Nigella Didn't Do the One Thing Everyone Expected

Nigella Lawson has replaced Dame Prue Leith as a judge on The Great British Bake Off — known in the US as The Great British Baking Show — and the reviews are split in a way nobody expected. Two five-star raves, one two-star pan, and almost every critic noticing the same thing: the woman famous for innuendo walked into television's most innuendo-heavy format and declined to use it. A proper read of what the critics actually wrote about Nigella Lawson's Bake Off debut, rather than the headline off the top of one review. The Guardian's Lucy Mangan and the Telegraph's Anita Singh both gave five stars; Metro called her "the lifeline Bake Off needed"; Digital Spy called her "a brilliant addition." But Radio Times, Digital Spy and the Daily Mail all separately noted that she "cut back on the sauce" and let every obvious opening go — a real performance decision from someone whose television persona has been built on exactly that for twenty-five years. Meanwhile the Independent's Nick Hilton gave the launch two stars, and his criticism isn't of Lawson at all: it's that "instead of bending the format to suit Nigella, the new judge bends to the will of the programme." This video shows how the five-star and two-star reviews describe the identical performance and disagree only about what it means — plus what former Bake Off winner Giuseppe Dell'Anno said about her debut on BBC Radio 4's Today, which is the sharpest assessment of the lot. Season 17, Channel 4, with Paul Hollywood, Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding. #NigellaLawson #BakeOff #GreatBritishBakingShow #news