Why I’ve got mixed feelings about Nigella Lawson’s new Great British Bake off gig

When Prue Leith announced she’d be stepping down as judge from The Great British Bake Off after nine years, there was barely a moment for that bombshell to land before fans began speculating about who could, or should, replace her.

Some joked that Mary Berry might return to the tent, while others hoped for a new direction with the likes of Angela Hartnett or former winner Nadiya Hussain.

However, there was one clear front-runner, and that was none other than the Domestic Goddess herself.

“I’m uncharacteristically rather lost for words right now!” Nigella Lawson gushed in a statement as the rumours were confirmed.

Modest as ever, she said she felt ‘daunted’ to be following in the footsteps of two ‘great dames’, but was ‘giddily grateful for the opportunity’.

It was music to my ears: it meant we’d be seeing more from her after a quiet couple of years.

And yet there's also a part of me that feels slightly guarded around the news, not because I don't think she'll do a great job, but because there are some unspoken risks.

Soggy bottoms

“Not sure this is a good idea,” one social media user lamented after hearing Lawson would be replacing Leith.

“Nigella has a big personality of her own and will overload the show with her innuendo."

I've spent years trying to convince people that Lawson's smirks and purrs to the camera are so much more than the televised foreplay they're assumed to be, and that her creative, flamboyant language isn't just an attempt to seduce them. Sorry.

Lawson in Forever Summer with Nigella (Channel 4)

Our obsession with reducing her to this worn-out, sexualised parody not only dismisses her genuine, deep pleasure for food, but also her intellect and playfulness in expressing it. She's far more self-aware than people realise; she's in on the joke.

"I do say it like that, but not because I think that's how it's actually pronounced," she tweeted after meecrowahvay-gate, forced to justify a moment that went over the nation's head.

What will happen in the hands of Bake Off producers, I wonder? Will Lawson merely become the pawn in the show's viral strategy?

There's a chance the two will work hand-in-hand to harness the best of the star's camp humour, but there's always a danger it could only feed the she-knows-what-she's-doing trolls, who are always hungry for more.

Departure from the BBC

There is also a concern, of course, that her new responsibilities judging Battenbergs and bundt cakes in Berkshire may mean an inevitable departure from her spiritual home at the BBC, which famously likes to keep its talent fairly close to its chest. After all, it was Berry herself who admitted she was parting ways with the show ‘out of loyalty’ to the broadcaster, which she acknowledged had taken a risk on her.

While Lawson actually made her TV debut on Channel 4 with Nigella Bites, she’s arguably more readily associated with her long-running BBC contract, which kicked off in the early 00s and has been going strong ever since.

Lawson in her Nigella Express era (BBC)

Over the past two decades, we’ve grown with the cook in her various guises, from the busy working mum of the Nigella Express days - raising the two children she shared with late husband John Diamond - to the decidedly defiant face of 2015’s Simply Nigella, her first outing after a highly publicised divorce from Charles Saatchi given an upbeat turn through colourful meals and Motown.

It's hard not to feel nostalgia for this period of her career, which has seen us place her on a pedestal alongside other Beeb treasures like David Attenborough or Louis Theroux - figures we hope will always be there for one more comfort watch.

Return to UK screens

That said, Lawson's not been doing much of all that recently anyway.

Aside from a 2023 Christmas special – the delightfully camp Nigella’s Amsterdam Christmas – she has been largely absent from UK screens in recent years, her last series accompanying 2020 book Cook, Eat, Repeat.

Nigella’s Amsterdam Christmas (BBC)

Since then, she’s been keeping herself busy as a host on Australia’s My Kitchen Rules, serving as patron for Team Domenica – a charity supporting young people with learning difficulties and autism into employment – while also happily sharing her ‘eating updates, and other occasions of joy’ over on Instagram.

While it’s sad to think this might be the closing chapter of old-school Nigella, her Bake Off reinvention not only offers fans a chance to see her much more regularly than we've known for some time, but also provides a new home for her trademark warmth and humour, both often overshadowed by the tropes she's stereotyped by.

Her own move back to Channel 4 may well mirror the show's transition into its fun, unserious era, which took time for some fans to warm to but ultimately proved a breath of fresh air in many ways.

And who knows, maybe it’ll inspire some Forever Summer with Nigella reruns to get dusted off...