Great British Paint Off! Can Mariella replace Mary Berry?
THE BBC is swapping ovens and aprons for paintbrushes and easels, with its new show Big Painting Challenge appearing to fill the void left by The Great British Bake Off and Mary Berry.
Whilst the corporation insists that it is not compensating for losing the hit baking show to Channel 4, the format of the Sunday evening programme, which will begin on BBC One next month, is remarkably similar.
In the six-part series – presented by Mariella Frostrup and the Rev Richard Coles – ten amateur artists will tackle a series of painting challenges in an attempt to be crowned champion. They will be guided by two artistic mentors, Diana Ali and Pascal Anson.
Tasks are likely to include portraits, life drawing and the painting of animals, with the locations including Whipsnade Zoo and Queen’s House in Greenwich.
In 2015, the BBC aired a series with the same name, fronted by Una Stubbs and Richard Bacon, but BBC Arts Director Jonty Claypole insists that this is a ‘very different show’.
However, two of the three judges, artists Lachlan Goudie and Daphne Todd, are the same, and will be joined by Tate Britain Council member Dr David Dibosa. Each week, they will decide which contestant to eliminate, with the judging expected to be ‘quite harsh’.
The contestants will include a single mother from Northern Ireland, a former astrophysicist and a deaf art graduate. Also taking part will be Angela Watson, from Lincolnshire, who suffered life-threatening injuries in 2014 when a speeding motorist crashed into her house, throwing her out of her bath.
Mark Bell, head of commissioning for BBC Arts, said the programme was ‘very different’ to Bake Off and not designed to fill the void left by the hit series.
‘The BBC has a long history of making broad, mainstream, participatory programmes over the years,’ he said. ‘There’s a long heritage of arts participation programmes that we want to continue and this is a new stab at doing that. It’s its own show.’
The 2015 series drew an average audience of 3.8million and was won by Glaswegian Paul Bell.