It is, of course, possible to make too much of Nadiya Hussain’s lemon drizzle cake and victory tears, just as it is possible to make too much of every threat to the BBC’s future that drizzles from Mr Secretary Whittingdale’s lips. Yet when even the Sun calls Nadiya’s Bake Off triumph “a slice of perfection” and asserts that “no commercial channel would have invested in a show about making cakes in a tent”, gogglebox viewers – all 13.4 million of them last Wednesday night – have every reason to wonder what Culture, Media and Sport’s charter renewal squad is playing at.
Governments win elections by seeking the most votes. But governments seek to intimidate the BBC by questioning its quest for more viewers and listeners. Mass entertainment, apparently, is not part of the approved and “distinct” programme menu John Whittingdale desires. The Great British Bake Off, just like Strictly, is somehow too popular for refined Whitehall tastes. Broadcasting House would be better embracing irrelevance – and thus a smaller role and smaller licence fee – on the peripheries of niche provision. It is an obvious trap and one the BBC sees clearly when it argues that its “distinctive” channels must include great entertainment just as surely as great documentaries or dramas. There are practical reasons for that. There are now about 20 versions of Bake Off and 50 of Strictly around the world. British creative nous harvests cash, inspiration and admiration far and wide. Something a Tory businessman should understand. But there’s an important emotional impact, too. The US has five times the population of the UK. Its most-watched TV show last Wednesday was half a million behind Bake Off.
Mary Berry and lemon drizzle brought us a national moment when, together, we saw a smiling woman in a hijab make cakes to drool over – and share with us her sense of humanity and community. That’s entertainment. It is also part of the joyous argument for public service broadcasting, properly tended, stoutly defended.
