Jamie Oliver Insists We Shouldn’t Write Off Channel 4’s ‘Great British Bake Off’ Just Yet

Jamie Oliver has given his verdict on The Great British Bake Off’s move to Channel 4, and reckons it could be the best thing to happen to the show.

The TV chef has suggested that the baking series, which aired for the final time on BBC One last week, could make for an “interesting” viewing experience in its new home.

“Channel 4 do have a perspective, you know, and a little bit of gravel in the mix could be quite interesting,” he told the Daily Star.

“I think it’s in the hands of Channel 4 chief creative director Jay Hunt and she’s a trusted person, she’s got a good head on her shoulders and she’s personally committed to it.

“So there is no reason why it couldn’t be better. Wow, how about that?”

Jamie added that he didn’t think younger fans of the show would care what channel the show was on.

He said: “I don’t have any kind of genius bit of secret information but I don’t see why it matters and actually the younger people, they don’t really look at what channels they’re getting their content from.”

Last week, more than 14 million people tuned in to see Candice Brown triumph over Jane Beedle and Andrew Smyth in the last episode of the BBC baking competition - the biggest average overnight rating in its seven-year history.

The episode peaked with a whopping 14.8m as Candice was announced as the winner, just before 9pm.

She may have just won one of the most coveted titles in British telly, but the 2016 ‘Bake Off’ champ has admitted that her time on the show was bittersweet.

Speaking on ‘Loose Women’ following her win, Candice revealed that while she loved her time in the ‘Bake Off’ tent, she did find some of the public’s reaction to her “hurtful”.

She explained: “I thought, ‘oh I’m making cakes, this is alright’ and then, ‘bam! Look at your face’ or ‘bam! Look at this’

“And it’s not in my nature to be mean, I’m not that sort of person at all. So I thought… actually, if I just answer back in a way ‘well okay, I hope you have a lovely day today’ and ‘you don’t spell my surname like that, it’s spelled this way’ and actually I found that helped me.”

However, she was quick to thank those who were on her side on the show, adding: “Yeah [that’s] hurtful, it’s not nice but actually that’s a tiny, tiny amount [of people]. The support is lovely.”