Great British Bake Off 2021 contestants revealed - BBC News
A police detective, a retired midwife and a software developer are among this year's hopefuls.
A police detective, a retired midwife, a psychology student and a software developer will be among the contestants on this year's Great British Bake Off.

The show will return for its 12th series on 21 September. Once again, the 12 bakers have been filmed in a bubble because of the Covid pandemic.

Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding will all return.

Hollywood has said the standard of baking was "certainly the highest I've ever encountered" in the new series.

Last year, Peter Sawkins, 20, became the youngest Bake Off winner. An average of 9.2 million viewers watched the final live - Channel 4's biggest overnight ratings for at least 18 years.

Speaking ahead of this series, Hollywood criticised the "disgusting behaviour" of trolls who targeted some of last year's contestants including finalist Laura Adlington.

The judge said he still gets upset by online abuse but has become used to it, whereas the amateur bakers are "raw, they're new, they're not used to this".

He said: "I had to come out last year in support of Laura, because it was out of order.

"It had gone out of control, and it is so easy in lockdown when people have got nothing else to do, and all they're going to do is bombard someone they're not particularly happy with, and you can't feed into people like that, you've got to be really careful - and so I had to say something.

"I think ultimately, you're always going to get sides, you know, it's like football - you're always going to get one side against another, but I think ultimately as long as you support them, and Bake Off do, I saw what was happening and I had to say something."

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