If Mary Berry was Prime Minister …

There would be some great food in Number 10.  Just imagine.  All of those amazing cakes and bakes.  When you think about it, Mary Berry would make a great first lady with her steely glare.  You only have to think back to that episode of The Great British Bake Off when the poor unsuspecting contestant had failed to make his own fondant icing and there it was, the steely glare of discontent.  It would soon send the other contestants running for cover that is for certain.

13 million of us watched The Great British Bake Off final back in August 2014.  13 million.  That is an impressive amount of people all gripped by the all important showstoppers and signature bakes.  We do seem to be a nation who love their competitive cookery programs with the delightful duo John and Greg munching their way through the culinary concoctions in Masterchef bringing in an average of 5 million viewers per episode.

It isn’t just the talents of amateur chefs keeping their cool in the kitchen that floats our television boats, we seem to like talent shows in general.  Britain’s Got Talent had fantastic viewing figures last year, the X Factor is a real ratings winner and even The Voice has an impressive turn out.

Why do we love this sort of television so much, why is it so fascinating? Is it the presenters and judges that we love to love and hate?  Is it the entertainment of seeing some of these people spectacularly fail on the grand stage? Is it seeing normal people just like us doing great things?  Is it inspiring?  Is it escapism?  I don’t know but I do find our television viewing habits quite fascinating as it is often a reflection of society; of our interests, of our mindset, of our mood.

One of the TV favourites at the moment is the genius Gogglebox, where we enjoy watching a variety of people watching television and this again just underlines how much television influences our lives.  We love talking about it almost as much as we love watching it.

Then there was the great political debate.  The only chance to see all seven of the political party leaders together on one stage debating the important issues of the day.  Quite a big deal in the television stakes; the future of our country and a good opportunity to listen to the party leaders.  This could help influence which way to vote.  This might tell you how the future of our country will be shaped.  Surely this must bring a huge audience.

Interestingly, there are around 64 million people living in the UK.  Reports suggest that over 95% of those people have a television.  So if there was to be something as important as a political debate going on, you can do the maths and work out the number of people who would watch.  It would be huge wouldn’t it?

Maybe not.  In act, just under 7 million.

You could argue that we watch television to escape the reality of life, it is a time of rest and relaxation and we don’t really want to sit and watch a political debate, it is too real and not exciting or interesting enough.  Maybe they should have had a party leader bake off hosted by Mary and Paul instead; cabinets and campaigns over cake and cookies, a definite ratings winner.

Perhaps the party leaders could have a debate in a The Voice style with judges only turning around in their chairs when they hear something they like?  That could be interesting.

How about Britain’s Got Politicians?  Oh how I would love to press the BGT red buzzer with some of the party leaders.  That might be fun.  Would any of the party leaders achieve the much sought after golden buzzer?

The political debate isn’t everyone’s idea of entertainment but if television is a reflection of society, I think there is a real apathy towards the upcoming general election but if Mary Berry was baking her way to the top spot, I think we would have been there in our millions.