SO budding bakers the nation over are now being told to turn over. And not of the apple variety.

Who would have thought the news that the Great British Bake Off is off to Channel 4, leaving its traditional home on the BBC, would have caused such a furore this week.

But then who would have thought that a programme about making cakes in a WI-style tent fronted by a couple of comedians who hadn't been on TV for a while and two barely known bakers would sell like hot cakes anyway.

The Great British Bake Off has become the television sensation of our times, a show so popular that only England football matches compete with it for viewing figures.

I'm far from an avid viewer, but I can see the joy in it and I thoroughly enjoyed the Echo charity spin off staged in the office, until I was told my Victoria Sponge had a soggy bottom.

The Beeb apparently couldn't compete with the format's valuation by producers Love Productions, which comes of course after seven years of BBC nurturing of the showstoppers and star bakers.

It's the programme that has epitomised the values of the village fete. And it will inevitably lose some of its charm through the move, particularly with at least some of the presenting team staging a 400-degree, fan-oven-assisted rebellion.

But it's a likely win for Channel 4 who, with even half of the viewing figures of last year's final which saw Nadiya Hussain crowned winner, will be pulling in their biggest audiences ever. Not to mention the advertising revenue it will generate.

The first series after the move will be a celebrity version, so get ready for retired Somerset headteacher Val to be dumped in favour of one of the cast of Made in Chelsea.

It's a cash - or dough as Mel and Sue so eloquently put it - win if not a moral victory for the inventors of the format too.

And the BBC? They'll be taking a risk on the next bake off before we know it.

I wait with baited breath for the next surprise format to tickle the nation's tastebuds.

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