back to article Jeremy Clarkson and Co. rise to top for Great British Bake Off replacements

Two weeks after Channel 4’s £75m grab of Great British Bake Off from the BBC, the broadcaster has a big marquee but no filling. Mary Berry has joined puckish Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc in electing to stay with the BBC, meaning three quarters of GBBO’s presenting line up evaporated. It was Berry who mitigated the unvarnished …

  1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Soggy Bottoms and other stories

    That do they know about them unless it is a place of their favourite off road course.

    mind you, it would be fun to see JC (no not the bearded one up for election as some political leader ) getting his hands dirty for once.

    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: Soggy Bottoms and other stories

      "That do they know about them unless it is a place of their favourite off road course"

      whut?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Soggy Bottoms and other stories

        I guess the "That" should be "What", then it sort of makes sense. Auto-correct at work, no doubt.

    2. You aint sin me, roit
      Coat

      JC (no not the bearded one up for election as some political leader)

      Jesus is up for election?

      I knew the Synod was moving to be more democratic but that's a bit much!

  2. x 7

    Well........Clarkson and Hammond have puddings for brains so casting them shouldn't be too hard

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      On the question of the Stig's identity:

      .... "my friend thinks it's Clarkson, Hammond and May, primarily because 'Stig' is an anagram of 'gits'''

      - The Thick of It (a British political satire, though the Thick of IT could have been an alternate title for The IT Crowd)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Stig

        Nah, the name Stig comes from clarkson's (public) school days where they called the new/younger boy, the stig.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    too late now, but..

    i would have plumped for Matt Berry in full Douglas Reynholm mode and Rich Fulcher in full on Bob Fossil.

  4. Halfmad

    I loved Top Gear

    But I'm no fanboy of workplace bullying. Clarkson shot himself in the foot, the hero worshiping needs to end.

    That being said I'll still watch his new show if it's on a channel I can get, which is increasingly unlikely seeing as I only ever watch on demand these days and invariably those shows on Amazon (Bosch is incredible). I can't remember the last time I watched a BBC show, the only BBC content I look at it online or the radio.. can't beat R4 or 6M.

    1. Mattjimf

      Re: I loved Top Gear

      Your in luck as the new show is indeed on Amazon (not sure how you have missed that info).

      1. CAPS LOCK

        Re: I loved Top Gear

        "You[']r[e] in luck as the new show is indeed on Amazon (not sure how you have missed that info)." And very shortly thereafter all over the intertubes.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I loved Top Gear

        Your in luck as the new show is indeed on Amazon (not sure how you have missed that info).

        Well, when I tried watching the promo in OSX Safari, I was told I had to install .. Silverlight (over my dead body). On Firefox, some Google "Widevine Content Decryption Module" plugin crashed I didn't even know I had installed (and will have to find a way to immediately remove as I don't want ANYTHING made by Google on my system, certainly not when surreptitiously installed), and on Opera it worked but the resolution was terrible and the page crashed immediately after playing the promo.

        In short, I am amazed that Amazon managed to find a delivery method worse than the Adobe Air powered BBC iPlayer. It must have taken many man years to develop something that beats BBC's pile of junk. On the plus side, it appears I'm saving some money here because there's no way I'll pay for something I have only the vaguest chance of watching...

        1. Paul Crawford Silver badge
          Trollface

          Re: I loved Top Gear

          *cough* bit torrent *cough*

          More so for stuff that is hardly worth paying for in the first place...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I loved Top Gear

            *cough* bit torrent *cough*

            Well no, I don't have this weird idea that everything has to be for free - I know making this stuff costs money. Sadly, I may indeed have to resort to that if Amazon makes it so stupidly difficult to watch anything. Thankfully, downloading is legal where I live :).

  5. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    FAIL

    £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

    Andrew Neil on This Week wondered why on earth C4 would pay so much for the show without securing the talent who had made it a success and I have to agree. Maybe we'll be proved wrong but I suspect it's going to fare no better than Top Gear with Evans fronting that.

    1. tony72

      Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

      I think they're insane. That being said, the argument is probably that the bakers make the show more so than the presenters; we spend a lot more time watching the former than the latter during the course of the show, and so as long as they can keep getting great characters in the tent, they might just pull it off. It's not quite like Top Gear in that respect, as with that, the presenters are the show. The presenters are the glue that holds it together though, and they will do well to replace Mel and Sue.

      1. Brangdon

        Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

        I think the presenters are important for setting the tone, and the tone matters. Maybe they aren't as important as the Top Gear presenters were to their respective shows, but it's still stupid to throw away that chemistry.

        That said, it's not just them. The editing is important too. The way it ramps up the tension as the assignment deadlines approach, with music and cutting and drama.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

          "music"

          This one always amazes me. Imagine you're a composer and someone comes along to commission a theme tune. "What's the show about?" "Baking." Where would you start? But they nailed it.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

      "Andrew Neil on This Week wondered why on earth C4 would pay so much for the show without securing the talent"

      I'm wondering whether C4 will still take it. I'm waiting to see it offered back to the Beeb who'll want a couple of million knocking off the price and the original presenters insisting on a pay rise to go back. Karma.

    3. I Like Heckling Silver badge

      Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

      Everytime I see this mentioned on some news site, the amount paid by C4 increases... and I suspect that El Reg failed to do some simple fact checking and simply slurped the news/press release from elsewhere because they're simply repeating the same errors that I've seen elsewhere.

      A quick checks of the facts reveal that C4 actually paid £25 million, which is £10 million more than the £15m offered by the BBC.

      How that figure got tripled is down to lazy fact checking... shame on El Reg for repeating misinformation.

      1. Snowy Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

        @I Like Heckling

        I believe it is a three year deal costing £25 million a year, which makes?, I'll let you do the maths...

      2. David Webb

        Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

        A quick checks of the facts reveal that C4 actually paid £25 million, which is £10 million more than the £15m offered by the BBC.

        Over how long? There you go, the answer to your question on why it's £75 million, all you had to do was a little fact checking.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: £75m tent for sale, includes cookers, vacant possession

      The ONLY reaason Paul Hollywood has jumped ship is that without the GBBO, he's back in the back of his shop mixing fucking custard.

      Other than being able to make pastry he has no other discernable quality. Well, unless you count cheating your business partner and doing a runner owing them thousands as a "talent".

      He simply cannot afford to leave the GBBO.

      Love the show, hate that stuck up wanker.

  6. Simon Harris
    Coat

    Clarkson & Co.

    Would it be renamed "The Great British Brake Off"?

    (joke unashamedly pinched from another forum)

  7. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face

    Who gives a flying fruitcake whether it's on BBC or Channel4 or replaced by some other dreary nonsense? Bring back Tomorrow's World, I say.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Maggie Philbin

      Cute

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "Bring back Tomorrow's World, I say."

      It would only be brought back as dumbed down dreary nonsense. Look what happened to Horizon. TV is now aimed at an audience of goldfish.

      1. DropBear

        "It would only be brought back as dumbed down dreary nonsense"

        Have watched recently this new whatsitcalled version of Carl Sagan's original series. It hurt. A lot...

      2. TheProf

        "Bring back Tomorrow's World, I say."

        Just juice up Click a bit. And put it where licence fee payers can see the damn thing.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: "Bring back Tomorrow's World, I say."

          "Just juice up Click a bit. And put it where licence fee payers can see the damn thing."

          A licence fee payer almost certainly has Freeview, FreeSat, Sky or Virgin. Or is it too hard to find BBC News and you expect everything BBCish to be on BBC One so you don't have to go to all the effort to change channels?

        2. Mattjimf

          Re: "Bring back Tomorrow's World, I say."

          You've never been up at 6:30-7am on a Saturday morning when it's on BBC 1?

          1. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face

            Re: "Bring back Tomorrow's World, I say."

            @Mattjimf

            Not even once.

      3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: bring back Tomorrow's World

        As long as Dabbsy will present it...

    3. annodomini2

      Tomorrow's world is now the name of some religious program, guessing the beeb sold the rights to the name.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...puckish Sue Perkins..."

    Sue Perkins is hot. And yes, I know, and it's fine.

    But she's still hot.

    1. x 7

      Re: "...puckish Sue Perkins..."

      "Sue Perkins is hot. And yes, I know, and it's fine.

      But she's still hot."

      And I bet you lust after a MMF with Sue and Anna Richardson. Only question is who's the F?...........

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "...puckish Sue Perkins..."

      I thought I was the only one that found Ms Perkins oddly alluring

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "...puckish Sue Perkins..."

        But certainly unavailable (well if you are a male, as I am afraid I expect the majority of commenters to be on this site)

  9. Scott Broukell

    Bake Off . . . .

    It's scone to Channel Flour.

    1. TitterYeNot
      Coat

      Re: Bake Off . . . .

      "It's scone to Channel Flour."

      Thats not really a grate joke, it kneads a much better punchline. Though many a true word is spoken in zest.

      As to GBBO, they'll regret the move eventually, for as they say, batter the devil you know...

      1. Scott Broukell

        Re: Bake Off . . . .

        @TitterYeNot

        Well you butter just rub it in some more then and let's not hold back on the yokes eh!

        1. Scott Broukell

          Re: Bake Off . . . .

          @TitterYeNot

          Just keep rubbing it in why don't you.

          I'll sieve I can do better next time.

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. Dr_N

    And on that bombe shell ...

    ... goodnight!

  12. ahnlak
    FAIL

    "How that figure got tripled is down to lazy fact checking... shame on El Reg for repeating misinformation."

    That figure got tripled because it's a per-season price, and C4 have bought 3 seasons. Talking of lazy fact checking...

  13. John 104

    Tony Stark?

    Is that Tony Stark on the left or hamster?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Helterskelter

      neither, its a young Charles Manson

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Name for new Great British Show

    Roll Up Roll Up

    Add your title and description for a new cheap telly banal Great British Theme TV Show.

    Mine is

    Great British F*** Up

    Where people who have F***** up can be set really difficult/tedious tasks, and then punished for not achieving the task.

    Candidates would be those who f****** up IT systems (so there is an IT theme to this post), politicians(obviously) , serial fibbers and wannabes.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spin Off show for James May

    At the end of each show staring Clarkson & Hammond, the winning foodstuff can be picked apart and laid out on a table for James May to lovingly re-assemble.

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