An Oktoberfest of cakes
GREAT news for all those angry people who stormed Channel 4 headquarters the other week. Remember them? They were demanding – I’m fairly certain I’ve got this correct – that The Great British Bake Off should have a German Week, celebrating the best in traditional German cake and biscuit making and that kind of thing.
And guess what?
This evening, for the first time in the programme’s history, it’s German Week in THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF (C4, 8pm), celebrating the best in German cake and biscuit making and that kind of thing.
See, there you have it – the power of protest in a nutshell.Any day now, I predict that those other protesters we’ve been hearing a lot of lately, who’ve been drawing attention to their own cause by sitting down on motorways, will also be celebrating a glorious victory, as the BBC finally caves in to their demands and reinstates Sue Barker as host of A Question Of Sport.
And jolly well done to them for that.
But let’s be perfectly clear about this Bake Off German thing. It’s all about the food. Once upon a time, it would have been an excuse, especially on a programme hosted by two comedians, for a string of pathetic, lazy, xenophobic jokes. But times have changed.We’re grown-ups now.And thank heavens. I’ve always hated that puerile nonsense.
Nor have I personally ever amusing thought it is that Germans all their words in a funny order putting are, as well as frequently into one ridiculously long word for no obvious reason combining, so I’m relieved to report there’s no tiresome japery along those lines.
But what we do have, of course, are lots of great German bakes – Mandelhörnchen! Glüh we inplätzch en! Pr inz regent en tor te! Im genuinely not making those up! – plus of course a great German baker, the lovely Jürgen, who’s still very much in contention, both for Bake Off champion and for Clive James Lookalike Of The Year. Who doesn’t love Jürgen, eh? That said, I do feel a bit sorry for those bakers who’ve already been eliminated from this year’s competition, without having had a theme week that played to their own strengths. Imagine, for example, what Tom would have given for a Software Developers From Kent Week.
Elsewhere tonight, it’s the lovely Dame Judi Dench’s turn to find out whether she is who she thinks she is, in this week’s WHO DOYOU THINK YOU ARE? (BBC1, 9pm).
If Dame Judi thinks she’s distantly related to Danish nobility, and maybe even has a link to William Shakespeare – well, sort of – then let’s just say she won’t be disappointed.