Bake Off shows its enduring appeal with a peak audience of 7 million

IT HAS risen to become one of Britain’s best-loved television shows, and the new series of The

Great British Bake Off has shown its enduring appeal.

The series returned to TV screens with an average of 6.1m viewers – a slight drop from last year, but still an audience share that is being seen as a success for its broadcaster, Channel 4.

The former BBC show relaunched in 2017 for the first time on Channel 4 amid a blaze of publicity, when it notched up an average of 6.5m.

On Tuesday night, it returned to Channel 4 with a peak audience of seven million and an average of 6.1m – a 29 per cent share of the evening’s television audience.

The 12 new bakers were tasked with creating 24 regional biscuits in the signature challenge and eight Wagon Wheels, a childhood favourite of judge Paul Hollywood, in the technical challenge. The third challenge of the episode, the showstopper, saw the contestants create 3D biscuit selfie portraits.

The initial episode of the new series saw Manon Lagreve, inset, named the first Star Baker.

The 26-year-old French soft- ware project manager who lives in London has been tipped by bookies along with fellow contestant Ruby Bhogal, 29, who is also a project manager from London, as favourites to go through to the final of the show, hosted by Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding. Amateur baker Imelda McCarron was the first contestant of the new series to leave the tent. The countryside recreation officer, 33, from Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland, failed to impress Hollywood and his fellow judge, Prue Leith.