Bake Off’s BBC bully beef
Tensions are still boiling over between the Great
British Bake Off and the BBC – two years after Channel 4 poached the show.
Makers Love Productions are simmering with anger. The corporation is “a bully”, they claim, and criticise the meagre budgets they had, while accusing the BBC of plagiarising the format.
“We discovered ourselves at the heart of an Orwellian nightmare,” exclaims Richard McKerrow. Love boss
“I think Bake Off would have died if we hadn’t moved, the way that the powers-that-be were operating,” he said at Leeds Trinity University, where he voiced frustrations at being accused of “greed”.
“It was a decision made on ethical grounds and I include receiving a fair price as ethical. It kept it free to air and I trusted them and knew they would look after it,” he says.
Love accused the BBC of copying the format for hairdressing show, Hair, and again with the Big Painting Challenge.
“That was one aspect of what led to the ongoing deterioration and mistrust,” he says of their “dysfunctional” relationship.
Of their small budget, he said:
“It remained the same even when Nadiya [Hussain] won – which rated as high as the World Cup final.
“I think that unfortunately broadcasters bully independent producers and the BBC is the biggest bully of all and I don’t think that is healthy for the industry. I felt bullied.”
Of the “unbearable” 48 hours after the announcement of the move, in which Paul Hollywood was the only star to stay on board, Richard adds: “I knew it was going to be a sh**show to get to the promised land.”
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