Nigella Lawson cannot save Bake Off from its real problem... its men

The reassuringly British cook alone cannot save the baking show from those terrible blokes, says Claire Cohen

It’s surely a recipe for success: Britain’s queen of double-entendres, Nigella Lawson, is to replace Dame Prue Leith on the show that turned before-the-watershed innuendo into an art form, The Great British Bake Off.

How did they persuade Nigella to do it? She might be reassuringly British – you could almost believe that Richard Curtis had written her – but she’s also a highly respected culinary figure who’s spent three decades cultivating her aloof, glamorous, not-exactly-one-of-us image (meekro-wah-vey, anyone?) This will put her into a very different space: the road to teatime national treasure and, surely, a damehood. And you know she’ll be good – with the ability to flit between mouthwatering charm and ganache-melting froideur. A showstopper hire indeed.

But, if we’re being honest here, Nigella isn’t the main talking point when it comes to Bake Off, which has seen ratings decline every year since 2020. She alone can’t save the show. You know what I’m talking about: the men. Sorry chaps, but if there’s one thing making the whole thing feel stale, it’s you.

Radioactive judge Paul Hollywood has somehow outlasted all the Bake Off women: Mary Berry, Mel and Sue, Sandi Toksvig, Leith. He might not have needed to retire, being just 59 (Berry was 81 when she stepped down in 2016, Leith is 86), but he’s surely well past his best-before date. I believe there are still preserved slices of Charles and Diana’s wedding cake in circulation – is he going for a similar record?

The once-coveted Hollywood handshake – doled out to the week’s top bakers – is now about as thrilling as a Victoria sandwich without the jam. Dry, unremarkable; put it away, please. He should be quaking in his stonewashed jeans at the prospect of having to keep up with Nigella, who’s so adored that she doesn’t even need a surname.

As for Noel Fielding? Look, The Mighty Boosh were great. But I can’t see what a man who seemingly identifies as a vampire and displays about as much warmth towards the bakers as an arctic roll is doing in the tent. His co-presenter Alison Hammond was an inspired choice when she was brought in to replace Matt Lucas in 2023, but she must surely be fed up with being the only person able to generate anything approaching chemistry.

Look, I’m not saying that Bake Off should only have female judges and presenters – a programme about cake with only women in the kitchen? How enlightened. But there must be other options out there. When the show jumped from the BBC to Channel 4, Richard Ayoade’s name was heavily trailed as a possible replacement for Mel and Sue. What happened there?

How about bringing Bake Off full circle and casting one of its own success stories as a judge? Edd Kimber, the first winner and now a bestselling food writer, is an obvious choice. Liam Charles from series eight, who’s been a judge on both the professional and junior versions. John Whaite, who won the third series in 2012, has had his struggles (steroid addiction, OnlyFans…), but if the British public love anything, it’s an oven-ready redemption arc.

So many of my once-devoted friends and family have turned off in the last couple of years – I confess that, for the first time ever, I didn’t finish the last series. And while I think many of us will tune back in, curious to see how Nigella wields her power and whether she’s as stern with the bakers as I suspect (and hope), she alone isn’t the answer to Bake Off’s slow crumbling.