The Great British Bake Off keeps stale feeling at bay

The nation's favourite telly comfort food is back for series 16, and it's an emotional rollercoaster

- writes Sean O'Grady

Now in its 16th series, on its third TV channel, and having baked and punned everything under the bun as you might say, I fully expected that this latest run of The Great British Bake Off would confirm that this televisual confection had, finally, gone stale.

Indeed, I've said as much a few times over the past few years, tiring of the rigid format, as unchanging in its liturgy as the Roman Catholic Mass or the state opening of parliament, and not much more exciting.