Bake Off maker sees dough rise
It doesn’t look as though Gwenda’s big day goes quite to plan in the last instalment of Ordeal by Innocence.
The former secretary, played by Alice Eve, may have donned her ivory frock to marry Leo (Bill Nighy) but she is not looking very happy as THEY always insisted wasn’t about the money.
But the makers of The Great British Bake Off are celebrating having a lot more dough since they moved the hit series from the BBC to Channel 4.
Takings for Love Productions went up from €18.3million to €23.3million after Channel 4 snapped up the show.
Details of how the Bake Off transfer benefited the company are revealed for the first time.
Love had a pre-tax profit of €5.8million, more than double the previous year’s €2.5million when the show aired on the BBC.
The company directors who set up Love – Richard Mckerrow and Anna Beattie – each got a personal dividend of €468,000 – which rose 67% from their it she is escorted by dour housemaid Kirsten (Morven Christie).
And Hester (Ella Purnell) looks positively miserable in her bridesmaid dress. Then again, she and her adoptive siblings are finally going to find out who murdered dividend of €280,000 the year before. The company had a corporation tax bill of €939,000 and has retained profit of €7.4million in the business. In September 2016 when the show was confirmed to be moving channels the company sent an email to staff that read: “With deep regret, after more than a year of exhaustive negotiations we have been unable to reach an agreement with the BBC for the renewal of The Great British Bake Off.
“We are really saddened by this outcome because we always wanted to stay on the BBC. This has never been about who might write the biggest cheque, but The channel W has stopped screening same-day repeats of Eastenders. W is ending its deal with the BBC. Those affected will have to record them or use iplayer. their mother in the BBC1 series – a different killer to the one Agatha Christie wrote in her book. Gasp!
With everyone having a motive, we’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out who lamped Rachel Argyll (Anna Chancellor) with a decanter. about where we can find the best home for Bake Off.”
The accounts cover the 12 months to June 2017, so after the first Channel 4 series began filming in April last year but before it aired.
This means Love may have more money in next year’s accounts as it will include money for another series and possible extra cash it gets when the show is aired.
Prue
The show hit the headlines last week when it emerged judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith and presenters Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding were paid for working on the celebrity version of the series which raised money for Stand Up To Cancer.
Still, it looks as if Love Productions have plenty of cash to hand out...