“I never, ever thought there would be that much interest in someone throwing something in a bin.” So says Iain Watters of bingate, the summer’s most talked about cultural moment: when some guy from The Great British Bake Off chucked his baked alaska in the rubbish, claiming sabotage by rival contestant Diana Beard.
Interest? Try furore. After the show aired, Justice For Iain groups sprang up on Facebook, 800 people complained to Ofcom, the press ran stories. Watters even appeared on Newsnight.
“It makes good TV if there’s conflict. We all got on really well,” maintains Watters. Now, he says, the GBBO posse stay in touch via group messsage on Facebook. “We all chat every day”.
So what now for the aspiring baker? “I’ve got an idea for a travel-based baking book. But I don’t know whether to pursue more of that line of work, or to stick to the day job.”
For now he’s back in his pre-Bake Off job on a building site. “There’s always bin jokes at work”, he says. “A lot of bin jokes. Building sites are kind of like that. You need a thick skin.”
