After much irritation from audiences and press alike, ‘Great British Bake Off’ judge Paul Hollywood has finally admitted that he is handing out too many handshakes on this series.
The baker has promised that he will “almost stop” dishing out the gesture, after fans picked up on how he was being a bit fast and loose with his congratulations of this year’s contestants.
After it was revealed his handshakes had peaked at a rate of three per episode, Paul said on ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’: “I’ve taken a bit of flack over that.
“The handshake came from when they looked very professional and they almost cross that line from being amateur to professional.
“It started in series two, I just shook someone’s hand and said, ‘Well done.’ It was a ‘Well done.’ And every year the standard has got better and better and better and this year has been phenomenal. Some of the flavours they are bringing out. Rahul’s stuff has been incredible.”
The star has since promised that the number of handshakes will rapidly decrease, as quickly as they shot up, in the second half of the series.
“You will see it happen [in a few weeks], the handshakes almost stop,” he revealed. “Because what I’ve done is I’ve realised they are all moving up in standard so I’ve got to move my barrier up, so that’s exactly what I do, I raise the bar and then no one gets over the top of it.”
At their lowest rate, Buzzfeed has reported that Paul offered no handshakes in series one and two of the competition, and distributing one a series in the show’s third and fourth runs.
The current season has Paul dish out eight of his famous handshakes, just over halfway through the competition.
HuffPost UK also investigated what’s been dubbed “handshake inflation” from the celebrity chef earlier this month, concluding that holding off on handshakes was the only way to repair the devaluing of the congratulatory token.
We’re glad to see he’s taken our advice.
‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ airs at 10.05pm on ITV.
