The Great British Bake Off review – Show wastes Nigella’s prodigous charms and misses chance for a true revamp

The Great British Bake Off is back for its 17th series, which, frankly, nobody would care about were it not for one thing: the arrival of Nigella Lawson.

The Queen of the cookbook, your dad’s favourite TV chef, Nigella arrives on Channel 4 to replace the retiring Prue Leith. So, after 16 seasons of smouldering innuendo, will Nigella add some more heat to the kitchen? Or will she be stifled by the terminally twee atmosphere in the Bake Off tent? “I don’t have many skills,” Nigella tells the aspiring bakers, “but eating is one of them.” For this first episode they lay on a range of treats for the new judge: a chocolate stout cake, a coffee and walnut cake, and, finally, a showstopping self-portrait rendered entirely from – you guessed it! – cake. Naturally, there are calamities. Read More.........