The Great British Bake Off; Into the Jungle With Ed Stafford

“This isn’t television that’s going to change the world, but the series has arguably changed television — and 2024’s Bake Off delivers a masterclass in cosy escapism. After 15 series, its recipe has been perfected.”
Emily Watkins, The i

“Bake-Off is a winning format that wins because it doesn’t change. Those eight million viewers will eventually tire of the same jokes about fudge inserts, the Hollywood handshake and people endlessly saying the word ‘ganache’, but on this evidence, there’s still plenty of life in the old sponge yet.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“This is the 15th series, and it’s my solemn duty to report that the jokes are as bad as ever. Sometimes it’s like watching an office party, where the management tries to lighten the atmosphere, and junior staff laugh nervously along. When contestant Georgie made a cake in the shape of a chicken called Fanny, it was only a matter of time before it all went a bit Carry On. By contrast, the standard of the baking is as high as ever.”
Roland White, Daily Mail

“The contestants are so good that it means there’s less drama. Unlike in previous shows, no one sabotages a rival’s trifle, no food mixer explodes, and not a single scone, bun or biscuit is dropped on the floor. Instead, the ‘amateur’ bakers are effortlessly accomplished. Lovely people, too, but it is, in truth, a bit dull, a bit too wholemeal wholesome, and I’m not sure what they would have done without that chicken with a funny name to vary the pace a bit.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent

“With no cake-toppling calamities, and no one even sent packing, this was an uneventful return. Fielding wasn’t overdoing the whimsy until he digressed about a goat that had walked into his home on its hind legs. But when Hollywood suddenly proffered his hand to Illiyin for a handshake, the look on her face was one of those moments when Bake Off’s warmth can transmute into small moments of joy — no hugs necessary.”
James Jackson, The Times

“Bake Off’s diminishing returns will have to get a lot worse before it stops working altogether. It is still fundamentally a pleasure to welcome a fresh dozen bakers into the tent, all sunny and comradely and kind; getting to know them is still, in the early episodes at least, a delight.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“After just one episode you were left with a real conviction that everyone involved would glean something genuinely meaningful from a jungle contest that — while there is a spider-eating scene — has pleasingly swapped Ant and Dec for a diploma in psychology and a master’s in family therapy. I certainly did.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“As a concept, Into the Jungle had legs. The problem wasn’t so much the idea it was trying to prove as the way it went about it. My guess is that improving father/child relationships requires both father and child buy-in. No one under the age of 20, however, would have stayed with Into the Jungle for more than three minutes. It was painfully slow, a whole hour centred on two points of contrived jeopardy (rock pool; abseil) that would look like peanuts to anyone who’s ever crossed a road.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“The feeling of manipulation encroaches more and more as time goes on. I don’t normally care this much. But the children are so vulnerable – on the cusp between not enough and too much understanding of their fathers – that the discomfort cannot be ignored. Stafford’s intentions are clearly good. The people standing behind him in their realisation for the screen I am not so sure about.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian