‘The Great British Baking Show’ Needs a Host Like ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’s Ellie Taylor

Long have I been troubled by the state of affairs on The Great British Baking Show. The show remains a cozy balm thanks to its persistently charming contestants, but the energy has been off in the tent for years. Mainly that’s because the current paired presenters — Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas — bring chaos to everything they do. Matt and Noel pester the bakers, purposely ruin the time callouts, and honestly seem completely bored by what’s going on around them.

Matt and Noel’s failings as hosts only felt all the more obvious after I watched the most recent season of The Great Pottery Throw Down on HBO Max. Substitute presenter Ellie Taylor, who was filling in for an injured (and great) Siobhán McSweeney, gave The Great Pottery Throw Down everything The Great British Baking Show needs.

Essentially, The Great British Baking Show needs a host like Ellie Taylor (or Ellie Taylor herself).

The Great Pottery Throw Down was created by Love Productions, the same production company who makes The Great British Baking Show for Channel 4 and Netflix. At first glance, the shows are exactly the same. About a dozen amateurs from all over the UK convene in an idyllic location to duke it out in difficult challenges. One show is focused on baking and the other pottery. That’s the only difference.

However if you compare the most recent seasons of both The Great British Baking Show and The Great Pottery Throw Down, you’ll notice the energy of the shows is wildly different. The Great British Baking Show embraces zany energy, cutting burns, and disaster. The Great Pottery Throw Down has judges who openly weep over contestants’ work. The latter provides a sweeter, safer space for its contestants (and its audience). And Ellie Taylor’s hosting style is emblematic of this.

The Great Pottery Throw Down Season 5 opens with regular host, Siobhán McSweeney, explaining to judges Keith Brymer Jones and Richard Miller that she’s broken her leg badly in a biking accident so she can’t work until much later in the season. Comedian and actress (and Ted Lasso love interest) Ellie Taylor shows up to fill in. From the jump, Taylor is interested in supporting the show’s contestants and making herself the butt of her jokes. She mocks her own ignorance about pottery, enthusiastically encourages the potters to keep going through rough spots, and even works to make sure everyone gets their creations to the drying room on time. You know how Matt and Noel started making the callouts nonsensical? Taylor only seems to fudge the time when she’s drawing out the final seconds to save a potter’s neck.

At one point in the first episode, Ellie Taylor is skipping through the pottery, shouting, “Try! Try!” to the contestants. The supportive energy took me aback because I’m used to the likes of Matt and Noel purposely sabotaging the bakers with distracting bits. That’s when I realized that Ellie Taylor would be an incredible addition to the Bake Off tent. (Usual Throw Down presenter Siobhán McSweeney would, too, but she’s already got a regular gig with Love Productions. Ellie Taylor does not! She doesn’t even have a regular spot on Ted Lasso tying her down! Ellie Taylor is probably extremely available to crash the tent this summer!)

I’m sure it’s wishful thinking to hope that Love Productions saw how well Taylor did in her guest role and put two and two together. There are probably contracts tying Matt and Noel to the show and Ellie might very well have another gig lined up. But if nothing else, her style of hosting is what The Great British Baking Show is missing. She’s silly and whimsical, but most of all, she’s kind.