{"id":7224,"date":"2019-10-07T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2019-10-25T13:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T17:24:00","slug":"richard-mckerrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/richard-mckerrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard McKerrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"What began as a simple idea to showcase Britain\u2019s best amateur bakers has become a full-blown TV phenomenon: The Great British Bake Off<\/em>. The hit show, created by Love Productions, has charmed viewers the world over with its heartfelt contestants putting their all into every last bundt cake, blueberry tart and baguette. The series returned in late August for its tenth season in the U.K., marking its third on Channel 4 after a move from the BBC. Its success has spawned a juniors spin-off and a slew of international iterations, including a U.S. version on ABC. Richard McKerrow, co-creator of Bake Off<\/em> and creative director at Love Productions, shares with TV Formats<\/em> the ingredients to the series\u2019 success.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> Where did the concept for Bake Off\u00a0<\/em>originate?
\nMCKERROW:<\/strong> Anna Beattie and I had the idea within a couple of months of setting up Love Productions in October 2004. We like to do things that have never been done before. There had never really been a proper baking show in the U.K., and yet baking is incredibly popular; there is a real culture of country f\u00eates, where people set out their home baking. We thought, What if we were to do a very simple, amateur baking competition\u2014looking for the best British home baker? It was a simple idea that had never been done before. Then we found out that there was a reason it hadn\u2019t been done before, and that\u2019s because every single broadcaster in the U.K. thought that it would be incredibly dull and boring, like watching paint dry. [Laughs<\/em>] So they all said, Absolutely not, no way. The funny thing when I look back now is that all of the reasons they said \u201cno\u201d are probably all the reasons that it\u2019s so successful.<\/p>\n

We were passionate about it, and it never left our top five ideas that we hadn\u2019t got commissioned. We pitched it to anybody and everybody! Finally, the then-controller of BBC Three thought it was a good idea, but not right for BBC Three. He passed it over to BBC Two.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> Did you anticipate that it would achieve the level of success it has?
\nMCKERROW:<\/strong> We never anticipated that it would grow in the way that it did. We just set out to make an original program with the best production values we possibly could. The show has been described as a sleeper hit. The first [season] did quite well, but I remember being slightly disappointed in the figures of the first episode. Anna Beattie, who is the co-creator of the show, said to me, \u201cDon\u2019t worry Rich, it\u2019ll grow.\u201d In a funny way, it\u2019s a bit like baking: it takes time!<\/p>\n

Everyone said, Baking is going to be boring, it\u2019s not dramatic enough. But actually, baking is much more dramatic but in a slow, deep way rather than a superficial, television way. When cooking goes wrong, you can add salt and pepper and race around to fix it. With baking, it\u2019s about how you put it together before\u2014that\u2019s why [the bakers] kneel down and stare at it through the oven. In the end, the drama is less superficial, far deeper and more profound.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> What do you look for in casting?
\nMCKERROW:<\/strong> The simple answer is brilliant bakers. That is the one total rule; we want the best possible bakers. As a documentary maker, you\u2019re trying to create an environment where people forget that the cameras are there, which is incredibly hard to do in constructed television. I look back to the first time that we brought the first group of bakers together, and we were watching them being watched by the two judges\u2014I was in awe because they didn\u2019t care that we were filming! They were more obsessed with what the judges thought of their eclair, scone or loaf of bread than the camera. That\u2019s the secret: when people are more passionate about the real thing that is going on than about being on television.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> How do you keep it fresh and innovative, while still remaining true to the heart of the format?
\nMCKERROW:<\/strong> Fortunately, every year, 12 or 13 new bakers come along, with new stories and histories that are unique and individual. When we moved from BBC to Channel 4, the [hosting and judging] talent changed. But it didn\u2019t make a difference to the show, because the true talents are the bakers\u2014the ordinary people, not the celebrities. It doesn\u2019t diminish the incredibly important role that the hosts and judges play; they are a vital and prominent part of it. But we have a mantra: Love the bakers, love the baking.<\/p>\n

Every season, we try to make sure that we find the best possible bakers, that we find a broad range and also that the challenges are distinct and different. That\u2019s not to say we wouldn\u2019t do something that we\u2019ve done before. There is the broad format of having the signature challenge, the technical challenge and the show-stopper, but I can\u2019t begin to tell you the incredible amount of effort that goes into designing the various challenges. There\u2019s a tremendous amount of work behind it and a team of people who really care about the show.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> How do you plot and test the challenges?
\nMCKERROW:<\/strong> We have an extraordinarily experienced, accomplished team that researches all the possible challenges. Then we try them out. We see how long it takes to do. That\u2019s why Bake Off\u00a0<\/em>is really a 365-days-a-year operation. Our contributor care almost reaches its most important period over the ten weeks [after the premiere]. Although it\u2019s obviously vital during the preproduction casting and during the weeks that we film, now we\u2019re in the time when we can\u2019t control the public reaction. [Duty of care] is something that I am very passionate about. Television is pretty well regulated and yet social media is utterly unregulated, and therefore, I can\u2019t tell you what\u2019s going to happen next. All we can do is look after the bakers to the best of our ability during that period of time.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong> Was the plan from the beginning to format it for international markets?
\nMCKERROW:<\/strong> We\u2019re always driven by the creative. If you\u2019ve designed something original, there\u2019s always a chance that it could travel internationally. If you make it to the best of your ability, certainly with an English-language program, there\u2019s a good chance you can have program sales. To then sell the format, that\u2019s a whole different bar that you\u2019ve got to hit, which is mostly judged by audience figures.<\/p>\n

BBC Studios distributes the format globally. The format, like the original show, has grown slowly. Denmark\u2019s version is extraordinarily successful, with its latest series attracting over half of the viewing audience. Argentina did the first Spanish-language version in the [LatAm] region, ranking number one in its time slot with more than twice the share of the closest competition. There\u2019s a version in Brazil.<\/p>\n

We produce the American version, for ABC, in the U.K. The first-ever version we did was for CBS, The American Baking Competition<\/em>, and it was shot in America. It didn\u2019t do too badly, but one of the problems was that CBS didn\u2019t promote it off-network. When FOX put Gordon Ramsay against it with MasterChef<\/em>, CBS didn\u2019t move it. Therefore, it didn\u2019t get picked up. We sold the finished programs of The Great British Bake Off\u00a0<\/em>to PBS, where it aired under the title The Great British Baking Show<\/em>. Rob Mills [senior VP of alternative series, specials and late-night programming] at ABC Entertainment saw the British version on PBS and thought, Why don\u2019t we let Love produce an American version in the same way they produce the British version? They let us do it the way we always wanted to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard McKerrow, co-creator of Bake Off and creative director at Love Productions, shares the ingredients to the series\u2019 success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":7225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1337,671,1856,877],"class_list":["post-7224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","tag-bbc-studios","tag-love-productions","tag-richard-mckerrow","tag-the-great-british-bake-off","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nRichard McKerrow - TVFORMATS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/richard-mckerrow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard McKerrow - 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