A brand-new line up has been announced for Junior Bake Off.
Comedian, author and lover of big shirt collars, Harry Hill, will host the new 15-part series.
Joining Hill will be judges Prue Leith, currently a judge on The Great British Bake Off, and Bake Off alumni Liam Charles, fresh from hosting Bake Off: The Professionals.
The new shows are part of a deliberate drive by the channel to offer distinctive content, in a bid to beat competition from streaming services and other broadcasters.
At the launch of the new slate, Ian Katz, the channel’s Director of Programming, said he wants to focus on “entertaining, mischievous and innovative shows about the big issues and arguments in Britain today.”
He added: “Many of the shows [launching in 2019] are not ones that the global digital giants, even as they plough billions into new content, would be remotely interested in making.”
The lobby of Avalon’s office in west London is dominated by two monsters. One is a huge cast of Lenin in full declamation, the other is a Dalek. A visitor’s first thought is that you would not want to get on the wrong side of this entertainment giant – one-third talent agency, one-third live show promoter, one-third TV production company – or its famously effective Managing Director and co-founder, Jon Thoday. You would want Avalon and its boss fighting for you.
As the cost of failure in TV gets ever higher, particularly in drama, it is no surprise when commissioners turn to the past to fill tomorrow’s schedules. Some of these second-life shows become huge hits.
Poldark returned from 1975 to score as one of the biggest new dramas of 2015. Some reboots, such as Doctor Who, become such an established part of the TV landscape that it’s hard to believe they ever went away. Others, such as ITV’s revival of Stars in Their Eyes last year, misfire.
Entitled Harry Hill's Tea-Time, the eight-part series will feature a new celebrity guest every week, and include 'bonkers' games and musical interludes, as well as some actual cooking.
The production will be a satirical take on the current cooking show trend, heavily influenced by Hill's irreverent commentary on television programming as showcased in the popular Harry Hill's TV Burp.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens is out in December, but if you can't wait until then, there'll be an exclusive sketch tonight. R2-D2 and C-3PO will be joined by Warwick Davis (who played the Ewok Wicket in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) and Lord Sugar as they "attempt to find a worthy winner to help trigger the first BBC Children in Need totaliser of the night."
Will television eat itself? A flat screen might be easier to get down than a cathode-ray tube, and cause less indigestion – but, still, it doesn't really sound like a sensible diet.
All trades and professions are fascinated with themselves and like nothing more than talking endlessly about their own work. The TV industry is no different. In it's case, making telly about telly is proving increasingly irresistible.
We are all a bit too wised-up to dream about "the magic of television" any more. The schedules struggle to hold our attention.
