Pardon my French, folks
WERE you as outraged as I was by last week’s elimination in THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF (C4, 8pm)? I doubt it. I doubt anyone was. I was so cross, I very nearly registered a complaint with Ofcom (or should that be Bake Offcom..? Ho ho).
No, but seriously, how could the judges have sent home French contestant Manon, when it was clearly Rahul who’d had the stinker of a week (his bread described as “awful”, his pastry overbaked and his Danish spherical pancake thingies horribly burnt).
“Manon?! Mais non!” I actually yelled at the screen when her scandalous elimination was announced, comforted only mildly by the fact that I’d been waiting to crack that gag for weeks.
Yet, hey ho, I guess Prue (right) and Paul’s decision has to be final and on reflection it’s hard to argue with people who, unlike you and me, have actually tasted the food that’s being judged.
Also, speaking as a huge fan of Eeyore, the perpetually gloomy donkey from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, I’d probably have been as sad to see the hilariously pessimistic Rahul shown the door (or should that be flap?). I do love that guy, the way he’s forever convinced he’s not good enough.
I’d actually like to see gloomy Rahul land his own TV show, the way Nadiya did. Possibly on the Good Food channel, or in his case more likely the Food That’s OK I Suppose But Please Don’t Feel You Have To Eat It channel.
So anyway, what of tonight? Well, it’s the semi-final and emotions continue to run high.
“It’s going to be brutal,” predicts Briony, one of three reduced to tears in the previous round.
Theme wise, it’s patisserie week. Yes, that’s right: patisserie. From the French word pâtisserie, spelt the same but with a hat on the A.
To kick things off the bakers are asked to make madeleines. Yes, that’s right, madeleines – a sponge cake speciality from, hmm, let me think now…oh, yes, that’s right, from France. You know, the sort of thing that might be particularly well made by, say, a French person.
Honestly, talk about rubbing salt into Manon’s wounds. If I were her, I’d watch Holby.
Also tonight,
INSIDE THE TOWER OF LONDON (Channel 5, 9.15pm) is a new four-part documentary (never let it be said Channel 5 do these things by halves), looking at the royal fortress’s colourful history.
It’s best known to many, of course, as the place where people used to come to have their heads chopped off, albeit not generally by choice, but there’s obviously an abundance of other stories to hear, dating back to William the Conqueror. One such tale, around which they’re about to stage a new exhibition, is that of The Princes in the Tower, from 1483. Prince Edward, due to become King, entered the Garden Tower with his younger brother to prepare for his coronation, only for the boys to then vanish. The fact that Edward’s Uncle Richard then took the throne led many to believe he’d had them murdered. Yet even today, no one knows for sure what really happened.