Under-Proved or Worth a Hollywood Handshake?
March 16, 2017 5:32 PM   Subscribe

When The Great British Bake-Off moved to Channel Four, it lost both color hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins and baking queen and UK treasure Mary Berry. (Insert sad baking pun here.)
At long last, their replacements have been announced: for color, we have Noel Fielding of frenetic comedy show The Mighty Boosh and current-host-of-QI-but-also-many-other-things Sandi Toksvig; for baking expertise we have Prue Leith. (That’s two CBEs in exchange for one OBE, for those keeping score.)
One take from Radhika Sanghani at The Telegraph, another from Marissa Martinelli at Slate.
posted by Going To Maine (42 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
While the odds of it seem low, I have to admit that my default image of these TV personas meeting is one in which Paul Hollywood ends up punching Noel Fielding in the face.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:35 PM on March 16, 2017 [26 favorites]


We can only hope.
posted by howfar at 5:39 PM on March 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


Seriously. Noel fucking Fielding?
posted by howfar at 5:39 PM on March 16, 2017 [8 favorites]


I rather like most of The Mighty Boosh except for all the rape jokes. An old thread discussed what an asshole Fielding was, although the link looks defunct now.

Neither of those traits seem consistent with the Bake Off that I've grown to obsess over.
posted by palindromic at 5:44 PM on March 16, 2017 [4 favorites]


Sandy Toksvig

Sandi, surely.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:47 PM on March 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


I had never seen or heard of Sandi Toksvig until a few weeks ago when I flicked on QI by mistake while trying to turn on Netflix. I spent the next half hour glued to the TV. She's drier than a camel with a martini. Just marvellous.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 5:56 PM on March 16, 2017 [9 favorites]


It's going to be a bummer not seeing Paul with Mary on the show. They made for a very funny duo for the Master Class show they had.
posted by NoMich at 6:06 PM on March 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


The only interview I saw with Noel Fielding was one where he spent the entire time hitting on the interviewer in a really creepy and disgusting way. I mean, creepy and disgusting even by "hitting on the professional journalist who is interviewing you in front of a large television audience" standards.

Are they trying to make the show more edgy and appealing to the youth demographic, or something? Ugh.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:18 PM on March 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


I love Sandi utterly and I find Noel hilarious in small doses. I cannot imagine them combined. I am intrigued and terrified that this will end with one of them in an actual oven while the other drunkenly shouts "bake your soggy bottom, you witch", even odds on either of them.

Paul will pay though. Oh he will pay for his perfidy.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:29 PM on March 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


Wow, thanks for linking that old thread, palindromic. I think mefi has changed more than a little since 2012 and probably very much for the better.
posted by capnsue at 8:59 PM on March 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm still hoping for a Giedroyc/Perkins/Berry Top Gear.
posted by zamboni at 8:59 PM on March 16, 2017 [23 favorites]


Watching Fielding always stresses me a little because I feel like he often ends up on the wrong side of barely-controlled mania. I'm not sure my nerves can handle both him and wondering if the chocolate is going to temper properly.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 9:09 PM on March 16, 2017 [8 favorites]


I was convinced they'd steal the best judges and hosts from other Bake Off franchises.

In particular: the charming hosting duo of Mel Buttle and Claire Hooper from The Great Australian Bake Off, and as replacement judge, Biddy White Lennon from The Great Irish Bake Off.

They're not perfect, but they're miles better than the people the production team actually chose.
posted by yellowcandy at 9:36 PM on March 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


Noel Fielding is a weird choice, and pairing him with Sandi Toksvig is a weird choice. Could be very fun, or it could be nuts and gum.

She's drier than a camel with a martini. Just marvellous.

Fun fact: Her weirdly anachronistic superposh accent is completely fake. She grew up in New York, and when her parents sent her to an English boarding school as a teenager, she started deliberately putting on the accent to fit in. It worked so well that she just kept doing it.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:52 PM on March 16, 2017 [11 favorites]


Noel deserves better than this.
posted by dgeiser13 at 12:01 AM on March 17, 2017


I am so sad about all of this. Firstly, the move from the BBC to Channel 4 (it's just symbolic of private, profit-making companies pinching good products from not-for-profits). And then secondly this casting.

I've loved Tosvig for >30 years, ever since she massively outclassed everyone at No. 73. But just recently, e.g. since her move into founding political parties, I've been worried that she's aging into someone I can't support. I hate that any modern feminist movement has to deal with the TERF issue, and I am not 100% sure Sandi is on my side about that. And now this? Yeah. I think I'm saluting a fallen hero.

Noel Fielding makes my skin crawl, so I am definitely not doing #gbbo any more. Very, very sad.
posted by AFII at 1:47 AM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


Noel Fielding and Sandi Toskvig? Oh, I'll watch the hell out of that, they're two of the funniest people on TV. I think they've each got the right humour for it (*not* the same humour as Mel and Sue, but still the right ability to be funny in the moment) and I'm going to take an optimistic guess that they will bounce off one another really well. And if Noel gets too weird and it's car crash TV, Noel makes the best kind of car crash TV to watch.
posted by dowcrag at 2:19 AM on March 17, 2017


Do we know of any projects Mel and Sue are up to in the future? I just finished marathonning all three seasons of GBBO on Netflix and am disappointed to hear the news that they and Mary aren't going to be on any future seasons.
posted by flatluigi at 2:48 AM on March 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


I am embarrassed to admit that I don't know anything about Noel Fielding, but if the cohosts are "Sandi Toksvig & {X}" then I will watch for any value of X. She is one of the most charming human beings on earth.
posted by yankeefog at 3:05 AM on March 17, 2017


Do we know of any projects Mel and Sue are up to in the future? I just finished marathonning all three seasons of GBBO on Netflix and am disappointed to hear the news that they and Mary aren't going to be on any future seasons.

Take a look at Murder in Suburbia. I thought it was terrible, but it's basically "Mel and Sue clones, and they solve crimes".

(I really dislike Toksvig - have since No 73. Fielding, on the other hand, can't wait to watch him undermine the whole thing).
posted by Leon at 3:11 AM on March 17, 2017


I am so sad about all of this. Firstly, the move from the BBC to Channel 4 (it's just symbolic of private, profit-making companies pinching good products from not-for-profits).

It's not a great symbol because Channel 4 is not a private company.
posted by atrazine at 3:33 AM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's not a great symbol because Channel 4 is not a private company.

It's commercial, the BBC isn't. It used private capital to offer more than the BBC, with its public funding limitations, could. Seems fairly obvious why people reacted to it as they did (even if it would have been 'worse' if it had been Sky etc etc etc).
posted by AFII at 4:49 AM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


Maybe they're going for a more crazy, American-ish "I'm not here to make friends" version? (Thus killing the goose, of course.)
posted by Thorzdad at 5:48 AM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


She grew up in New York, and when her parents sent her to an English boarding school as a teenager, she started deliberately putting on the accent to fit in. It worked so well that she just kept doing it.

She's the reverse John Barrowman!
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:53 AM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


I can't imagine a line of thought that begins with "going for a more crazy, American-ish..." and ends with "...therefore Sandi Toksvig."
posted by Wolfdog at 6:01 AM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


One of my big worries with having Fielding on this (apart from the problematic stuff in his past comedy), is that he might make it mean, for lack of a better word. His stuff can be so acidic, and he's so good at ripping people to shreds on NMTB, which is the antithesis of GBBO.
posted by themadthinker at 6:11 AM on March 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


So much the better that the Great Pottery Throwdown exists, and is great. Still sorta baking? It's one of the best shows in its general category for showing us the craft that goes into the result.
posted by mrettig at 6:25 AM on March 17, 2017 [5 favorites]


The thing about Noel Fielding is that any project he's involved in sort of becomes all about him, his ideas, his humor, etc.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 7:03 AM on March 17, 2017


Am I the only one whose frame of reference for Ms. Toksvig is the original Whose Line Is It Anyway?
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:11 AM on March 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


I love Sandi. I hate Noel. This is going to be interesting... for at least one episode. Then it'll either be interesting, or not-watched-by-me.
posted by tzikeh at 7:42 AM on March 17, 2017


Mel and Sue are a comedy duo, so their charming, witty, comforting patter was developed before they came to GBBO. And separately, they provided comfort to amateur bakers who were freaking out in The Tent.

Toksvig and Fielding were separate hires, even if they get along. Maybe they can develop a chemistry, but I'm not sure Fielding is who I would have picked for "quirky and comforting." As others have said, his shows seem to be about him, and GBBO wasn't Mel and Sue's GBBO. No idea about Prue Leith, but top news stories make her sound knowledgable and nice enough to be a decent replacement for Mary.

Prue replacing Mary seems kind of like swapping chicken broth for a tasty beer in a recipe - it won't be the same, but it should work. Fielding sounds like he could be a mock apple pie - looks decent from a distance, but you're not really fooling anyone that it's actually an apple pie.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:15 AM on March 17, 2017


"Maybe they're going for a more crazy, American-ish "I'm not here to make friends" version?"

Oh God please no.

I liked Fielding in the IT Crowd because his airtime was heavily rationed, I don't know if I can stand him for more than 5 minutes at a time. He seems like the sort of person who goes from funny to punchably obnoxious way too easily. I can't imagine baking 3 different types of eclairs and their respective macaron decorations with him goofing off next to me.
posted by Tarumba at 9:44 AM on March 17, 2017


It's commercial, the BBC isn't. It used private capital to offer more than the BBC

Channel 4 is mostly (90%) funded by its advertising, so it does run on a more commercial basis than the BBC. It doesn't have any private capital because its publicly owned.
posted by atrazine at 10:14 AM on March 17, 2017


EDGY
posted by rhizome at 10:44 AM on March 17, 2017


I will only accept this if Noel Fielding does the entire show in character as Old Gregg.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:55 AM on March 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


I don't have anything against Noel Fielding - and I love the Boosh - and I'm not a watcher of the Bake Off (just not my thing, although I do like cakes, perhaps a bit too much), but his hiring suggests that the production team honestly don't understand what they've got there at all. Apart from anything else, the best thing about the show (the thing that people actually liked about it) seemed, to me, to be the affection and interest it had in its participants. Beaming interest in someone who isn't himself is something that Fielding just doesn't do.

Really odd.
posted by Grangousier at 11:01 AM on March 17, 2017 [6 favorites]


Yes. The best reality show hosts are audience surrogates. They have to be our voice in the programme, so that we feel empowered and engaged. It's why Davina McCall was so fantastic on Big Brother despite being fairly run-of-the-mill as a presenter in other contexts. She clearly loved the programme and loved (in that strange and limited way we love reality show contestants) the housemates. The idea of Fielding or (to a lesser extent, because she actually seems like a decent person) Toksvig filling that role is pretty unlikely.
posted by howfar at 11:52 AM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


If we must have one of the Booshes, Julian Barratt would have made much more sense for the Bake Off than Noel Fielding. His reflexice self-loathing could have made for some nice I'm not worthy of this fondue fancy moments.
posted by palindromic at 1:59 PM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


I once nearly walked into Julian Barratt when I was walking out of the Orc's Nest game shop in Seven Dials. The look of absolute horror on his face that I might start talking​ to him made me warm to him greatly.

I left him be.
posted by howfar at 2:12 PM on March 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


Do we know of any projects Mel and Sue are up to in the future?

Well, Sue is doing to be the next Doctor, right? And Mel will be her companion, right?

Right?

Please right?
posted by happyroach at 3:49 PM on March 17, 2017 [9 favorites]


Having just finished season 5 (or season "1" on Netflix), and faced with the chance to over analyze everything on FanFare, I'm very, very excited. And Toksvig!

But ...
posted by JawnBigboote at 5:23 PM on March 17, 2017


I simply refuse any changes. I'm having all the real seasons on repeat.
posted by Rabarberofficer at 4:30 PM on March 18, 2017


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