The Daily Telegraph - 27.08.2019

I

ncredible as it might seem, a

decade has passed since it first

hit our screens. It is now

possible to have a sensible

conversation with someone

who can’t remember a time

before the Great British Bake Off.

In an era when entire series are

binged on Netflix, Bake Off has

managed to remain appointment-to-

view television. X Factor is

floundering, Big Brother is no more,

even Love Island has struggled to

maintain its viewer numbers. But

this unassuming show about sponge

fingers begins its 10th series tonight,

and is just as popular as ever.

You could write a thesis about why

we love it – and doubtless there are

media studies students who have

come up with complex theories –

but, to my mind, the main reason for

Bake Off’s appeal is simply that it is a

beacon of kindness and cosiness in a

time of shouting and division.

The world might be going to hell

in a handbasket, but for an hour

every Tuesday night you can watch

13 jolly souls having a minor

breakdown because they can’t find

the marrons glacés. And while the

programme has had its ups and

downs – the move from the BBC to

Channel 4, with Mary Berry replaced

by Prue Leith, and Paul Hollywood

staying on – the format has remained

reassuringly the same.

It might be too far to say that Bake

Off changed the face of Britain, but it

does feel as though it has given us an

awful lot. So as the 10th series begins

tonight, we thank a decade’s

worth of Bake Off for...

Transforming

our kitchens

There was a time when

we saved up for a

new car, or the

holiday of a lifetime.

Now, our money

goes on the kitchen.

Can you really call

yourself a baker if you

don’t own a pastel-

coloured KitchenAid

mixer (or at least a

Kenwood)? What do

you mean, you don’t

From puns to pans,

we owe a lot to

GBBO, says Eleanor

Steafel as the 10th

series begins

Ten ways that Bake Off changed Britain

have a set of copper measuring cups?

Then there’s the all-important

vintage-look Smeg fridge and the

Kilner jars, not to mention THAT oven

with the magic sliding door.

Incidentally, remember the time in

series eight when Stacey’s oven door

came flying off and she had to hold it

on to save her 18th-century Savoy

cake? It was the first time in Bake Off

history that someone had sworn on

camera. This level of high drama is

why we watch.

Getting children baking

Unless you were one of those faintly

irritating families where the children

don’t have screens and spend their

spare time frolicking outdoors, the

idea of spending afternoons baking

together used to be a foreign concept.

Bake Off changed that. By the time it

Recipe for success:

presenters Sandi

Toksvig and Noel

Fielding (standing),

and judges Paul

Hollywood and

Prue Leith, main;

above, vegan cake

disasters last year;

“Bring Back Val”

Stones, below; and

the ubiquitous

mixers, left

PA; WENN; BBC/LOVE PRODUCTIONS/MARK BOURDI; HEATHCLIFF O’MALLEY

FEATURES

moved to Channel 4 in 2017, the show

was watched by more young people

than any other series on TV, sending

kids and teenagers alike into the

kitchen demanding ingredients and

kit. Their inheritance may have

gone on recreating the Bake Off

tent in your kitchen, but a whole

generation can now confidently

knock up a Victoria sandwich

• something that hadn’t been
  true for decades pre-GBBO. And
  the proof of the pudding is in
  the eating: this year’s cast is
  the youngest ever, with the
  majority in their 20s.

Raising a new breed of

TV star

It’s the characters that make

the show. Indeed, when the

new, youthful line-up was

revealed last week, one article opined

“Bring back Val!” – the then 66-year-

old retired head teacher from series

seven who claimed her cakes “sang” to

her. There still aren’t many shows that

would put an older woman with talent

and natural warmth in front of the

camera and let her shine, without

exploiting her or setting her up to

humiliate herself. From Howard “who

stole my custard?” Middleton, to mega

stars like Nadiya Hussain, the

programme attracts wonderful people,

many of whom have gone on to have

extraordinary careers. More please.

Giving us puns

I’m on board with Noel Fielding and

Sandi Toksvig as the presenters of

Channel 4’s Bake Off, but I do

sometimes miss the punning of

Mel and Sue on the BBC. I remember

one particular occasion during a

Tudor-themed week when Sue

announced to the frantic bakers

halfway through a two-hour

challenge: “That’s an Aragon.” Gold.

The original line-up also brought us

such linguistic delights as “soggy

bottom”. I think we can all agree we

have learnt a lot of baking double

entendre. Though pity the poor

confused American viewers who,

when the British version of the show

aired across the pond, were left

googling “baps” and “buns”.

Moving with the times

It’s an old-fashioned concept,

but it does a good job of

keeping up with food fads,

without pandering to them.

Series one was scones and

all-butter pastry, but these

days vegan and gluten-free

bakes get an airing, reflecting

our changing eating habits.

Lest we forget, though,

vegan week was a bit of a

disaster last year, with someone’s

show-stopper falling over, while

another’s caved in on itself and a

third attempt was labelled a “pitiful

sight” by the judges.

Cooking up a new era of TV

As always in telly land, once you find

a formula that works, the door is

open to create as many versions as

you can muster. Enter: The Great

British Sewing Bee, The Great Pottery

Throw Down, The Great Interior

Design Challenge – it seems we can’t

get enough of watching normal

people attempt niche skills on

screen. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

I’m still waiting for the Great British

Whittle Off to be commissioned.

Making us (over)ambitious

How many people, I wonder, have

watched nine series of Bake Off and

now think they can make their best

friend’s multi-tiered wedding cake

for a mere 120 guests? I can recall one

year when my sister and I attempted

a croquembouche to disastrous effect

after watching choux pastry week.

Such is Bake Off’s power that demand

for specific ingredients used by the

contestants can soar in a matter of

hours. One year, demand for

Peruvian goldenberries spiked by 180

per cent overnight, and antigravity

cake kits are now one of Lakeland’s

top-selling accessories.

Introducing us to niche

historical cakes

There was the rudely named

Schichttorte – a German cake where

each layer is cooked under a grill.

Then came the sfogliata, Victorian

tennis cake, mokatines, Spanische

Windtorte, and Kouign-amann. You

didn’t know you needed these

archaic cakes in your life, but try to

tell me at least one of them hasn’t

come up in a pub quiz.

Encouraging men to bake

From Paul “Silver Fox” Jagger’s lion

bread to Selasi Gbormittah’s lemon

curd, and Rahul Mandal’s edible rock

garden – the show has broken the

stigma around men baking. And it’s

provided us with the occasional

heart-throb, too. Who could forget Dr

Tamal Ray from series six? Come to

think of it, I wonder if anyone has

thought of bringing out a Bake Off

Boys calendar? It’d turn good trade at

a Women’s Institute Christmas fete.

Bringing back kitsch

Everyone feared it would be

tarnished with edginess when it

moved to Channel 4, but Bake Off still

does a reassuringly good line in

bunting, gingham and doilies. It isn’t

just the decor, it’s the old-fashioned

humour (“careful your Croatian buns

don’t Split”), the cakes, even the

theme tune. Thanks to Bake Off, the

cutesy, ridiculous and plain silly are

alive and kicking. Long may they last.

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Frey’s news for today is not good.
Post-Eighties computerisation began
to erode the mass middle-class jobs
created by the postwar manufacturing
boom, he says. And, he notes: “After
reviewing [more] recent technological
developments – machine learning,
machine vision, sensors, various
subfields of AI, and mobile robotics

• my conclusion is that they are
  predominantly replacing... and will
  worsen the employment prospects for
  the already shattered middle class.”

TEN OF THE JOBS MOST AT RISK

FROM THE NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Job Risk of job loss

Bartenders 77%

Fast food cooks 81%

Taxi drivers and chauffeurs 89%

Retail salespeople 92%

Tax examiners and collectors

and revenue agents 93%

Waiters and waitresses 94%

Models 98%

Umpires, referees and other

sports officials 98%

Insurance underwriters 99%

Telemarketers 99%

Source: *From the 2013 Frey-Osborne paper on risk to 702 careers from automation

His dismal assessment is that

today’s industrial revolution risks

looking a lot like that of 1769: careers

ended, wealth falling predominantly

to a few, all softened with the promise

that things will be all right in the end

• though not if you are one of
  America’s three million truck drivers
  or the similar number of people in the
  UK working in retail sales.
  And yet, he is no doom-monger.
  “I’m an optimist about AI,” he says. He
  thinks today’s tech will ultimately
  “give a boost to productivity and make
  more jobs interesting”. It is how we
  manage the decades of disruption
  until that happens – our own 1770-
  1840 – that matters. It is possible, he
  thinks, yet represents a challenge that
  is already dictating and monopolising
  politics: whether to engage with global
  competition, or to retreat and protect

national industries; whether to side

with disgruntled, displaced workers

or to crush them.

Frey does offer some sticking-plaster

solutions: dramatic tax breaks for low

incomes; wage insurance for those

moving to lower-paying jobs; reduced

planning restrictions to make housing

cheaper in booming cities; better

transport to facilitate access to those

cities and credit to help relocation. He

hopes they can mitigate what he calls

the “tragedy of technology” – that it

makes us healthier and better off on

average but not for everybody or, at

least, not in the short run. “We need to

use policy to smooth the transition.”

It’s a transition, he thinks, that we’ve

only just embarked upon.

Unfortunately, policy is the one

area where Frey feels disruption is

too slow. “Tony Blair was at a recent

conference,” he recalls, laughing

ruefully. “He said if Clement Attlee

came back to the UK he

would walk around

and marvel at the

extraordinary,

unimaginable

innovation and

invention. And

then he would walk

into Whitehall and

feel completely at

home, like nothing

had changed. It’s

probably true.”

‘AI will give a boost

to productivity

and make more jobs

interesting’

The Technology Trap by Carl

Benedikt Frey (RRP £24). Buy

now for £20 at books.

telegraph.co.uk or call 0844

871 1514

The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 27 August 2019 *** 19
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