The Great British Bake Off Returns…

I am faffing today. I feel a little restless this week and today I can’t seem to quite focus on the possible posts that I wanted to pop up. I have almost finished something along the lines of ‘Am I Literary Enough?’ but it doesn’t quite sound right yet and then I was going to do a brief post on ‘What Makes A Classic?’ but am a few hundred words in now and have no signs of shutting up and know it will need a huge edit. So in the interim, and on a tangent, I thought I would mention The Great British Bake Off which returns to the BBC tonight, and a previous post showed just how much you all liked baking…

The Great British Bake Off, which I think I have mentioned to you all before, is a programme that sort of shouldn’t work and yet definitely does. Take a group of contestants who love to, and clearly can, bake and make them compete over differing recipes and bakery treats each week with the legendary Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood (who makes everyone swoon, especially when he is angry, or is that just me?) judging, throw in the comedy of the marvellous presenters Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc and it is just perfect. As you can see from the clip below from last year.

A rather fortuitous parcel arrived in the post the other day too from the lovely people at Bloomsbury, I can now (should I wish to) whip up some baked goods with alongside Paul Hollywood, well with him directing me through the medium of the pages, such as sourdough, brioche, croissants, you name it.

Not sure if I will have time before the show starts at 8pm tonight but we will see… I am wondering if I could get him on The Readers for a Cookbook special, we will see. I am still wondering how I could start a ‘Great British Book Off’, suggestions welcomed.

No Books, Lots of TV… Blimey I Must Be Feeling Ropey, But I Am Thinking About Books on TV

I’ve not been feeling quite myself (tired, full of cold, drained, more tired) for the last few days and today its culminated in my reading going out of the window. I have been rather glued to the television, well television on demand if I am honest, and its been kind of lovely, though its made me think why oh why are there no good TV shows about books on every week, or fortnight, or something… But before I go off on that what on earth have I been watching?

Well when I am feeling a bit ropey there are two sorts of TV that I like. One such thing is reality TV, no I am not talking about Celebrity Big Brother (which I can inform you I have barely seen any of, in fact I haven’t been in the slightest interested this year) I am talking about shows with real British people doing terribly British things. This has included catching up with the whole of ‘Village SOS’, a show hosted by Sarah Beeny (always pregnant, quite busty who you wish was your mate) where a city saves itself, or its high street and tries to reboost itself and not become a ghost town. Fab. Though not quite as fabulous as ‘The Great British Bake Off’ which I am now utterly hooked on and cant wait for the next episode on Tuesday. It’s basically the comedy duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins (who loves a book) hosting a show where Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood judge average joe’s who have a passion for baking, whilst telling us the history of baking, and who have a bake off with three tests (we have so far had fairy cakes, pastry and bread) and if you loose you are off. So simple, so brilliant.

The other thing I have been in the mood for is some good murder on the telly box and so I am watching ‘Waking The Dead’ from the beginning. This might also have something to do with interviewing Sue Johnston on Tuesday (I must watch the first episode of ‘Brookside’ too) and ooh its good. I do love that show, how could the BBC cut it? Anyway this then led me to ‘Sue Johnston’s Shangri La’ where she goes in search of the world she read in the book ‘Lost Horizon’ by James Jilton, which I had never heard of, she read about with her mum as a child. Have any of you read that?

Looking on all the different ‘TV on demand’ channels I was really distressed, though it should come as no surprise, that there are no TV shows featuring books on at the moment in the UK. Not even the blinking TV Book Club is on. This needs addressing. I am now wondering how on earth you suggest a TV show to a TV channel, as I have an idea… and in involves Sue Perkins and Sue Johnston (who don’t know it yet but who both love books).

What would be your very ideal TV show about books? Who would you want presenting it, a celebrity or a (possibly unknown, ha) book lover? Who would you like to see on it and what books? A mix of old and new? Features on the book world or just peoples thoughts on specific books? Let me know. Time for ‘Dr. Who’ shortly, so must dash… yes that’s right MORE telly! Are you watching anything good at the moment?