When The Great British Bake Off began on BBC Two in August 2010, it attracted no more attention than the average TV cookery contest. Mary Berry had yet to be declared a 'national treasure', Paul Hollywood was nobody's unlikely crush, and Mel and Sue were still best known for their '90s chat show Light Lunch. But by September 2016, when it was announced that Channel 4 had outbid the BBC by a rumoured £10m for the next series , Bake Off had become the biggest thing on British TV – some 16 million of us watched the last series finale. Thanks to Brexit, Trump and all those celebrity deaths, 2016 felt like a horror show, but Bake Off proved to be a real tonic. There was something comforting about watching a tent full of people fret about how to make a Dampfnudel (your guess is as good as mine) while Mel and Sue readied their next dad joke about baps or soggy bottoms.