The Great British Bake Off – or ‘GBBO’, as it’s known to the more dedicated fans – is one of the breakthrough television programmes of the past few years. It started off as ‘just another’ cookery show – albeit with a reality twist. But now, as Season 4 kicks off, it has attracted a loyal and devoted following. Just what is it about baking that attracts such an audience, wonders Clarissa Tan in her TV review this week. Perhaps it’s the sharing quality of cake – ‘after all, baking is communal, isn’t it?’ But there’s also the sheer patriotism of the programme. ‘Little Union flags… all the foodstuffs that make Britain great’, and a ‘national pride [that] spills over to embrace the world’. Maybe cake will bring everyone together, after all.
Alfred Munnings is well known for his outburst at the Royal Academy in 1949 – an outburst which Andrew
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