Voices: Well timed, Matt Lucas – this year’s Bake Off was a mess

Matt Lucas is leaving Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off, ostensibly because he doesn’t have time to present the show alongside his other projects, which include the Sky Max comedy Fantasy Football League.

But is Lucas really too busy or has he shrewdly ascertained the way the wind is blowing for the cosy baking show?

In my view, he’s extricated himself at exactly the right time. Let’s face facts – this year’s Bake Off was a mess – more akin to Iain Watters’s sloppy baked Alaska “bingate” disaster in season five than a light, fluffy and perfectly risen sponge.

Unlike the seasons that drew many viewers into a familiar and comforting embrace during the dark, uncertain days of the pandemic, series 13’s vibes were way off. Was it the weird technicals – spring rolls and pistachio ice cream – that had only a tenuous link to baking? Or the reductive and culturally appropriative “Mexican week”, complete with dodgy Halloween costume sombreros and the presenters mispronouncing Mexican words, that – quite rightly – had chefs and viewers rolling their eyes?

Or perhaps it was the judges; whose critiques felt flat and rushed to the point of disinterest – and far more neggy than in previous seasons.

Prue – although thankfully managing to refrain from mentioning calories every time she tasted a bake – appeared subdued. Perhaps the “worth the calories” catchphrase, which eating disorders charity Beat urged her to ditch, was the source of her power. Without it, she appeared to muddle through the season in a rather lost and ineffective manner. Her feedback certainly failed to provide enough of a balance to Paul’s deadpan dismissals.

Even the “Hollywood handshake” was devoid of magic – just a stiff gesture from a glowering bloke who always has his shirt sleeves folded to exactly the same length.

I’m sure that Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding tried their best to provide some light relief, but the heart of the show felt withered and small. It was the coldest and most dismal season since the show moved from BBC to Channel 4. As it wore on, it felt like going to stay with old friends for a weekend but realising that they’ve gotten really into crypto or conspiracy theories since you last hung out – and it’s all jarring and wrong and you’re not really connecting in the way you used to.

The contestants, by the way, were not to blame for this soggy bottomed season. The 2022 gang were the perfect mix of talent, warmth and silliness. Sandro? A buff, emotionally-literate angel walking among us. If he’d come, I’d have Janusz along for my hen do. I rooted for Maxy and her aura of graceful strength from the first episode, but Syabira’s creativity, kooky flavours and steady momentum propelled her towards a well-deserved win.

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It comes to something when even such an adorable collection of amateur bakers wasn’t enough to keep the series sweet. Has the Bake Off formula finally, after 13 seasons, been exhausted? Matt Lucas is perhaps smart to jump ship before the icing really does all fall off of Britain’s favourite baking show.

Lucas says he is “cheerfully passing the baguette on to someone else” – we do not yet know who. Maybe someone without a history of mocking disabled people or wearing blackface would be a good choice, but what do I know? I’m no comedian.

Whoever is tipped to replace Matt Lucas needs to inject some sparkle back into Bake Off because, as it stands, the nation’s annual sugar-dusted comfort blanket is looking rather threadbare.