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TV review: Bake Off served with a slice of schadenfreude

© PADaisy Ridley was one of the celebs in the tent rustling up dishes – tasty or otherwise
Daisy Ridley was one of the celebs in the tent rustling up dishes – tasty or otherwise

Every language has its own special quirks and colloquialisms, but perhaps none more so than German.

While we are sitting here with words like “sad” and “hungry”, the Germans have such a broad range of wonderful expressions for even the most niche emotion, I can’t help but feel a little neidisch – or envious. Take kummerspeck, for example, the word for “excess fat gained by emotional eating”. Oh how apt for lockdown.

Perhaps the best, or at least most well-known, of such phrases is schadenfreude. It means “taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune”, and it’s the perfect word to describe why I love shows like The Great British Bake Off.

I don’t watch TV’s most wholesome series for baking tips or Paul Hollywood’s piercing blue eyes. No, I tune in so I can see people drop cakes, burn biscuits and, quite frankly, have a bit of meltdown. And the first episode of this year’s celebrity version didn’t disappoint.

From actress Daisy Ridley’s sorry attempt at shortbread to comedian Rob Beckett’s “hamburger” ganache, each bake seemed worse than the last. From the smug comfort of my sofa, with a packet of shop-bought biscuits, I laughed out loud at the celebs’ lack of skills and delighted in their failures.

It was simply delicious telly, and all for a good cause, so the series certainly gets a Hollywood handshake from me.


The GBBO For Stand Up To Cancer, Channel 4