Great British Bake Off fans should not be able to tell the new series was produced in the middle of a global pandemic, according to a top Channel 4 boss.
Producers went to extraordinary lengths to make the 11th run of the hit baking competition, as they navigated Covid regulations that proved to be logistically challenging.
Kelly Webb-Lamb, deputy director of programmes and head of popular factual for Channel 4, has detailed the “enormous feat” of getting the show into production, but assured viewers: “What you will see looks like normal Bake Off.”
Speaking at the virtual Edinburgh TV Festival, she said: “I think we all felt, I certainly felt that working to ensure we could get Bake Off back on the screen was such an important thing for us as a channel, such an important thing for the audience and Love Productions (who make Bake Off) were just full of ingenuity and determination to get it to happen.”
It was previously revealed all contestants, cast, crew and members of the production team had been forced to staying together in a “bubble” at a hotel for the duration of the six-week shoot.
Detailing some of the extraordinary lengths the team went to in order to ensure everyone’s safety, Kelly continued: “The car you’re driving to set also has to be quarantined, nobody can have been in it for the time of quarantine and then everything that comes on to set has to be properly disinfected to protect everybody on set and the production.
“That then means that set is Covid-secure and that enables a little bit more flexibility so in the tent what you will see looks like normal Bake Off because it it is normal Bake Off and we’ve been able to do that.
“That does mean the talent and cast and crew lived in that bubble for the duration of production which is obviously different to how we would normally make Bake Off.
“I think that on screen it will feel like Bake Off, in the way they were living it was different but it was an incredible feat from Love (Productions, which makes it) to pull that off,” she added.
Filming was originally due to take place in the spring in order for the show to begin airing this month.
Production eventually began in “deep secret” in July, with filming wrapping last week.
The upcoming series will feature Matt Lucas’ debut as Sandi Toksvig’s replacement, as he joins co-host Noel Fielding and judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith in the tent.