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Predictably the Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off featuring Scott Mills has been pulled and will not be broadcast. I know there are bigger issues at play here, but if I had been in that episode I would have been seriously annoyed.
As much as doing Bake Off was a privilege and a delight, it was also a lot of hard work and meant I spent two days and nights away from home and as it was for charity it was also unpaid (for the bakers at least - I don't suppose anyone else worked for nothing - I hope, at least they donated something to SU2C on our behalf).
You then have to keep the secret for 10 months and though I may not have done that well, I was still looking forward to people seeing my baking disasters. So commiserations to the bakers who put in the work and whose creations will now never be seen. Yes, they will probably be invited back, but that means giving up even more time for free and they will really have wanted people to see whatever they'd done. Even had my awful gingerbread snooker board not made it to TV, I would have been gutted.
I don't really think Channel 4 has much option. Re-editing the show would be costly and basically impossible, especially if Scott Mills won any of the challenges or the whole show. But also putting out a programme where he's blurred out every time he appears in the background or where they use special effects to turn him into a cake, will just draw more attention to his absence.
These shows are a miracle of editing as it is, and so much work goes into that, that the expense of taking another run at it, with such impossible restrictions, makes it unfeasible. Should they show it anyway? Probably not. I'd be tempted to put it up on streaming so people could decide for themselves, but the negative publicity would be too much for a show like Bake Off. It's cosy and fun and you don't want to be thinking about allegations, whether true or false, as you're watching.
It is slightly weird that some shows end up getting wiped due to the crimes or alleged crimes of their participants. It's very far from a standard practice. Some people who have had allegations made don't seem to get affected. Kevin Spacey films are still available to watch, Michael Jackson music is still played on the radio, many shows will include people who have been convicted of crimes, including murder, either before or after they were filmed. Eastenders had a convicted murderer playing a main character for years. I don't know if those episodes are up anywhere to watch, but suspect they will be allowed. There's an actor in Home Alone 2 whose name I forget who has been convicted of loads of crimes and is also responsible for multiple bombings and kidnap and whose name might even crop up in the Epstein Files. That film is still show. That actor still has quite a high profile job.
Harvey Weinstein films have not been binned. Does it matter if the criminal was only part of the behind the scenes crew?
The rules are very fluid and very hard to police. And if they were properly policed I suspect a huge amount of entertainment would no longer be able to be shown.
I am not sure I like a world where someone can be cancelled before the law has been allowed to take effect. Yet I suspect there are details that have not yet come out that would make everyone look terrible if they ignored them.
It's a big fucking mess. It's a shame that a lot of people's hard work goes down the shitter. Though I think that's probably why some people got away with being abusers for so long. If people had spoken up or voiced their suspicions then dozens of people would have lost their job.
Think of all the people who were working on the TV shows that were cancelled due to Louis CK's behaviour. And yet now Louis CK is back and winning awards and getting Netflix specials.
What are the rules? Why is it so different for different people? Why are some sex criminals allowed to be presidents and why are some murderers allowed on soap operas and some wankers making millions on Netflix, whilst other people are wiped from all broadcast and have their grave smashed up and their statues pulled down? (I mean I am in favour of that one).
It's a big mess.
Whilst there are a lot of other people to feel angry for in all this, I do end up unexpectedly feeling sorry for Rag'n'Bone Man, Edith Bowman and Aston Merrygold, whose hard work and cakes may never be seen.
If it had happened on my ep then they definitely wouldn't have been able to show it again as I would have murdered Scott Mills. Or is murder OK? The rules are so confusing.
