The Great British Bake Off is Back and it’s time to meet this year’s bakers

First the big news: The Great British Bake Off is back on Channel 4 at 8 pm on Tuesday September 21. We assume this also means Jo Brand will be back on Friday 24 with An Extra Slice. For now we’ll concentrate on Paul Hollywood, Pru Leith, Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas. Oh, and this year’s bakers!

The Bake Off series 12 bakers

It’s hard to judge from a photo, or even the helpful bios Channel 4 has produced, but it’s still possible to get a flavour of this year’s contestants (did you see what we did there!)

There’s a Met Police Detective with an interest in Greek food, a chocolate loving sales manager, a multi-lingual spice enthusiast, a student who specialises in vegan recipes, a herb-growing family man, an engineer whose father was a professional chef, a marathon running patisserie specialist, a bread-making IT specialist, a dog-loving criminologist who like experiment (to an extent) in the kitchen, a retired midwife who likes classical recipes, a baker whose style reflects her Caribbean heritage and a software developer who makes a good pie.

So, another 12 bakers to get to know over the next few weeks.

There will be tears, screams, puns and handshakes all in the uniquely British Bake Off tent!