watch it on catch up if we miss a night.

harr

Missymoohaa wrote: »

Agree with everyone, I really enjoyed the show and the standards are much improved over last years. Noel was very endearing and it's great that we can watch it on catch up if we miss a night.

Yep one positive changing over to C4 is having it on catchup if needed....

_Dara_

Loughc wrote: »

I felt the same way about Noel presenting it, I thought he was going to be the wacky, unusual, crude version of himself we've seen on shows like the Big Quiz of the Year.

But here he was calm, considerate and very engaging, I was pleasantly surprised. He slotted in perfectly as one of the new hosts.

He has a nice voice for narration too.

A lot of the cakes were dry this week but, as my mother said, they were probably just getting used to the ovens.

_Dara_

Missymoohaa wrote: »

Agree with everyone, I really enjoyed the show and the standards are much improved over last years. Noel was very endearing and it's great that we can watch it on catch up if we miss a night.

Yes, no scrambling around trying to find repeats on the Beeb!

Jeff2

There is another program to do with this show at 10 tonight.
Jo Brand is host I think.

Mr E

Extra Slice is good fun so far.

Those ghost cupcakes were hilarious

Rfrip

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Those ghost cupcakes were hilarious

Loved that part of the show! So funny

iamwhoiam

Rfrip wrote: »

Loved that part of the show! So funny

I laughed out loud at some of them ! The bug with the antenna that looked like a dying squished slug made me howl !

Snoopy1

Ive just watched extra slice and I like the fact its longer this year. Also thought pru was very funny.
All in all im happy with it all this year

dee_mc

Is it just me or did the Another Slice show seem very much more obviously scripted this time?
I still enjoyed it but I've never before been so aware of the fact that it must be all rehearsed and scripted!

InTheTrees

I'm glad the production team seems to be unchanged. It was a winning formula and it seems like its going to survive the personnel change. And the addition of adverts, that's what bothers me the most, I'm sad were losing twenty minutes or so of content.

Nutser

But we're not losing 20 minutes of content as the show is running longer on C4. 9pm to 10.15pm :-)

InTheTrees

Nutser wrote: »

But we're not losing 20 minutes of content as the show is running longer on C4. 9pm to 10.15pm :-)

Oh that's great! I was streaming it and never noticed it was longer.

HeidiHeidi

I finally caught up on the C4 player - and even with fastforward the ads were incredibly annoying!

I also found the two presenters were incredibly stilted and almost awkward, especially the guy (who looks plain odd IMO, never heard of him before seeing him last night, had to google to see who he was ) I hope they settle into it a bit soon, find a groove for themselves. I was a huge fan of Mel & Sue on it - but then I only watched from near the start of the last series, so maybe didn't suffer from the over-exposure of others who have been watching since day 1? They're big shoes to step into for the new pair, hopefully they'll come into their own over the series.

I thought the standard was incredibly high for the first episode! How can some of them keep upping their game from that sort of level??!!

Also thought there was a lot of reliance on spray paint for the last round! Although the winner's sandwich was just outstanding - including the masterful use of said spray paint, how he got the shading around the edges of the "crusts" was amazing! And that watermelon cake - wowzers!!!

Looking forward to next week already

neonsofa

I never liked Mel and Sue.

There, I've said it.

And since we're confessing, I don't get the hype for Mary Berry either.

I love Noel and think he'll be very endearing.

RhubarbCrumble

neonsofa wrote: »

I never liked Mel and Sue.

There, I've said it.

And since we're confessing, I don't get the hype for Mary Berry either.

I love Noel and think he'll be very endearing.

I'm saying it too. It seems to be a bit taboo to admit it, but I was never a fan of Mel & Sue. Sue in particular used to really irritate me. The phrase 'trying too hard' came to mind.
I wasn't bothered about Mary Berry one way or the other. She was grand, Prue Leith seems quite like her so far.
While I'd heard of Noel Fielding I'd never really seen him in anything before so I didn't know what he was going to be like.
I've seen Sandi Toksvig over the years mostly on shows like "Have I got news for you" etc. She seems fine too.
And of course where would we be without "Old blue eyes" as Noel called him :pac:

Thargor

Well I said Bakeoff was dead when the news came at the end of last season but they've completely pulled it out of the bag and done a perfect transition to the new channel and hosts. Glad to see Mel and Sue gone aswell. Delighted that its back tbh, and back to high quality standards instead of the boring amateur stuff they were allowing on the last couple of BBC seasons.

Annani

Echo!

Anyone watching

neonsofa

Annani wrote: »

Echo!

Anyone watching

Watching the football but have it on record