The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer
CHANNEL 4, 8.00PM
The baking competition returns with this largely comical charity version of the show as 20 celebrities, including Griff Rhys Jones, Lee Mack and Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, don their pinnies and tackle challenges designed for fun. “When you can make and eat cake all for a good cause, it’s a win/win,” says Desperate Housewives actress Teri Hatcher, a surprise American entrant who appears later in the five-part run.
In this first episode, it’s broadcaster Bill Turnbull, Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp, actress Roisin Conaty and comedian Harry Hill who are the first to crack eggs. The technical challenge is Crêpes Suzette, while the Signature is to make 12 iced cupcakes. Hill, who lost his hair aged 23, decorates his in honour of the balding community. Judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith then set an entertaining, threedimensional biscuit showstopper that is supposed to represent the best day of the contestants’ lives.
It’s a good job that Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding are on hand to moderate the chaos. “Absolute carnage,” says Conaty as she retrieves her ginger biscuits from the oven. Vicki Power