Quintessentially British; Quintessentially Great
I defy anyone to suggest that any broadcaster but the BBC would ever bring a programme like The Great British Bake-Off to our screens.
For those poor souls deprived of this gem by geography or ignorance, this is (I kid you not), a competitive baking programme. Each week, in a different location, the programme focuses on a different subset of the baker's art; cakes, bread, puddings, etc. And each week, a number of amateur baking enthusiasts are presented with baking challenges, and are ousted from the competition if their bread is of insufficiently open texture, their Victoria Sponge not perfectly risen, or their scones fail to present an entirely uniform colour. Judges Paul Hollywood and baking legend Mary Berry look like the most easy-going pair in the world, but mess up one of their own recipes in the technical challenge and you'll wish you were standing in front of Simon Cowell with a plate-spinning act.
Between challenges (each programme has three rounds; signature bake, technical and a variable 'big' challenge) presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins - not seen enough as a double act these days - provide filmed inserts outlining the cultural histories of each week's subject bakes, from the way the invention of the railway affected the development of biscuits, to the impact of Queen Victoria on the classic wedding cake.
In those terms, it sounds like a piece of inoffensive fluff of the kind Stephen Fry probably thinks fearful BBC execs thought of as a safe option. But even if it is, I'm not sure there's anything wrong with at least some of that on our screens. There's a lot to be said, after all, for showing 'ordinary' people indulging in activities they feel passionate about, and explaining the history of any elements of our culture is surely part of the BBC charter requirement to 'promote education and learning'.
There's something about The Great British Bake-Off that makes me happy it exists. Maybe it's the fact that it allows people to be proud of something regarded as mundane. Perhaps it's the fact that it evokes a British idyll at a time when I think the country's in a pretty crappy place. It's possible that it's just a happy collision of elements that I think work.
But mostly I think it's because I know that only the BBC could or would ever make it and broadcast it. And I think that's a reason to be happy by itself, even if the programme itself wasn't so engaging.