The BBC and Channel 4 look set to lock horns and do battle later this year, as they look to attract cookery fans to their rival television shows. After the switch away from the Beeb by the hugely successful The Great British Bake Off, the BBC are keen to bounce straight back with a new show featuring former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain and the effervescent Zoe Ball.
Hussain’s growing popularity
Hussain has become a familiar face on British TV screens since capturing the top prize on the 2015 edition and BBC bosses will no doubt hope that her subsequent popularity makes The Big Family Cooking Showdown a smash hit as well.
Not only as she been a judge on CBBC's Junior Bake Off, viewers were also able to witness a return to her family’s homeland in a recent two-part programme entitled The Chronicles of Nadiya.
Self-educated in the art of cooking through reading recipe books and watching YouTube videos, she will hope to inspire others to take to the kitchen and demonstrate their creative culinary skills.
BBC back diversity
The Luton-born champion baker and author certainly ticks most of the boxes with her Bangladeshi family roots, as the BBC looks to back up its recently announced diversity drive with solid action by the end of the present decade. Director- general Tony Hall has made it perfectly clear that he wants to see increased visibility in the corporation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people.
Zoe Ball to co-host
Radio and TV presenter Ball is set to host alongside Hussain, as plans for the expected Autumn launch of the search to identify the best family of cooks in the UK take shape. Sixteen families are set to take part in the new BBC2 show, as they showcase their favourite family recipes before the viewing public.
Families face challenges
The twelve hour-long episodes will feature a series of cooking challenges in both the studio kitchen and the families’ home kitchens, as the contestants are whittled down before the grand finale. Joining the two hosts will be two formidable judges with a wealth of cooking knowledge at their fingertips, in the form of the Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli and Rosemary Shrager (Soapstar Superchef).
