In the Kitchen with the Whitsons as Bake Off begins.

After the fog of gloom that had descended on the demise of Bake Off One, child of GBBO emerged from the oven of its new format a lusty, bouncing bun.

The Doyenne had put on her trademark green pinny to get into the spirit of the new programme and I settled down with a plate of her homebaked biscuits.

All the contestants started the programme with panache and brio but how quickly it dissolves when you forget to turn on your oven or don’t whisk your egg whites.

“Oh! You silly boy”, hissed The Doyenne at one point. The tension was getting to me too.

Frissons of nervous apprehension flickered across the TV screen.

What a contrast for me from the tranquillity of the countryside to the cauldron of reeking emotion in the baking tent.

Little faces crumpled at death sentences of “stodgy” and “boring”. Brave words indeed from Chris, who muttered: “It’s only a cake. No one’s going to die.” Oh, yeah!

The new programme contradicted all the doomsayers.

Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding were pleasantly low key.

The Doyenne connected with Prue Leith and thought her a sensible, nononsense lady.

And how those anxious faces lit up with child-like pleasure at praise from the judges and the ultimate accolade of a Hollywood Handshake.

It was good to see the camaraderie between the contestants, helping each other when the going got rough.

And we had to sympathise with the contestants who suffered the indignity of exposed bottoms.