S12.E11: The Great Christmas Bake Off

[Athena]

Quote

The stars of It's A Sin join Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding for Christmas. And the London Community Gospel Choir perform All I Want for Christmas.

UK Original Air Date: December 25, 2021.

[AngieBee1]

The IT'S A SIN cast were as charming and loving as they were on the series. The best baker certainly won.

[jpgr]

I know nothing about "It's a Sin" but very much enjoyed the episode! Nathaniel is so tall, he was towering over everyone and everything (including the refrigerators).

[Straycat80]

I love the Christmas baking shows. They’re just for fun and not really a competition although there is a winner ( the right person won). The four bakers were fun to watch too. 

[festivus]

I don't know this show or these actors except I knew Shaun looked familiar. Misfits is where I know him from. Anyway, this was fun. All the pies looked scrummy.  I would throw Lydia's back in for 15 minutes but then I would eat them all. I think the yule logs would have gone better without the stupid stockings. That just ruined the look. The Christmas trees were actually kind of cute and what I would expect from inexperienced bakers. Nathaniel is also really cute and now I want to watch this show.

[dleighg]

6 hours ago, festivus said:

except I knew Shaun looked familiar.

me too; for me IMDB tells me it was for the show "Innocent" which I literally JUST WATCHED, but couldn't place the character when I looked him up. I comfort myself that he must have been a minor character LOL.

6 hours ago, festivus said:

Nathaniel is also really cute

yes yes yes

[dleighg]

Did they actually go to the trouble of putting fake snow on the ground and the trees? I can't imagine the timing was right for the real stuff (and it doesn't even snow very often in England, does it?). Interestingly, the New Year's Day episode was clearly filmed in summer.

[Athena]

19 hours ago, dleighg said:

Did they actually go to the trouble of putting fake snow on the ground and the trees? I can't imagine the timing was right for the real stuff (and it doesn't even snow very often in England, does it?). Interestingly, the New Year's Day episode was clearly filmed in summer.

They usually film these right after or before the regular series. The snow has usually looked fake enough and the whole thing is a bit forced even though you know it's not actually cold. I think they use CGI and stock footage as well.

[Cetacean]

Seems like I recall one of the participants saying it's hard to pretend it's Christmas when they are filming in May.

[chaifan]

23 hours ago, dleighg said:

Did they actually go to the trouble of putting fake snow on the ground and the trees? I can't imagine the timing was right for the real stuff (and it doesn't even snow very often in England, does it?). Interestingly, the New Year's Day episode was clearly filmed in summer.

Yep.  It was fake.  They tried to focus more on the pine trees, but you could tell the other trees in the background were in full green leaf.  I'd rather have them do it completely fakety fake fake fake.  Like elementary school christmas pageant set decorations fake.  Just acknowledge it straight up that it's June and they're all wearing christmas sweaters and play it for what it is.  Especially since it isn't a "serious" episode anyways.  

I'd never heard of the show, didn't know any of the actors, but found them all to be delightful.  And they are all actually pretty competent bakers.  This single episode was better than the entire season of weird not-baked bakes. 

[hiisa]

Ok, I know nothing about It's a Sin but hooo boy Nathaniel is flipping pretty. I could stare at that tall drink of water all. dang. DAY.

[Leeds]

19 hours ago, hiisa said:

Ok, I know nothing about It's a Sin but hooo boy Nathaniel is flipping pretty. I could stare at that tall drink of water all. dang. DAY.

I just watched the episode and was going to write pretty much word for word what you did!

Now I'm going to have to see if I can find a way to watch It's a Sin just so I can feast my eyes on him.

(Rats; just looked it up, it's on HBO Max.  And I learned he's 6'4".)

Edited November 22, 2022 by Leeds

[xander874]

Nathaniel's character on It's a Sin didn't leave much of an impression but I really enjoyed him here (glad he won), as well as the other cast. That show was a bit heavy at times, so it's nice to see them have fun. And I just saw Ollie on RuPaul's Drag Race UK so he's making the rounds!

[Leeds]

On 11/18/2022 at 8:02 PM, festivus said:

I don't know this show or these actors except I knew Shaun looked familiar. Misfits is where I know him from. Anyway, this was fun. All the pies looked scrummy.  I would throw Lydia's back in for 15 minutes but then I would eat them all. I think the yule logs would have gone better without the stupid stockings. That just ruined the look. The Christmas trees were actually kind of cute and what I would expect from inexperienced bakers. Nathaniel is also really cute and now I want to watch this show.

I don't know whether you have Xfinity, but they just started a "free" week of various premium channels, including HBO-Max, where you can see It's a Sin.  (Warning:  I've only watched the first few minutes and it's definitely not for the faint of heart!)

[SemiCharmedLife]

I really enjoyed this episode, even though I was unfamiliar with the actors.  They were all so much fun and very competent bakers.  I think they really took pride in their efforts and I was happy the judges gave them lots of positive feedback.  

[MisterGlass]

I'm also unfamiliar with the show they're on together, though I recognized Shaun as a "Hey, it's that guy."  Recently he was in a couple episodes of the Witcher.  And Lydia was on a not so good Dracula miniseries a couple year ago.

Sincere as everyone was, I think the producers made a good call in asking them to make pies with meat that was already cooked.

[bunnyface]

On 11/20/2022 at 12:46 PM, chaifan said:

Yep.  It was fake.  They tried to focus more on the pine trees, but you could tell the other trees in the background were in full green leaf.  I'd rather have them do it completely fakety fake fake fake.  Like elementary school christmas pageant set decorations fake.  Just acknowledge it straight up that it's June and they're all wearing christmas sweaters and play it for what it is.  Especially since it isn't a "serious" episode anyways.  

One year, I wish I remembered which year it was, the bakers were all huddled up and actively pretending it was cold out.  Really laying it on thick,  Then way in the background, some guy was strolling around in shorts.  Good times.

[RoxiP]

Honestly I would have preferred to see past contestants (like on the New Year's show) than actors from a show I will never watch.  But that's just me.  I did think all four were very nice and tried very hard to produce good bakes.  I just didn't have any connection to them.