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Annie Roberts

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders top fan poll as 'dream' Great British Bake Off hosts

The Great British Bake Off has recently returned to our television screens, with a new set of home bakers hoping to impress Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith with their culinary skills and so far competing in cake week and biscuit week. Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas are also back hosting the programme, but in a new poll fans have been having their say on who they would love to see hosting the popular Channel 4 show.

The survey carried out by Betfair revealed that comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were fan favourites, with almost one in five respondents (18%) saying the pair would be their 'dream' hosts. They were closely followed by Geordie TV hosts Ant and Dec, who had 12 per cent of the vote and This Morning's Friday hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary were only one per cent behind, coming in third.

Meanwhile, as the popular baking competition has now hit its 13th series, fans were also having their say on who has been their favourite baker throughout the years. It was season six winner, Nadiya Hussain, who topped the poll.

Since being crowned champion back in 2015, Nadiya has gone on to have a hugely successful career, publishing numerous recipe books and presenting her own cookery shows - Nadiya's Everyday Baking is currently airing on BBC Two each Wednesday. So it may be no surprise to some to hear she'd been voted the favourite contestant by some margin with 23 per cent of the vote.

Candice Brown, who took the title in the following year in season seven, came second with 5.4 per cent and season nine's victor Rahul Mandal claimed third with 5.2 per cent. Fans also voted on the theme they would find the most nerve-wracking, with 19 per cent saying they would be nervous tackling 'Patisserie Week'.

They also voted on the greatest Celebrity Bake Off moment to date and the most controversial Great British Bake Off moments. You can view the full results from the Betfair survey below:

Top 8 dream Great British Bake Off hosting duos:
  1. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
  2. Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly
  3. Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary
  4. Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield
  5. Rob Beckett and Josh Widdcombe
  6. Rochelle and Marvin Humes
  7. Emily Atack and Seann Walsh
  8. Joel Dommett and Hannah Cooper
Top 10 favourite GBBO bakers:
  1. Nadiya Hussain, season 6
  2. Candice Brown, season 7
  3. Rahul Mandal, season 9
  4. John Whaite, season 3
  5. Liam Charles, season 8
  6. Diana Beard, season 5
  7. Laura Adlington, season 11
  8. Howard Middleton, season 4
  9. Ruby Tandoh, season 4
  10. Tamal Ray, season 6
Top 5 most controversial Great British Bake Off moments:
  1. Prue Leith prematurely announcing the winner, season 8
  2. Bin-gate: Diana Beard removing Iain Watters’ Baked Alaska ice cream from the freezer, season 5
  3. Sura Mitib accidentally knocking David Friday’s pineapple upside down cakes on the floor, season 11
  4. Paul Hollywood giving out three handshakes in one round, season 8
  5. Custard-gate: Deborah Manger stealing Howard Middleton’s custard, season 4
Top 7 weeks Great British Bake Off viewers would find most nerve-wracking:
  1. Patisserie Week
  2. Bread Week
  3. Pastry Week
  4. Free-From Week
  5. Cake Week
  6. Caramel Week
  7. Dessert Week
Top 5 greatest moments of Celebrity Bake Off:
  1. Joe Sugg fainting after slicing open his finger (2020)
  2. Russell Brand creating a vagina biscuit (2019)
  3. Jamie Laing’s ‘worst cake of all time’ banana bread bake (2018)
  4. Jenny Eclair's topless profiterole self portrait (2020)
  5. KSI's pie leaking onto the counter (2021)

You can stream the latest episodes from The Great British Bake Off over on All 4. Or tune in each Tuesday from 8pm on Channel 4 to watch the new episodes being broadcast live.

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