Nadiya a natural winner in channels’ kitchen wars
With Celebrity MasterChef kicking off again tonight and Channel 4’s version of The Great British Bake Off waiting in the wings, you would have been forgiven for thinking the last thing we needed right now was yet another cookery show.
However, BBC2 clearly sees life differently.
Hence the arrival last night of The Big Family Cooking Showdown, which is not only a potentially vulgar spoonerism waiting to happen to some poor BBC announcer but also a pretty sly Bake Off spoiler. Whether the Beeb will steal Channel 4’s thunder remains to be seen.
I think it may have nabbed its ideal presenter, though, in Nadiya Hussain.
That’s not to prejudge Channel 4’s double act of choice – although in a list of least likely Bake Off presenters, Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig would easily have made my top two.
Nadiya would have been a perfect fit though. Not because she’s a previous winner – although that would obviously help – but because she is such a TV natural I don’t even think she needed that actual arm around her from Zoe Ball last night.
Nadiya helped turn what was essentially just some people cooking some stuff into an enjoyable hour of television that managed to remind me of many of the good things about the BBC’s Bake Off – even before one of the grandmas taking part threw in some meatball-based double entendres.
Unfortunately, the format is nowhere near as strong or engaging as Bake Off.
The families taking part seemed lovely enough but ultimately I really can’t see a breathless nation caring who wins.
She helped turn just some people cooking into an enjoyable hour of TV