A soggy bottom at C4?

Is it possible that Channel 4 has totally failed to understand the concept of The Great British Bake Off, the show which it has acquired at great expense from the BBC? Noel Fielding, one of the new judges, has announced that he will not actually be eating any of the cakes on offer, because to do so would be to risk his waistline. Bake Off, like cake itself, is something of a guilty pleasure. Perhaps someone should tell Mr Fielding that the whole fun comes from knowing what is naughty, and doing it anyway.

We will have to wait until autumn to find out just how far the recipe of this old favourite has been tinkered with. But as Bake Off has proved so often in the past, it only takes the removal of one or two crucial ingredients to turn the greatest, featherweight treat into a grim, leaden disaster.