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By Sarah DobbsIf you’re an American fan of The Great British Bake Off you probably know it better as The Great British Baking Show (though its most devoted fans simply call it GBBO, which saves a lot of time). The show's tenth season recently kicked off on England’s Channel 4, and is streaming for American audiences via (though only one episode is being rolled out per week).A bona fide global sensation, the baking competition has the power to cause otherwise rational human beings to immediately run to their nearest supermarket in search of obscure ingredients like psyllium or Amarula cream liqueur. It’s a charming, retro, warming hug of a TV show. But how much do you know about what goes on behind the scenes? Without destroying any of your illusions, here are some secrets about how the producers whip up one of the world's most beloved cooking shows. The reason why it has two different names is simple. NetflixIf you’ve ever wondered why the series is called The Great British Bake Off in England and The Great British Baking Show in America, the answer is simple: Pillsbury.
The Pillsbury Bake Off, which kicked off in 1949, is probably America’s most famous baking contest. And the company didn’t want there to be among viewers, hence The Great British Baking Show. Each oven has to be tested every day.It’s difficult enough to make a cake that Paul Hollywood won’t declare either under- or over-baked without having to worry about whether your oven is working properly. Norton rescue tools. So for every day of filming, every oven has to be tested. And because this is a baking show, they’re tested. Yes, every day every oven has a Victoria sponge cake in it, to make sure everything’s working exactly as it should be. Every time someone opens an oven door, there's a camera watching them.To make sure they catch all the drama, GBBO producers insist that every time a bake is put into or taken out of an oven, the moment must be caught on camera.
So whenever a baker wants to put their goodies into an oven, or check if they’re ready to come out, they need to grab someone to make sure the moment gets captured on film. (Which must be a hassle for the first couple of weeks, when there are more than 10 bakers all trying their best to produce a perfect bake at once.) 4. The contestants have to wear the same clothes all weekend.It’s a minor thing, but have you ever noticed that the bakers wear the same clothes for an entire episode, even though it’s shot over two days? For purposes, the contestants are asked to wear the same outfits for the entire weekend. If you’re the kind of baker who ends up with flour all over your shirt whenever you bake up a loaf of bread, the second day of filming could be a bit of a nightmare.'
Luckily they change the aprons so we don't look like a Jackson Pollock painting by the end of it,' 2013 champion Frances Quinn Cosmopolitan. 'I think layers is the answer, but even then you still have to wear what you had on, on top.
The contestants don't have a lot of downtime.Having any time to spare is not something that season seven contestant Jane Beedle remembers happening regularly for the contestants. 'Maybe once or twice, and when they did we would just sit and have a cup of tea and chat with the people around us,” she the Mirror. 'They don't like it if you have nothing to do, so they try and make the challenges as difficult as possible to keep you busy.'
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The temperature in the tent can make or break a bake. BBCForget setting the oven to the correct temperature—the temperature inside the tent is just as important to a bake. 'It's completely alien to your own kitchen at home,” Quinn Cosmopolitan.
“The temperature fluctuates—you'd be making a meringue and it would start raining, or we'd try and make pastry and it would be 27 degrees outside. The technical challenges and lack of time and lack of fridge and work space are the enemy on that show.' The illustrations are created by Tom Hovey, after the episode has filmed.You know those fun illustrations of the confections that pop up when each baker explains what they’re going to make that day? Those are all drawn by illustrator Tom Hovey.
He was working as a video editor on the first season of GBBO when the producers realized they needed an extra visual element—so he offered his illustration skills. And while we see the illustrations on screen before the bakers attempt to make them a reality, Hovey the BBC he draws them “a pack of photos of the finished bakes from the set after each episode has been filmed I sketch out all the bakes quickly in pencil to get the details, form and shape I am after. I then work these up by hand drawing them all in ink, then they’re scanned and colored digitally, and then I add the titles and ingredient arrows.
It's a fairly well streamlined process now.”Even if a bake goes horribly wrong, Hovey said his “illustrations are a representation of what the bakers hope to create. Even if the bakers don't produce what they’ve intended to I have a degree of artistic license to make them look good.” 8. The contestants don't interact with the judges very much.“They very much tried to keep it unbiased,” Quinn about how the bakers don’t spend much time interacting with the judges. “We saw a lot more of Mel and Sue. Mary and Paul would purely come in to do what we called the royal tour—where they'd come in and find out what you were making, and then they'd come back in for judging. You're not in the same hotel having sleepovers! You form more of a relationship after the show when you see them at things like BBC Good Food or whatever—but they need to keep their distance on the show.
They're there as judges.' Making sure that the technical challenge is actually possible is one person's job. NetflixAnother vital behind-the-scenes role is that of the. It’s down to them to make sure that the elaborate concoction the judges have decided the bakers have to whip up is actually possible, given the ingredients, instructions, and time the bakers will be allowed.The tent presents its own challenges, too, because it could be hot or cold, depending on the weather, and it tends to have quite a wobbly floor, which can make delicate decorating work trickier than it might otherwise seem. “The tent is just mocked up, so the floor is really bumpy and bouncy because you’d got so many camera guys running around,” Quinn the Irish Examiner. The show got into some trouble for its partnership with Smeg.Part of GBBO’s homey charm has to do with the setup of the tent where the bakers do their cooking, and few appliances spell “retro” as well as a colorful Smeg refrigerator.
A viewer fed up with what they described as “blatant product promotion” wrote to the Radio Times to complain, and an investigation was launched into the series’ agreement with Smeg. As BBC guidelines that a series may 'not accept free or reduced cost products' in return for 'on-air or online credits, links or off-air marketing,” the broadcaster ended up having to write the company a check for all the times their product got some screen time. There are never any leftovers.The judges only take a mouthful of every bake, which seems to leave an awful lot of leftover pastries, cakes, and ridiculously complicated bread sculptures. But don’t worry—none of it goes to waste. “The crew eats all the leftovers,' Beedle The Mirror.
'We get some brought to us in the green room so we can taste each other's bakes, but it's only slithers.' Hundreds of season five viewers wrote in to complain about 'sabotage.' Midway through season five, contestant Iain Watters had a bit of an issue with his Baked Alaska.
Realizing that his ice cream had not yet set, he threw the entire dish into the trash rather than serve the judges a subpar dessert and was sent home as a result. Footage from the episode made is seem as if fellow contestant Diana Beard had removed his ice cream from the freezer. Beard left the show at just about the same time due to health issues, but some viewers (811, to be exact) smelled sabotage—and wrote in to the show’s producers to complain. Media watchdog group Ofcom looked into the matter, but that they had assessed viewers’ complaints and “they do not raise issues warranting further investigation under Ofcom’s rules.”Paul Hollywood took to Twitter to clear up what became known as “bingate,”: “Ice cream being left out of fridge last night for 40 seconds did not destroy Iain’s chances in the bake off, what did was his decision BIN.” 13. Mary Berry watched Breaking Bad backstage.Although it looks pretty nonstop on screen, there’s quite a bit of downtime during the show’s filming days.
Especially for the show’s judges and hosts. Former judge Mary Berry had one unique way of passing the time: binge-watching Breaking Bad. “It’s shocking,” Berry The Telegraph. “Then you get into it and you think: ‘Have I seen episode four or five?’ You get hooked.
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It’s better than motor racing, which my husband Paul watches—though I’d prefer Downton Abbey.” She’d apparently rope former hosts Mel and Sue into watching it with her on occasion. What better way to relax during a long day of baking than by watching Walter White, umm, baking? The application form is no joke.Fancy your chances in the Bake Off tent? If you’ve been inspired by the show and reckon you could nab a couple of Star Baker titles, brace yourself: The application form is a whopping eight pages long, and it’s full of probing questions.
As well as giving details of your hobbies, lifestyle, and level of experience with various types of baked goods, it also asks applicants to describe their baking style, and answer a couple of existential-sounding questions.' It's a long application form.
I think it's designed to put some people off, essentially,' fourth season contestant Beca Lyne-Pirkis. 'It asks you about everything you have done, good and bad. It's designed to get information about your character, stories, mishaps and successes.' Still fancy applying? Though submissions are not open at the moment, you can keep your eyes open for when the next batch of contestants are being accepted. The audition process is a grueling one.If you happen to make it through the application process, the audition process is even more difficult.
“Every person who makes it into the marquee has passed a rigorous series of tests,” GBBO creator and executive producer Anna Beattie The Telegraph. In addition to the application form, The Telegraph reported that there is “a 45-minute telephone call with a researcher, bringing two bakes to an audition in London, a screen test and an interview with a producer. If they get through that, there is a second audition baking two recipes in front of the cameras, and an interview with the show psychologist to make sure they can cope with being filmed for up to 16 hours a day.”. If you’re in the mood for some speculative fiction and your pile of Arthur C.
Clarke books has been exhausted, you could do worse than to tune into. The streaming service is constantly acquiring new films in the sci-fi and fantasy genres that should satisfy most fans of alternative futures.
Here are 10 of the best on Netflix right now. (2013)Scarlett Johansson explores alien seduction as a being from another world who arrives on Earth to pursue companionship.
Unfortunately, she prefers short-term commitments. This erotic sci-fi drama was nominated for Best British Film at the BAFTA awards, the British equivalent of the Oscars. (2011)Bradley Cooper is a writer looking for an edge when he happens upon a 'smart' pill that puts everything into focus. Like any miracle cure, this one comes with consequences.
Robert De Niro co-stars. (2013)In a dystopian future—in sci-fi, there may not be any other kind—a train carrying cars separated by social class circles the globe. Soon, the have-nots (led by Chris Evans) decide to defy authority and get answers from those in charge. (2018)Heavily maligned for booting original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in favor of Ron Howard, Solo doesn't break any new ground for the storied franchise.
What it does do is manage to navigate its well-publicized production troubles to deliver a generally satisfying and entertaining origin story of reluctant hero pilot, played with sufficient swagger. His space scoundrel charm doesn't come as easily as it did for, but the production design and pulp novel-paced narrative make for a movie that might be the most light-on-its-feet of the Disney-era Star Wars chapters to date. (2015)Alex Garland's quiet—and quietly subversive—robot parable didn't arrive with all the hype of a major studio sci-fi release but still manages to outdo most big-budget android tales. As the enigmatic CEO of a robotics company, uses an underling (Domhnall Gleeson) to test his eerily lifelike AI (Alicia Vikander). But Gleeson may be the one who's really being tested. (1999)utters many a 'whoa' on his way through this sci-fi classic about a computer programmer who discovers reality is just an artificial simulation.
Bullet Time is still just as spectacular as it was when the film premiered 20 years ago. (2013)The perils of falling in love with artificial intelligence are at the core of Her, which features a terrific performance by Joaquin Phoenix as a rumpled office worker who finds his soulmate in something without a soul: An Alexa-esque disembodied voice (Scarlett Johansson). (2002)A pre-Batman Christian Bale is a gun fu expert in this -inspired story of a man who rebels against the dystopian society holding emotions at bay. (2015)A robot intended as a police patrol device is reprogrammed by criminals and develops feelings in this dystopian action-comedy from District 9 (2009) director Neill Blomkamp. (1997)Will Smith stumbles upon a secret law enforcement agency tasked with monitoring galactic illegal aliens in this popular hit. If you haven't caught it in a while, tune in for a scene-stealing Vincent D'Onofrio as an alien trying desperately to emulate a human.
Mary Owen wasn’t welcomed into the world until more than a decade after Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life made its premiere in 1946. But she grew up cherishing the film and getting the inside scoop on its making from its star, Donna Reed—who just so happens to be her mom. Though Reed passed away in 1986, Owen has stood as one of the film’s most dedicated historians, regularly introducing screenings of the ultimate holiday classic, including during its annual run at New York City’s. She shared some of her mom’s memories with us to help reveal 25 things you might not have known about It’s a Wonderful Life.
It's a Wonderful Life all began with a Christmas card.After years of unsuccessfully trying to shop his short story, to publishers, Philip Van Doren Stern decided to give the gift of words to his closest friends for the holidays when he printed up 200 copies of the story and sent them out as a 21-page Christmas card. David Hempstead, a producer at RKO Pictures, ended up getting a hold of it, and the movie rights for $10,000. Cary Grant was set to star in It's a Wonderful Life.When RKO purchased the rights, they did so with the plan of having in the lead. But, as happens so often in Hollywood, the project went through some ups and downs in the development process. In 1945, after a number of rewrites, RKO sold the movie rights to Frank Capra, who quickly recruited Jimmy Stewart to play George Bailey.
Dorothy Parker worked on the script for It's a Wonderful Life. Getty ImagesBy the time It’s a Wonderful Life made it into theaters, the story was much different from Stern’s original tale. That’s because more than a half-dozen people contributed to the screenplay, including some of the most of the time—, Marc Connelly, and Clifford Odets among them. It's a Wonderful Life screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett walked out on the project.Though they’re credited as the film’s screenwriters with Capra, the husband and wife writing duo were not pleased with the treatment they received from Capra.
“Frank Capra could be condescending,” in an interview, “and you just didn't address Frances as ‘my dear woman.’ When we were pretty far along in the script but not done, our agent called and said, ‘Capra wants to know how soon you'll be finished.’ Frances said, ‘We're finished right now.’ We put our pens down and never went back to it.” 5. Frank Capra didn't do the best job of selling Jimmy Stewart on It's a Wonderful Life.After laying out the plot line of the film for Jimmy Stewart in a meeting, Capra realized that, “This really doesn’t sound so good, does it?” Stewart in an interview. Stewart’s reply?
“Frank: If you want me to be in a picture about a guy that wants to kill himself and an angel comes down named Clarence who can’t swim and I save him, when do we start?” 6. It's a Wonderful Life marked Donna Reed's first starring role.
Getty ImagesThough Donna Reed was hardly a newcomer when It’s a Wonderful Life rolled around, having appeared in nearly 20 projects previously, the film did mark her first starring role. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role today, but Reed had some serious competition from Jean Arthur. “Frank Capra had seen mom in They Were Expendable and liked her,” Mary Owen told Mental Floss. “When Capra met my mother at MGM, he knew she'd be just right for Mary Bailey.” 7.
Mary Owen is not named after Mary Bailey.Before you ask whether Owen was named after her mom’s much beloved It’s a Wonderful Life character, “The answer is no,” says Owen. “I was named after my great grandmother, Mary Mullenger.” 8. Beulah Bondi was a pro at playing Jimmy Stewart's mom.Beulah Bondi, who plays Mrs. Bailey, didn’t need a lot of rehearsal to play Jimmy Stewart’s mom.
She had done it three times previously—in, Of Human Hearts, and Vivacious Lady—and once later on The Jimmy Stewart Show: The Identity Crisis. Frank Capra, Donna Reed, and Jimmy Stewart have all called It's a Wonderful Life their favorite movie.
Liberty FilmsThough their collective filmographies consist of a couple hundred movies, Capra, Reed, and Stewart have all cited It’s a Wonderful Life as their favorite movie. In his autobiography, The Name Above the Title, Capra took that praise even one step further,: “I thought it was the greatest film I ever made. Better yet, I thought it was the greatest film anybody ever made.” 10. It's a Wonderful Life bombed at the box office.Though it has become a quintessential American classic, It’s a Wonderful Life was not an immediate hit with audiences. In fact, it put Capra in the hole, which left him scrambling to finance his production company’s next picture, State of the Union.
A copyright lapse aided It's a Wonderful Life's popularity.Though it didn’t make much of a dent at the box office, It’s a Wonderful Life found a whole new life on television—particularly when its copyright in 1974, making it available royalty-free to anyone who wanted to show it for the next 20 years. (Which would explain why it was on television all the time during the holiday season.) The free-for-all in 1994.
The rock that broke the window of the Granville House was all real. // Public DomainThough Capra had a stuntman at the ready in order to shoot out the window of the Granville House in a scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock through it, it was all a waste of money.
“Mom threw the rock herself that broke the window in the Granville House,” Owen says. “On the first try.” 13. It took two months to build It's a Wonderful Life's Bedford Falls.Shot on a budget of $3.7 million (which was a lot by mid-1940s standards), Bedford Falls—which covered a full four acres of RKO’s Encino Ranch—was one of the most elaborate ever built up to that time, with 75 stores and buildings, 20 fully-grown oak trees, factories, residential areas, and a 300-yard-long Main Street.
Seneca Falls, New York is 'the real Bedford Falls.' Though Bedford Falls is a fictitious place, the town of Seneca Falls, New York swears that it's the real-life inspiration for George Bailey’s charming hometown. And each year they a full lineup of holiday-themed events to put locals (and yuletide visitors) into the holiday spirit. It's a Wonderful Life's gym floor-turned-swimming pool was real.Though the bulk of the film was filmed on pre-built sets, the dance at the gym was filmed on location at Beverly Hills High School. And the retractable floor was no set piece. Better known as the Swim Gym, the school is currently in the process of the landmark filming location. Alfalfa is the teenager behind It's a Wonderful Life's swimming pool prank.Though he’s uncredited in the part, if Freddie Othello—the little prankster who pushes the button that opens the pool that swallows George and Mary up—looks familiar, that’s because he is played by, a.k.a.
Alfalfa of The Little Rascals. Donna Reed won $50 from Lionel Barrymore. For milking a cow.Though she was a Hollywood icon, Donna Reed—born Donnabelle Mullenger—was a farm girl at heart who came to Los Angeles by way of Denison, Iowa. Lionel Barrymore (a.k.a. Potter) didn’t believe it.
“So he bet $50 that she couldn't milk a cow,” recalls Owen. “She said it was the easiest $50 she ever made.” 18. It's a Wonderful Life was shot during a heat wave.It may be an iconic Christmas movie, but It’s a Wonderful Life was actually shot in the summer of 1946—in the midst of a heat wave, no less. At one point, Capra had to shut filming down for a day because of the sky-high temperatures—which also explains why Stewart is clearly in key moments of the film. Frank Capra engineered a new kind of movie snow for It's a Wonderful Life.Capra—who trained as an engineer—and special effects supervisor Russell Shearman a new type of artificial snow for the film. At the time, painted cornflakes were the most common form of fake snow, but they posed a bit of an audio problem for Capra. So he and Shearman opted to mix foamite (the stuff you find in fire extinguishers) with sugar and water to create a less noisy option.
It's a Wonderful Life wasn't required viewing in Donna Reed's household.Though It’s a Wonderful Life is a staple of many family holiday movie marathons, that wasn’t the case in Reed’s home. In fact, Owen herself didn’t see the film until three decades after its release. “I saw it in the late 1970s at the Nuart Theatre in L.A. And loved it,” she says. Zuzu didn't see It's a Wonderful Life until 1980.Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the film, didn’t see the film until 1980.
“I never took the time to see the movie,” she Detroit’s WWJ in 2013. “I never just sat down and watched the film.” 22. The FBI saw It's a Wonderful Life—and didn't like it.In 1947, the FBI a memo noting the film as a potential “Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry,” citing its “rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘Scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.” 23. It's a Wonderful Life's Bert and Ernie have no relation to Sesame Street. //Yes, the cop and cab driver in It’s a Wonderful Life are named Bert and Ernie, respectively.
But Jim Henson’s longtime writing partner, Jerry Juhl, insists that it’s by coincidence only that they share their names with Sesame Street’s stripe-shirted buds.“I was the head writer for the Muppets for 36 years and one of the original writers on Sesame Street,” the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000. “The rumor about It's a Wonderful Life has persisted over the years. I was not present at the naming, but I was always positive the rumor was incorrect. Despite his many talents, Jim had no memory for details like this. He knew the movie, of course, but would not have remembered the cop and the cab driver.'
I was not able to confirm this with Jim before he died, but shortly thereafter I spoke to Jon Stone, Sesame Street's first producer and head writer and a man largely responsible for the show's format,' Juhl continued. 'He assured me that Ernie and Bert were named one day when he and Jim were studying the prototype puppets. They decided that one of them looked like an Ernie, and the other one looked like a Bert. The movie character names are purely coincidental.” 24. Some people are anxious for an It's a Wonderful Life sequel.Well, two people: Producers Allen J.
Schwalb and Bob Farnsworth, who announced in 2013 that they would be continuing the story with a sequel, It’s a Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story, which they planned for a 2015 release. It didn’t take long for Paramount, which owns the copyright, to step in and fans of the original film that “No project relating to It’s a Wonderful Life can proceed without a license from Paramount. To date, these individuals have not obtained any of the necessary rights, and we would take all appropriate steps to protect those rights.” 25. It's a Wonderful Life's enduring legacy was surprising to Frank Capra.“It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,' of the film’s classic status. 'The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it.
I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I’m proud but it’s the kid who did the work. I didn’t even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea.”.
Gordon Ramsay has been fixing broken restaurants, on and off, for 14 years now: First on Channel 4, with Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, which came to the U.S. Andy Dehnart’s writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Vulture, Pacific Standard, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.
He has covered reality television for more than 18 years, and created reality blurred in 2000.A member of the Television Critics Association who serves on its board of directors, Andy, 41, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. In nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College.