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... Bake Off comes to Serious Debates and only Matt Lucas’ first day on the job...


The Great British Bake Off has apparently been hit with over 180 complaints following Matt Lucas’s impression of Boris Johnson.

The comedian – the programme’s newest member – kicked off the new series of the Channel 4 show with an impersonation of the prime minister at a COVID-19 briefing.

While sporting a floppy blond wig and standing behind a lectern with the slogan ‘Stay Alert, Protect Cake, Save Loaves’, Lucas poked fun at what some people believe can be confusing messages coming from the government’s coronavirus press briefings.

Read more: GBBO’s ‘mammoth sacrifice’ for filming series 11

It was particularly timely, as the show’s start time was put back by 15 minutes to 8.15pm due to Johnson addressing the nation about the pandemic.

Many viewers were thoroughly amused by Lucas’s antics, but it has been reported that the skit also triggered complaints to Ofcom.

According to the Manchester Evening News, the broadcasting watchdog has received 181 complaints about the episode, with most relating to Lucas’s sketch.

There were doubts as to whether GBBO would go ahead this year due to social distancing measures, but Channel 4 and the programme's makers Love Productions managed to make it happen through major production changes.

The hold-up did not quell viewers’ appetite for the show, with its peak of almost 8 million viewers when it returned on Tuesday night marking the channel’s biggest broadcast of 2020 to date.

Read more: Bake Off bubble bursts for first series 11 contestant

Judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood returned to judge the contestants’ bakes, with Noel Fielding also back as a host.

Lucas joined the series this year after Fielding’s former co-host Sandi Toksvig announced she was leaving the tent.

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https://uk.yahoo.com/news/complaints...090052839.html