Channel 4 has announced its new, post Mary/Sue/Mel Bake Off roster. Hmm. Hmmmm.
The BBC provides a run-down on the cast. Replacing Sue and Mel are comedians Noel Fielding, whom you might know from either The Mighty Boosh or his role on The IT Crowd as basement-dwelling Goth Richard, and Sandi Toksvig, who hosts the quiz show QI. Here’s Fielding:
And here’s Toksvig:
They are a mismatched set of bookends but might work—we’ll see.
Replacing Mary Barry as judge will be Prue Leith. The Guardian says:
In terms of generation and reputation, Prue Leith is about as near to a like-for-like Mary Berry replacement as it would be possible to find, although her slightly spikier style suggests that she and Paul Hollywood will be more of a spice-and-spice combination than his salt-and-sugar double-act with Berry.
Leith has already landed herself in a slight flap, cracking wise that “It’s a bit scary following Mary, but I don’t want to do a Chris Evans,” and then emailing to apologize to the man who only made it a single season as the replacement host of Top Gear. But she seems charming enough in this clip from a British morning show, talking about getting engaged at 76.
Paul Hollywood, well, you already know the deal with him.
The new crew will go head-to-head with a BBC show hosted by incredibly charming Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, The Big Family Cooking Showdown. The new season is scheduled for autumn, and in these trying times, maybe it’s actually good news that we have two shows that are kinda/sorta classic Bake Off.
