The creator of The Great British Bake Off has defended the show’s contestants in response to criticism that this series’ choice of bakers was too politically correct.
Anna Beattie, executive producer and originator of the Bake Off concept, said the matter of casting on the BBC show was a natural process, where contestants were picked based on their ability to “bake and talk”.
In an interview with the Guardian, Beattie explained that from thousands of applicants this year, around 150 were invited “to bake to camera, in front of us”, because few people were good at baking both bread and cakes, and even fewer could bake and talk simultaneously.
She said producers on the show also discarded the “wannabes” – those who seemed keener on celebrity than baking. They then thought about “trying to get a representative mix” of Britain.
There have been claims that not all contestants are chosen on merit. In the Daily Mail, Quentin Letts wrote: “Were these new contestants … representative of the humdrum, plain-as-white-flour, Middle-English bumblers whom I bet comprised the majority of the thousands of applicants who tried to get on to the show? Or were they chosen because they fitted some Twitter-influenced metropolitan wishlist...?”
Another Mail columnist, Amanda Platell, suggested contestants had been kicked off in the name of political correctness.
Too Basic pic.twitter.com/Ks80jHiEx2
— Tintin (@TintinnyTins) October 3, 2015
But the Telegraph ran an article defending the cast with the headline: “Great British Bake Off: Britain’s multicultural melting-pot couldn’t have a better advert”. And one ex-contestant, Toby Waterworth, said he thought the show was “merit-based”.
A little note about the Bake Off and insinuations of 'political correctness' pic.twitter.com/EiPXz15POH
— Toby (@bake_down) October 4, 2015
Nadiya Hussain, Ian Cumming, and Tamal Ray will appear in the Bake Off series final on Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, the BBC is investigating claims of a £10,000 betting scandal involving its employees.
According to the Sun, the bookmaker Ladbrokes said dozens of individuals with links to BBC workers and Love Productions, the independent production company that makes Bake Off, had opened accounts in order to place bets on the winner of the show, which was recorded several weeks ago.
A Ladbrokes source told the paper: “Whoever is doing this thinks they are being very clever. But they are not that smart as they have been using their own names to open accounts.
“A quick Google and you can see that [some of them work] in television and have close links to the BBC and Great British Bake Off’s production company. Lots of the other accounts appear to be owned by friends and family of culprits. They must think we are a bit thick but we know how to sniff out funny business like this. Placing everything on one baker again and again immediately set off red flags.”
A BBC spokesman said: “We have no knowledge of these claims and have asked the Sun to provide us with details to be able to look into it. We are still waiting.”
Love Productions said it was taking the allegations extremely seriously.
Cumming and Hussain have been named the “star baker” on the show three times each, while Ray has won it once. Hussain, the first woman to wear a hijab on the show, has previously spoken out about conceptions of what makes a person British.
She told the Radio Times: “Just because I’m not a stereotypical British person, it doesn’t mean I am not into bunting, cake and tea. I’m just as British as anyone else, and I hope I have proved that.”
On Monday, David Cameron was reported to have backed her to win, praising her “coolness under pressure”.
