The contestants for the 2020 series of The Great British Bake Off have been revealed, with a Samaritan and a pantomime producer among those on the line-up.
This year’s series has been delayed to 22 September because of the coronavirus lockdown. Serious precautions were taken to guarantee that filming of the Channel 4 show would be safe, with 120 members of cast and crew living in a self-contained biosphere for six weeks during the shoot to avoid having to socially distance.
All contestants and judges lived together in Essex in July. They were joined by 80 members of the production team, 20 hotel staff and approximately 20 children, as well as multiple chaperones and dog walkers.
Meet the full line-up of bakers, below…
Dave
The 30-year-old security guard from Hampshire likes to bake while listening to punk rock music. He said that during the first week of filming, new host Matt Lucas was “as nervous as I was".
Hermine
The 39-year-old accountant from Benin, West Africa, moved to London to study in 2001. She loves to cook high-end patisserie. “My weakness,” she says, “is the ability to get a clean, neat finish under time pressure.”
Laura
The 31-year-old digital manager from Gravesend, Kent, is also a volunteer for suicide charity The Samaritans. Her biggest baking strength is cake decoration.
Linda
The 61-year-old is a retirement living team leader from East Sussex. Her signature dish is sausage rolls. She first got into baking during childhood visits to her aunt’s dairy farm.
Loriea
The 27-year-old diagnostic radiographer from Durham likes to celebrate her Caribbean roots in her cooking. Her Jamaican patties are a favourite of her husband’s.
Lottie
The 31-year-old pantomime producer from West Sussex describes herself as a “perpetually frustrated perfectionist”. She said the Bake Off filming experience was strange, noting: “Coming out of lockdown into another lockdown was weird – that first morning was utterly terrifying.”
Makbul
The 51-year-old accountant from Greater Manchester can measure out ingredients by eye, but he says his biggest weakness is the mess he makes when baking.
Marc
The 51-year-old bronze resin sculptor started baking as a form of therapy after he lost his leg in a motorbike accident in 2016. His strength is bread, meaning he’ll be popular with judge Hollywood.
Mark
The 32-year-old public health project worker from Northern Ireland loves pies. His cooking style is influenced by his Irish heritage mixed with cuisine from Africa and Asia, where he regularly travels for his job.
Peter
The 20-year-old accounting and finance student likes to bake with Scottish ingredients such as berries, whisky, oats and honey. He also plays badminton at county level.
Rowan
The 55-year-old from Worcestershire is a music teacher. He likes reinventing 18th-century Georgian recipes, but admits: “My weakness is over-ambition and no interest in timings.”
Sura
The 31-year-old pharmacy dispenser enjoys experimenting with flavours from Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and India. She names judge Prue Leith as one of her biggest cooking inspirations.
