BAKING
A NATION
The grobal and glocal workings
of global television formats
Master thesis
Robyn van Bosstraten Supervisor: Jaap Kooijman Second reader: Leonie Schmidt
MA Television and Cross-Media Culture Professional track (documentary) University of Amsterdam
Abstract
The television industry becomes more and more globally orientated, with popular formats such as The Great British Bake Off (BBC) as a result. Because of these global formats, the same television shows are broadcasted worldwide, but at the same time they show to be nationally specific at a local level. To expose this duality, the two concepts of grobalization and glocalization are used. The grobal side of the format shows that sameness can also be found in the differences that are made in the different adaptations. Textual analysis of both the original British version (The Great British Bake Off) as the Dutch version (Heel Holland Bakt) from a glocal viewpoint shows how the nation is constructed by means of banal reminders, construction of class and mechanisms of inclusion and difference. Cultural appropriation becomes visible in the case of class construction. However, when combining both the grobal as glocal mechanisms, the difference between the British and Dutch version – especially in the use of banal elements – mainly results in more sameness. Therefore, this thesis argues that both concepts of grobalization and glocalization need to be used together to come to a complete analysis. The
combination of these concepts reveals that localization can result in grobal sameness as well.
Keywords: global formats; globalization; grobalization; glocalization; nation; reality TV; banal nationalism; imagined community; class; heritage;
1
Table of contents
Table of contents 1
Introduction 2
1. Global Television 6
Globalization: grobalization and glocalization 6
The global television format 9
The nation, banal nationalism and reality TV 13
Conclusion 16
2. Bake Off as grobalization 18
Format as a whole 18
Title sequence 24
Conclusion 30
3. Bake Off as glocalization 31
Banal nation 32
Class and heritage 39
Difference and multiculturalism 50
Conclusion 58
Conclusion 59
Reference list 62
Media list 65
Appendix 66
Appendix 1: Overview of the Great British Bake Off and its international adaptations
2
Introduction
“On your marks, get set, bake!”
And with that, presenters Mel and Sue herald every new challenge in The Great British Bake Off (BBC, 2010 – present). But the United Kingdom is not the only country where there is a countdown for new bakes on television. From the
Netherlands (“Klaar? Bakken maar!”) to France (“A vos marques, prêts, patissez!”), from Sweden (“På era platser, färdiga, baka!”) to Turkey (Yerlerinize, set olsun, firinda!”), the format took over television sets all over the world. The same baking format may be broadcast worldwide, at the same time every show on its own seems to run along national lines. This duality of the global and the local becomes apparent when looking at global formats: the formats are globally known and their adaptations are recognizable as being the same, but they are characterized by their local content as well. How can a programme that looks so similar worldwide, also be so nationally specific at the same time?
The Great British Bake Off is originally a British television programme, produced by the London based production company Love Productions. The show is a television baking competition, in which amateur bakers strive to become that year’s best baker of the nation. Weekly, one contestant is eliminated on the base of their baking, which is judged by a panel of professional jurors. The first British season, which was broadcasted in August 2010, received the reasonably good TV ratings of just over 2 million viewers. However, since then the popularity has grown
enormously, peaking at 15.1 million viewers during the finale of season 6 (BARB ratings cited in Foster 2015: n. pag.). Due to this growth of popularity, the show transferred in 2014 from broadcasting on BBC Two to BBC One. Subsequently, the show has won several TV awards, including the BAFTA TV Award and the National Television Award (BAFTA 2016 and NTA 2016).
The Great British Bake Off may be produced by Love Productions, as a format it is distributed by BBC Worldwide. The format of The Great British Bake Off “has grown to become BBC Worldwide’s second most successful format” (BBC Worldwide 2013: 2). BBC Worldwide sold the format to nineteen different countries, which resulted in adaptations of the originally British programme all over the world (Conlan 2015: n. pag). The guidelines of the license that BBC Worldwide provides for these countries are strict to ensure that the worldwide adaptations remain
3 However, at the same time, the national character of the original British format as well of the adaptations is highly valued. Each adaptation revolves around its own national identity. Because it is a reality show, the public also expects some sort of mirror of national identity in these shows. A telling example of the importance of national identity is when contestant Nadiya Hussain, became last year’s winner of The Great British Bake Off. Just before the show’s final, she stated in an interview:
Originally, I was a bit nervous that perhaps people would look at me, a Muslim in a headscarf, and wonder if I could bake. But I hope that week by week people have realised that I can bake – and just because I’m not a
stereotypical British person, it doesn’t mean that I am not into bunting, cake and tea. I’m just as British as anyone else, and I hope I have proved that. I think the show is a fantastic representation of British society today. (Nadiya Hussain cited in Millard 2015: n. pag.)
This already shows that the television programme involves and addresses the topic of national identity. The Great British Bake Off becomes the arena for public debate.
As a result of this, the relationship between reality TV and national identity does not seem so farfetched, definitely when keeping in mind that nowadays this genre “has become one of the most influential, controversial, and provoking media genres in contemporary culture” (Negra, Pike and Radley 2012: 187). Quite a lot has been written about reality TV academically, for example within the fields of reception studies or institutional research. However, as Negra, Pike and Radley already have pointed out, when looked at “literature on English language reality TV, national identity tends to go unnoticed” (2012: 187). This argument cannot only be made about English language reality television, but also to national identity in the entire Western world in general. In Michael Billig’s exploration of the nation, he also argues that nationalism is mostly wrongfully placed outside of the West:
In consequence, those in established nations – at the centre of things – are led to see nationalism as the property of others, not of ‘us’. This is where the accepted view becomes misleading: it overlooks the nationalism of the West’s nation-states. (Billig 1995: 5)
To avoid this pitfall, I would like to position my research within the discussion of the construction of national identity of those established nations, and specifically within the context of global television. My thesis will focus on the format of The Great British
4 Bake Off not only because of its global success, but also because it locates itself strongly along the lines of national identity. Consequently, the format effectively captures the duality of global and local that is both present in global formats.
To analyse global formats, chapter one will first explore the theoretical
approaches that have been used in the discussion of global television formats. Here I will look at the greater context of globalization and the theoretical discussion between George Ritzer’s concept of grobalization and Roland Robertson’s concept of
glocalization. Subsequently, the duality found here continues in the theory of global television formats. After that, theory about the nation will be discussed, ending with its relation to everydayness and reality TV. This entire theoretical framework will serve as the base for the analysis of The Great British Bake Off format in the chapters that follow.
To expose the workings of grobalization and glocalization within the context of globalization, these two sides are taken apart. The second chapter of this thesis will look at the grobal workings of The Great British Bake Off format. To do so, the analysis will focus on the formal aspects of the format and its adaptations. I have limited this corpus to the direct adaptations, thus excluding the format’s spin offs such as the celebrity charity series and the junior version.
In the third chapter, the format will be analysed on the base of its glocal workings. I will only look at The Great British Bake Off (BBC, 2010 – present), the British original, and Heel Holland Bakt (MAX 2013 - present), the Dutch version of the show. The inclusion of the British version is necessary because it is the original product of the format. I will compare the British original version to the Dutch
adaptation, not so much to see if it is a “successful” adaptation of the format, but to look at how new meanings are created and what the differences are in the
construction of national identity. The Dutch version is chosen as the adaptation, as I can recognize the Dutch local context of the show because of my own Dutch
background. Furthermore, both the British and the Dutch version currently still run on television. From each show, the most recent three seasons of the show serve as corpus for this analysis: The Great British Bake Off season 4 (2013), season 5 (2014) and season 6 (2015) and Heel Holland Bakt season 1 (2013), season 2 (2014) and season 3 (2015). These seasons will be analysed in a textual analysis of various elements of the shows, but with an emphasis on dialogue, because that is where the glocalizing mechanisms become most explicit. The mechanisms that are used to construct the nation will be discussed thematically in this chapter, in order to compare between the British and the Dutch version, and to eventually show where and how glocalization becomes apparent.
5 The last two analysing chapters take the side of grobalization and the side of
glocalization apart, yet at the end they need to be joined together again to provide for a complete analysis of this global format. To grasp the entire workings of the format within the current global television industry and the format’s presence in the
construction of national identity, neither side can be ignored. Therefore, this thesis will analyse the format of The Great British Bake Off to expose the workings of the duality in globalization, as well as argue for the integrated use of both grobal as glocal theory.
6
1. Global Television
All over the world, voices compete, Robinsons survive and farmers search for wives. The Voice (Talpa, 2010-present), Expedition Robinson (Planet 24, 1997-present) and Farmer wants a Wife (Fremantle Media, 2001-present) are just a couple examples of the numerous television programmes that have spread across the globe in the form of a television format. Television has become more and more an industry that operates at a global level. On the one hand, this seems to lead to the same kind of television all over the world, but on the other, a very specific national or local interpretation is being presented by these shows. Therefore, the topic of global television formats provides a great site where both sides of globalization intersect.
In this chapter, I will discuss theories of globalization. First, the two different ways to approach globalization are explored: George Ritzer’s concept of
grobalization, with its focus on the homogenizing effects of globalization, and Roland Robertson’s concept of glocalization, which in contrast sees the local heterogeneity at work. These approaches seem to exclude each other, but they are actually both needed to encompass the entire working of globalization. Second, the duality of globalization can be applied specifically to television formats, as formats consist of both of these workings. Albert Moran showed this with his seminal work in theorizing the television format. Subsequently, this theory was expanded by Silvio Waisbord’s “McTV”, in which he linked the global television format to the theory of
McDonaldization, a rationalizing theory by George Ritzer related to grobalization. Third, the theory of the nation is explored. Between the forces of grobalization and glocalization, inside the global television format, the nation still has a place. Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined community already provides an insight in how the community of the nation is created. Michael Billig continued by stating that the
nationalism nowadays manifests in the everyday commonplace, which he calls banal nationalism. Reality TV is a genre where ordinariness is central, therefore providing an interesting place for the reproducing national identity.
Globalization: grobalization and glocalization
Ritzer gives a general definition of globalization in the introduction of The Blackwell Companion to Globalization, by stating that globalization in a broad sense can be seen as “an accelerating set of processes involving flows that encompass ever-greater numbers of the world’s spaces and that lead to increasing integration and interconnectivity among those spaces” (2007: 1). This definition encompasses
7 feeling of the spatial compression of the world, also known as the “the ‘shrinking world’” (Barker 1997: 17). This general definition shows that globalization in itself is already a binary concept, where global and local interact with each other. This has led to the conflicting views towards globalization on a theoretical level. These views can be roughly divided into two: globalization as homogenizing practice versus globalization as heterogenizing practice. The first view tends to be more pessimistic about globalization and sees its cultural imperialistic elements, whereas the second view seems more optimistic and recognizes the presence of cultural appropriation.
Globalization has been mainly approached from a capitalist angle, because it is usually connected to the growing economic interconnectivity of the world. This does not mean that there are no cultural implications to these transitions. When looking at globalization in relation to television, this logic also becomes apparent. As Chris Barker points out:
Television is bound up with capitalist modernity both as a set of economic activities and as a cultural force constituted by and constitutive of modernity. The rise of transnational television since the mid-1980s is, thus, an aspect of capitalist globalization whereby this essentially economically driven set of activities is also a set of cultural practices involving the circulation of ideas and images around the world. (1997: 21, emphasis in original)
Hence, television is situated in the global economic market, but still is a transmitter of cultural meanings. As result of this, the globalization of television does not only mean that there is a global television market, but also that culture is being spread
internationally. Thus when the television market became more and more
internationally located, the protection of culture also became a subject of discussion. From the 1960s and onward, Hollywood was seen as the dominant factor in the international television industry (Waisbord 2004: 379). The more the television industry moved towards a transnational market, the more it moved towards a model similar to the United States. Tomlinson, in a rather sceptical way, explains that globalisation apparently “has swept like a flood tide through the world’s diverse cultures, destroying stable localities, displacing peoples, bringing a market-driven, “branded” homogenization of cultural experience” (2003: 269). This perspective of Americanization seems excessive, but the growing range of US produced television on European television did result in legal consequences. The European Community implemented the “Television without Frontiers” Directive in 1989 “requiring that its members dedicate at least one-half of their television air time to European-made
8 programs. The Directive was the European answer to the fear that European culture was being assimilated into the “Great American Melting Pot” (Kaplan 1994: 256). During the 1980s and 1990s, the demand for television content grew as result of the increase in television channels during the so-called “communication revolution” (Oren and Shahaf 2012: 5), so Europe could fill this void with help of their own legal
protection. If this eventually worked is something else, but these measures show by all means that the cultural interconnectivity of globalization has been approached from a negative position.
However, there are also many theorists who believe that globalization is open for cultural appropriation at a local level. Instead of looking at globalization as an instigator for global homogenization, either Americanization or any other form of cultural standardization, globalization can also be seen as creator of cultural
heterogeneity. Tomlinson for instance states that “globalization, far from destroying it, has been perhaps the most significant force in creating and proliferating cultural identity” (2003: 270). Nederveen Pieterse critically argues “against viewing globalization in terms of homogenization, or of modernization/Westernization, as empirically narrow and historically flat” (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 1995: 63). Sociologist Roland Robertson also fears this view “which sees this concept as
referring to developments that involve the triumph of culturally homogenizing forces over all others” (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 1995: 25). Therefore, he rather uses the word glocalization.
Robertson introduced the term glocalization, which he expounded in his book Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (1992) and developed in his further work. Glocalization opposes the assumption that globalization processes override locality (Robertson 1994: 34). Robertson states that instead of that “globalisation - in the broadest sense, the compression of the world - has involved and increasingly involves the creation and the incorporation of locality, a process which itself largely shapes, in turn, the compression of the world as a whole” (Featherstone, Lash and Robertson 1995: 40). Instead of the limiting view of macro processes, glocalization creates space for the micro aspects that globalization also contains. Glocalization reveals how local cultures actively engage with global information and subsequently how the creation of localities themselves is one of the processes of globalization (Giulianotti and Robertson 2007: 134). Thus localization is a crucial element of globalization, because both localities and globalization exist on account of their interplay with each other. As a result of that, glocalization can be seen as a concept that offers a more complete image of globalization.
9 This view of glocalization can be seen as overly optimistic, because of the power that is being ascribed to the local. As a reaction to this, Ritzer stated that “the emphasis on glocalization and heterogeneity needs to be complemented (not replaced) by a concern with grobalization” (2007: 7). He defined grobalization as the counterpart that:
… focuses on the imperialistic ambitions of nations, corporations, organizations, and the like, and their desire and need to impose themselves on various
geographic areas. Their main interest is in seeing their power, influence, and, in many cases profits grow (hence the term grobalization) throughout the world. (2003: 192, emphasis in the original)
This concept leans more towards the perspective of cultural imperialism that was discussed before. For Ritzer, this is also a crucial element of globalization. He argues that “globalization makes no sense without examining both the homogenizing and heterogenizing effects of, the grobalization and glocalization involved in,
globalization” (2007: 7).
Without going into extremes of cultural imperialistic essentialism, Ritzer may have a point when he refers to the dual workings of globalization. However, Robertson states that glocalization does not deny this dialectic, but actually incorporates it within the concept itself. In his view, glocalization “highlights the simultaneity or co-presence of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies in globalization; that is, the commonly interconnected processes of homogenization and heterogenization” (Giulianotti and Robertson 2007: 134). These both sides work in interplay with each other and, in Robertson’s view, that is what globalization ultimately is.
Eventually, it is not productive to pick a side between the glocalist or grobalist perspective as mutually exclusive. As Ritzer himself remarked, “having to choose sides on this issue is probably the wrong thing to do and a waste of effort” (2007: 6). Way more productive is the recognition of this duality of the global and the local. Globalization is not a singular process, but a complex phenomenon that consists of a multiplicity of processes. The global television format is a cultural product that has been created within this complex field of globalization.
The global television format
The television format has first theoretically been discussed by scholar Albert Moran. He states that the television format “is understood as that set of invariable elements
10 in a programme out of which the variable elements of an individual episode are produced” (Moran and Malbon 2006: 20). In this way, a format is based on its interchangeable substance, but at the same time forms a unity. During the past decades, this global programming unity has been very popular on the global television market, what leads to the shorter definition of the concept of format, that was given in the glossary of Understanding the Global TV Format: “essentially, this is the total package of information and know-how that increases the adaptability of a programme in another place and time” (Moran and Malbon 2006: 6).
The television format serves an interesting object because of its location “at the crossroads of global and local dynamics of the cultural economy of television” (Waisbord 2004: 367-368). The format is situated within these dynamics of globalization, but the format as a cultural object also reproduces this duality itself. Oren and Shahaf stated that “more than any other model of media globalization, contain the core paradox of globalization’s relation to intense “localization” and the tension between homogenization and difference involved in economic and cultural globalization processes “(Oren and Shahaf 2012: 3). On the one hand, television formats are being sold and spread worldwide, but at the other, they contain national and local elements for national and local audiences that will watch the locally
adapted version of the show. Therefore, the global television format consists of both grobal and glocal practices.
The origin of the popularity of television formats can, for a large part, be found in the protectionist laws that were instigated in the 1980s. Because of the
programming quotas that many countries installed to protect national interests – against cultural imperialism, but also for economic reasons – on the global market, there needed to be a different input to fill the broadcasting time. Television formats delivered the solution, because “programming quotas have loopholes that allow foreign ideas (rather than foreign shows) to enter as long as they are produced domestically. Format programming, then, is part of business strategies to bypass local programming quotas” (Waisbord 2004: 363). By buying the format of a television programme, the show will then be produced locally by which the import laws will be circumvented.
Besides legal arguments, there are also many financial reasons to choose television formats. Television formats provide some sort of financial stability and less costs. This was much in demand, because next to the limitations set by the quotas, there were – and still are – also the restrictions of the small production budgets (Oren and Shahaf 2012: 5). The main benefits delivered by the purchase of global
11 television formats are the certainty of TV ratings, the lower production costs and the adaptability.
Firstly, when using a pre-used format, there is a reasonable certainty of good ratings. The formats are “based on programs which were a popular success in another national territory. In other words, formats come equipped to survive the trialling process of being tried and tested” (Moran and Malbon 2006: 20). In that way, television formats come with evidence of previous success. This predictability based on past performances allows for much less risk, because they have already proven their worth somewhere else (Waisbord 2004: 365).
Secondly, television formats are way cheaper to produce. The production costs are lower, because the preparation has already been done. In addition, almost everything is delivered in a clear-cut package to the buying party. This package generally contains: the paper format (document of the concept), the format Bible (“the total manual and reference guide to every aspect of the programme”), production consultancy services (“on-the-spot guidance for a specific period”), blueprint and set specifications, computer software and graphics, titles, sound, scripts, dossier of demographic and ratings data, scheduling slots, off-air videotapes and insertable footage (Moran and Malbon 2006: 23-25). The owner of the format already
possesses all these elements, so they only profit from sharing it, and the buyer saves money, because fewer employees are needed.
Thirdly, television formats can be adapted. The opposite of a television format is a “canned” television programme. When a show is bought in its “canned” form, it is already produced and will be aired in this finalised form. There’s nothing left that can be altered (except maybe the addition of subtitles or language dubbing). Formats however, work differently.
Unlike canned shows that are steeped in specific national cultures, formats are open texts that can be adapted. Within the constraints dictated by their owners, domestic productions can fit local narratives, histories, humor, events, and characters into the basic formulas that they purchase. (Waisbord 2004: 371)
Thus when a format is bought, the local buyers produce their own local version of the show. It is still recognizable as the same show as was made in the country of origin of the format, but then remade into a version of a different country. The conceptual idea, structure and the look of the programme remain similar to the original, but the rest of the show – including the hosts and contestants – will be produced locally. This
12 is especially convenient with the production of reality TV, where the emphasis on “ordinary people” make this form of local adaptation inevitable. This adapting has financial benefits, because audiences prefer content with familiar elements and tend to get drawn to locally produced programmes (Waisbord 2004: 370). Television formats provide the cheapest opportunity to fulfil this demand.
These descriptions of television formats and its financial benefits, seems to sketch out an image of a capitalistic driven, cheap and easy product on the global television market. The local production company only has to fill in your own
preferences, as the rest has already been done by the original format owners. This also points towards the bad reputation of television formats; creating a situation where the whole world watches the same “quick and easy” television shows. This image seems to only encompass the grobal side of globalism. From this viewpoint, the easy and low-priced global business of formats produces the alarming cultural homogenization, a global cultural sameness that was to be prevented with the import quotas.
This view is consistent with Ritzer’s concept of McDonaldization, the process “by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” (1993: 1). Just as with the actual McDonald’s restaurant chain, society is being more and more
rationalized by producing and consuming on the base of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. This idea can be seen as a reconceptualization of Max Weber’s theory rationalization, as McDonaldization is the rationalizing of production and consumption. Waisbord applied this concept to the television industry, by arguing that:
Formats represent the global commercialization of an efficient and predictable program that can be tweaked according to local tastes. McTelevision is the selling of programming ideas with a track record that are sufficiently flexible to accommodate local cultures to maximize profitability. (Waisbord 2004: 378)
In this way, formats can be seen as the McDonaldization of the television industry, as a grobalistic tool creating global cultural homogenization.
But to look at formats in this way, is overly pessimistic and does not do the theoretical work about formats any justice. This grobalist viewpoint only provides a narrow view on television formats, because the glocalist side of it is being neglected. On closer examination, it becomes clear that “formats are not the catalysts for
13 adapted by other countries. In order to be adapted, the national identity of the original country needs to make place for the national identity of the adapting country
(Waisbord 2004: 368). In this way, the adaptability of formats provides the
designated space for local cultural implementation. As Waisbord puts it: “Formats are culturally specific but nationally neutral” (2004: 368). By looking further than the grobalist critique on formats, “beyond their identity as common units of economic exchange”, there’s the opportunity to examine formats “as textual systems, practices of cultural exchange” (Oren and Shahaf 2012: 4).
This position does not reject the view on global television formats as capitalistic products on the global television market, because, to point out the
obvious, they definitely are. But global formats are more than just capitalist products, as the national and local adaptions of formats provide opportunities for reimagining nations in ways that are not possible with other cultural products that are transferred in a “canned” form (Waisbord 2004: 380). Both views do not exclude each other. On the contrary, just as with the interplay of the global and the local in globalization at large, they need each other. In the end, “the dichotomy between globalization as the agent of cookie-cutter commercial cultures or the force for cultural hybridity and resistance is false. […] Global media and the national are not antithetical but, actually, are integrated in complex ways” (Waisbord 2004: 367).
The nation, banal nationalism and reality TV
Victoria Cann argues that it is of great importance to look at the nation academically, “because globalists increasingly argue that we are seeing the erosion of the nation state” (Cann 2013: 730). Subsequently, the medium of television has been blamed to be one of the causes of this demise of national culture, but the opposite seems true. When viewing from the perspective of Michael Billig and his concept of Banal
Nationalism, “the reality TV genre can act as a central site of national identity construction” (Cann 2013: 730). Therefore, to look at reality TV in the context of globalization processes, theorization of the nation will be helpful.
The nation has mostly been theorized from an historical perspective and particularly within the modernist paradigm (Siapera 2010: 17). Pre-modern societies were based on more concrete reasons, such as religion, nation or ethnicity, but the modern nation housed all these different elements beneath its “political roof” (Gellner 1983: 96). With this establishment of a national culture, also came standards such as a standard language, a writing system and national cultural institutions (Hall 1996: 612). Thus national education systems were installed, but the public broadcasting service could also be seen as one of these institutions.
14 Nevertheless, the nation is more than only a result instigated by modernity. Stuart Hall explored the form of the nation, which surpass the institutionalized elements of nationality.
National cultures are composed not only of cultural institutions, but of symbols and representations. A national culture is a discourse – a way of constructing meanings which influences and organizes both our actions and our
conceptions of ourselves. National cultures construct identities by producing meanings about "the nation" with which we can identify; these are contained in the stories which are told about it, memories which connect its present with its past, and images which are constructed of it. (1996: 613).
In this way, the nation, national culture and national identity are not static or permanent elements. It is determined by their cultural context and therefore “it is historically, not biologically, defined” (Hall 1996: 598). National identities are not imprinted in our DNA and already present at birth, but they “are formed and transformed within and in relation to representation. We only know what it is to be ‘English’ because of the way ‘Englishness’ has come: be represented, as a set of meanings, by English national culture” (Hall 1996: 612).
This broader conceptualization of the national culture links up to Benedict Anderson’s widely used definition of the nation as “imagined community”. He states that the nation is not determined by the borders of a country or the legal procedures of citizenship (Anderson 1991: 7). Instead, the nation is imagined as a community. This communal feeling is not based on concrete connections such as face-to-face contact, as “the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson 1991: 6). Anderson sees the nation as a socially constructed image, reproduced by the media (in his research focussed on the newspaper). Media reproduce images that deliver a kind of connection of what we as citizens of a nation all share. This results in a bond, a feeling of community, or in the words of Anderson: “the nation is always conceived as a deep horizontal comradeship” (1991: 7). The nation as imagined community transcends and erases discrepancy, as it delivers an image of the unity of the nation.
The nation may be a social construct, but often feels as a natural and given matter. Michael Billig explains that “for such daily reproduction to occur, one might hypothesize that a whole complex of beliefs, assumptions, habits, representations and practices must also be reproduced” (1995: 6). Furthermore, he continues with
15 the remark that “this complex must be reproduced in a banally mundane way, for the world of nations I the everyday world, the familiar terrain of contemporary times” (Billig 1995: 6). From his point of view, the nation is built on the representations that are repeated in everyday life. To capture this notion, Billig coined the term banal nationalism:
The term banal nationalism is introduced to cover the ideological habits which enable the established nations of the West to be reproduced. It is argued that these habits are not removed from everyday life, as some observers have supposed. Daily, the nation is indicated, or “flagged,” in the lives of its citizenry. Nationalism, far from being an intermittent mood in established nations, is the endemic condition. (1995: 6, emphasis in original)
Thus banal nationalism is found in the everyday symbols that serve as reminders of the existence of the nation. These reminders occur within the daily routine, in recognizable location and in everyday settings. However, “these reminders or ‘flaggings’, are so numerous and they are such a familiar part of the social
environment, that they operate mindlessly, rather than mindfully” (Billig 1995: 38). Billig states that “banal nationalism is not a flag which is being consciously waved with fervent passion; it is the flag hanging unnoticed on the public building” (1995: 8). This shows the mindlessness of the “flagging” or reminding, where banal nationalism consists of. It also shows the difference between banal nationalism and nationalism how it is mostly conceived. Nationalism is mainly associated with the grand and striking gestures, mostly set far away. Subsequently, “those in established nations – at the centre of things – are led to see nationalism as the property of others, not of ‘us’” and if nationalism does come close, it only comes temporarily at times of crisis (Billig 1995: 5). Banal nationalism shows that nationalism is precisely not this exotic and extravagant ideology shown in striking spectacles, but that it is displayed in the ordinariness of everyday.
Inspired by Billig’s embrace of the ordinary in his theory about the nation, Edensor wrote his book National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life (2002). Edensor, just like Billig, dislikes the emphasis on the exotic and the spectacular that most theories on nationalism persist on (2002: 10). He also remarks that it most of these theories wrongfully assume that it is “highbrow” and “official” culture that is unnoticeably being absorbed by the people of the nation (2002: 10). But according to Edensor, objects such as highbrow cultural institutions are not the main instigators of national identity (2002: 15). These objects miss the ordinariness and the daily
16 repetition to be of such strength. That is why Edensor looks at popular culture,
because popular culture is situated right in the middle of everyday life (2002: 12). As a result of this, “the significance of popular cultural products may even outweigh more traditional components and contributors to national identity” (Aslama and Pantti 2007: 53).
By acknowledging the importance of popular culture, television reappears. The role of mass media have already been recognized by some theorists (e.g. the newspaper by Anderson and mass media in general by Billig), but television holds a special place. This special place is due to the fact that television as a medium has always been placed right within the private domestic space and its content has largely been labelled as banal (Cann 2013: 731). This notion of everydayness makes television an excellent medium to represent and articulate national identity.
When looking even further, the formats of the reality TV genre qualify for the same reason; its banality is inescapable. This genre packs aspects of everyday life into a package of amusement (Dovey 2001: 159). Therefore, it is watched in a banal way (amusement) and the content itself is also based on ordinariness. This last element is located in the implementation of the local within the global format. Because the contestants of the reality shows are ‘ordinary people’, reality TV offers “opportunities for audiences to recognize themselves as members of national communities” (Waisbord 2004: 372).
In this way, reality TV “can be seen as a stage on which national identity is represented, dramatized, and shared.” (Aslama and Pantti 2007: 51). The genre is surrounded by an aura of banality and the local input in the global format finishes this off. But as a global format, it also has the complex position related to the logistics of globalization. Therefore, reality formats are situated “at the discursive intersection of globalization, national identity, and cultural representation; they function as a “contact zone” between the local and the global” (Negra, Pike and Radley 2012: 188). As a result of that, the academic writings on reality TV formats in relation the national identity deserve a closer examination.
Conclusion
The concepts surrounding globalization provide the context for looking at global formats, from the theory of globalization itself to the everyday reproduction of the nation. It is the combination of the two sides of grobalization and glocalization that is important for exploring these workings of globalization. Together they provide a complete view of the globalizing practices at work, necessary to look at global formats such as The Great British Bake Off. To look at these global workings, I will
17 take the grobalizing and glocalizing side apart. The workings of these concepts are definitely not isolated from each other, but this separation is necessary to make the workings of the format visible.
18
2. Bake Off as Grobalization
The Great British Bake Off (BBC, 2010–present) is a British produced television show, but it is known far beyond the British borders. In its canned form, the British version is broadcasted in around 200 different territories around the world, but it has also been sold as a format (Conlan 2015: n. pag). BBC Worldwide – responsible for the commercial side of the BBC with the task to “build the BBC’s brands, audiences, commercial returns and reputation across the world” – distributes the format (BBC Worldwide 2009: n. pag.). From this position, BBC Worldwide exports the format across the entire globe. From 2012 until now, the show has already been remade into nineteen local adaptations in other countries, from Germany to Brazil (Conlan 2015: n. pag). The sales of the format have led to the same television format being broadcasted all over the world. Therefore, the format of The Great British Bake Off contributes to the homogenization of the television landscape. This grobal side of the format will be the central point of discussion in this chapter.
The format of The Great British Bake Off will be looked at in its global form, so the numerous adaptations will be taken into account. The focus will be the
reproduction of sameness. What is the same and how is this culturally “neutral”? The culturally specific elements have to be erased, to spread the television show as a global – or in fact grobal – format. Even though there are places where a small deviation is noticeable, the format can still disperse sameness in these places. First, I will look into the sameness of the format as a whole. Here two different levels of sameness can be found: the non-culturally specific elements of the formats, by means of Waisbord’s “McTV”, and the banal elements, based on Billig’s banal
nationalism, that can actually also result in sameness. Secondly, I will zoom in on the title sequences of the different adaptations. This close analysis makes the
reproduction of sameness by the format visible. Overall, this will show how the television format is a form of rationalising and standardization, whereby the need for global adaptation leads to culturally neutrality. As a result of this, the format not only spreads the same television show around the world, but it also contributes to the grobal spread of the homogeneity of culture.
Format as a whole
The producers of the original British version of the show, Love Productions, describe the Great British Bake Off as:
19 … the ultimate baking battle where passionate amateur baking fans compete to be crowned the UK’s Best Amateur Baker. Over the course of 10 hour-long episodes, the series follows the trials and tribulations of the competitors, young and old, from every background and every corner of Britain, as they attempt to prove their baking prowess. Each week the bakers tackle a different baking skill, which become progressively more difficult as the competition unfolds. (Love Productions 2015: n. pag.)
The nineteen global adaptations of the show (see Appendix 1) do not really differ from that description. The adaptations have followed the guidelines that the format offers, and “because formats are conceived as flexible formula, traces of national belonging are downplayed and even eradicated” (Waisbord 2004: 368). Cultural neutrality is necessary “precisely because they are designed to ‘travel well’ across national boundaries. Formats purposefully eviscerate the national” (Waisbord 2004: 368). Therefore, the homogenization that this television format reproduces is a result of the rationalization process of television production and consumption. The
sameness that is the effect of this is found in the contest itself, the length, structure, location, presenters and jury members that the format reproduces. Even where there are deviating elements in the adaptations, the banal nature of these elements make sure that the national specificity is erased and sameness is reproduced.
Obviously, the different local adaptations of the show are not searching for “the UK’s Best Amateur Baker” and their competitors do not come from “every corner of Britain” (Love Productions 2015: n. pag.). But this is actually more of a similarity than that it can be regarded as a difference. In every local adaptation, it is still a baking contest, just as with The Great British Bake Off. These different versions all search for best amateur baker of their country and the contestants all come from every corner of that particular country. These nineteen different versions of the show result in only more of the same show, but only now produced in different countries all over the world.
Interesting to see is that – unlike the British original – most of the adaptations are broadcasted by commercial television channels, but that this has little effect on the presence of similarities in the formal aspects of the show. As shown in Appendix 1, the length of the seasons and the length of the episodes deviate only slightly. The only exceptions are the Turkish version which is broadcasted on a daily basis and the French version which episodes take over two hours. Besides that, the seasons all consist of six to ten episodes and every episode takes around 45 to 60 minutes. There are actually very little differences to detect in regards to the length of the show,
20 as most of them have the same length as the original version. Moreover, the
structure that is used by the original British show is also for a large part the same in the different international versions of the show. Every season is composed of different episodes that – no matter how many or less episode each season has – each have their own baking skill as theme of that specific episode. The themes of every episode of the British version are shown in Table 1, the themes of the Dutch version are shown in Table 2, the themes of the American version are shown in Table 3, and the themes of the Swedish version are shown in Table 4, to point out their similarities. There are some differences in the order of the themes per season, but mainly the similarities stand out. The episodes – regardless of what country it is from – mostly surround the same basic baking principles (cakes, pies, bread, biscuits, desserts, patisserie).
Table 1: weekly themes per season of The Great British Bake Off (BBC, 2010 - present)
Episode Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6
1 Cakes Cakes Cakes Cakes Cakes Cakes
2 Biscuits Tarts Bread Bread Biscuits Biscuits
3 Bread Bread Tarts Desserts Bread Bread
4 Puddings Biscuits Desserts Pies and tarts
Desserts Desserts
5
Pastry Pies Pies Biscuits and Traybakes Pies and tarts Alternative Ingredients 6
Final Desserts Puddings Sweet Dough European cakes Pastry 7 - Patisserie Sweet dough
Pastry Pastry Victorian 8
- Final Biscuits Gluten/dairy
free Advanced Dough Patisserie 9 - - Patisserie French pastry Patisserie Chocolate
21 Table 2: weekly themes per season of Heel Holland Bakt (MAX 2013 - present)
Episode Season 1 Season 2 Season 3
1 Cakes French patisserie Dutch
2 Pies Pastry Sweet pastry
3 Bread No theme Cakes
4 Biscuits Savory Bread
5 Desserts Fall French patisserie
6 Savory Bread No theme
7 French patisserie Semi final Pies and tarts
8 Final Final Final
Table 3: weekly themes per season of The American Baking Competition (CBS, 2013 - 2013)
Episode Season 1
1 Pies & Tarts
2 Cookies 3 Cakes 4 Bread 5 Desserts 6 Patisserie 7 Final
Table 4: weekly themes per season of Hela Sverige Bakar (Sjuan 2012 - present)
Episode Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4
1 Pies Pies Pies Pastry
2 Cakes Pajer Biscuits Cakes
3 Bread Biscuits Desserts Biscuits
22
5 Sweet dough Cakes Gluten/dairy free Bread
6 Pastry Pastry Pies Snacks
7 Pies Sweet dough Sweet dough Sweet dough
8 Desserts Desserts Pastry Chocolate
9 Patisserie Pastry French patisserie Swedish
10 Weding cakes Pastry Anniversery
cakes
Feast
There are some deviations, but these can definitely be regarded as an exception because of the relatively small amount of deviating themes. Most of the deviations are found in the order of the themes, a deviation that does not change the sameness in themes itself. There are some deviations that do seem to have a more national specific nature to them, for instance the “Dutch” themed week in the third season of Heel Holland Bakt. This may seem to deliver a completely different local theme, based on the national food history of that specific country. But at the same time, some of the other versions of the show also have themes that are based on their specific local food history. In the sixth season of The Great British Bake Off there is the “Victorian” theme that refers to the British baking history and in the fourth season of Hela Sverige Bakar there is the “Swedish” theme to do the same for the Swedish baking tradition. Thus these “national deviations” are actually more banal reminders of those nations, and they all delivering the same “different” theme to every
adaptation. Either themed “Dutch”, “Victorian” or “Swedish”, these themes can all be replaced by the theme “national historical”. This erases the national specific element of these deviating themes, what results in more sameness.
When zooming in even further, there is also a very clear structure per episode. Each episode consists of three different assignments, starting out with the Signature Bake. This is an assignment where the bakers have “to produce something cute, rustic and altogether home-made-looking” (Love Productions: n. pag.). The assignment is always a classic dish, but the contestants have to give it their own twist. The second component of each episode is the Technical Bake. The
contestants each get “one basic recipe, with the same ingredients and instructions” and they have to figure out for themselves how it supposed to look and taste like (Love Productions 2015: n. pag.). The episode ends with the Showstopper Bake, where the contestants get an assignment to make something spectacular that calls for “a professional standard in taste and appearance” (Love Productions 2015: n.
23 pag.). The contestants are quite free in this assignment, so that they can show off their personal progress as a baker. This construction plan for all episodes applies for each British episode, but is also the structure for each episode at the global level for all local adaptations. Each episode starts with the Signature Bake, continues in the Technical Bake and ends with the Showstopper. The strict format leads to the same build up for the episodes of each version.
Obviously, the different international versions do not all use exactly the same location, the same presenters and the same jury members. Still, more of sameness can be detected when looking at these elements. The resemblance is found in the type of location, type of presenters and type of jury members that are being used by every different version of the show.
The location of the competition is almost in every version a marquee. This is a large tent that is used temporarily. This location originally stems from the British countryside, where such marquees are used at large events and prestigious
festivities, but almost every local adaptation used a similar location. As can be seen in Appendix 1, only the Turkish, Brazilian, Belgian version and the second season of the Australian version deviated from that location by using a more solid location than a tent. All the other local adaptations took over the marquee as set for the show, even though not all of these countries have the same historical tradition related to these marquees as the British have. On top of that, almost all of these marquees are placed in the garden of a mansion or castle. Thus the marquees may be placed all around the globe and not literally in the British Harptree Court or Welford Park, every adaption took a similar kind of location such as a manor or garden of a luxurious building with historical value. In that sense, the marquee is placed on a different location, but again still all similar to each other because the type of location is the same.
The same principle is present when looking at the choice of presenters. Each local version uses different presenters. Some versions only have one presenter, some of them have two and some of them are male, but most of them are female. The resemblance is not found in these characteristics of number or gender, but in the background of these presenters. All of them have on-camera experience; they are all celebrities or well-known presenters. Most striking is that almost all of them have a background in comedy and entertainment.
These resemblances in background are also present when looking at the jury members, also noted in Appendix 1. The jury panel always consists of two jury members, except for the panel from Ukraine, Romania and Israel which consists of three members. In the American version one of the jury members is literally copied
24 from the British version, by adding the British Paul Hollywood to the American jury panel. The rest of the international versions have picked their own local jury
members, but as noted, the sameness is again present in their background. The jury panel consists only out of culinary professionals, in every local version. More
specifically, in almost all of the versions, one of the jury members is a culinary writer and the other one is a professional pastry chef. This results in different jury members when looked at the individual picks, but the same outcome when looked at the type of jury members that are picked.
At the end, when looking at every element of the format – from the length to jury members – the different local adaptations deliver more of the same all over the world. The deviations that can be found are small or provide in their difference even more of the same. The global format erases differences with homogenization as a result.
Title sequence
To see the erasing of national specific elements at work, the title sequences of the different versions of the format will be examined by a close analysis. The title
sequence is the small and recognizable intro at the beginning of each episode, which ends with the title of the show. First, the original title sequence of The Great British Bake Off will be discussed. Afterwards, the title sequences of the different local adaptations will be compared with the original title sequence. This will show the clear-cut similarities, but also some small differences. As I will argue, these small differences highlight that sameness is even reproduced through slight deviation.
The Great British Bake Off starts its episodes with the theme song composed by Tom Howe, who composed all of the music that has been used for the six
seasons of the British version so far. The theme song is an upbeat, light and
orchestral piece of music, played by violins, harp, piano and percussions. On top of this music, a montage of baking images is displayed. Female hands put raspberries on a pie, a child touches a loaf of bread, a recipe is lying on the table, eggs are being whisked, a cake is put in the oven, different baking ingredients and pastries are being shown. At the end, the raspberry pie is filmed from above and the title appears in white curly letters, as shown in Screenshot 1. This also functions as the logo of the show.
25 Screenshot 1: End of British title sequence (2015)
The American, Turkish and Polish adaptations made their own version of the original British title sequence. The different visual elements of this original sequence are still intact: recipes, different baking ingredients and pastries are being shown and a pie is being made.
Left to right: Screenshot 2: End of American title sequence (2013), Screenshot 3: End of Turkish title sequence (2015), Screenshot 4: End of Polish title sequence (2013)
In the American version this resulted into an apple pie, but also shown from a top angle with the title appearing on top of it. The Turkish version is even more similar, only the raspberries are replaced by strawberries. The similarity with the British version is thought through to the finer details, with the recipe on almost the same place in the lower right corner. The Polish version does not end with the top view of the pie in the middle, but did make a similar raspberry pie. Furthermore, the
26 resemblance with the original British version is additionally underlined, as they all use exactly the same music as the British one.
The first season of the Australian version did start out by using a completely different title sequence. The music was loud pop music, while the contestants of the show battle each other by climbing to the top of a huge and colourful CGI pie. At the end, a blue sky is shown and the title is being shown as in Screenshot 5. Thus this is a completely different title sequence than the original British version. But because of bad ratings, this first Australian version of the show got cancelled in 2013.
Left to right: Screenshot 5: End of Australian title sequence season 1 (2013, Nine Network), Screenshot 6: End of Australian title sequence season 2 (2015, LifeStyle Food)
In 2015, LifeStyle Food, another Australian network, picked up the format and tried it again. This version ditched the different approach of the former title sequence and made a closely similar sequence to the original British version. Just as with the American, Turkish and Polish title sequences, the new Australian intro is a remade of the British original. The same visual aspects are adapted and on top of that, the exact same music as the British version is used as the musical score. The end of the new Australian title sequence is even a closer copy of the British version. As is shown in Screenshot 6, an almost exact copy is made of the British title: a top shot of a raspberry pie, placed on a wooden table, recipe on the right and the title is
displayed in white letters on top of the pie, decorated with white curls. The font of the title is even exactly the same as the font used in the British logo. Where the first version of the Australian intro provides a modern, bright and animated title sequence, the second version went back to copying the original British title sequence with its warm colours and homely feel to it.
The other international versions took this copying even further, by using exactly the same title sequence as used in The Great British Bake Off. This means that not only the music that is used is the same, but also that the images are not
27 adaptations but identical. The entire sequence is copied and reused for the different international versions. The only deviation can be found at the end of the title
sequences, where the British title is replaced by the specific local titles. The
screenshots of these (Screenshot 7 – 18) show the minor differences, but most of all the similarities become apparent.
Left to right, top to bottom: Screenshot 7: End of Danish title sequence (2014) Screenshot 9: End of French title sequence (2015), Screenshot 8: End of Swedish title sequence (2015), Screenshot 10: End of Belgian title sequence (2012),
28 Screenshot 11: End of Irish title sequence (2015), Screenshot 12: End of Italian title sequence (2015), Screenshot 13: End of Dutch title sequence (2015), Screenshot 14: End of German title sequence (2015), Screenshot 15: End of Finnish title sequence (2014), Screenshot 16: End of Ukrainian title sequence (2013), Screenshot 17: End of Brazilian title sequence (2015), Screenshot 18: End of South African title sequence (2015).
The only difference, next to the titles themselves, can be found in the font and which type of curls is being used (with exception to the German version, which also
changed the white letters into shiny gold). However, these differences are small, and are overshadowed by the large similarities with the original British version.
Obviously, when looking at the titles of the shows themselves, there is a difference. Each local version of The Great British Bake Off does have its own title; none of these titles are the same. The differences can be found in the insertion of the name of the countries that bought the show, the use of the local language or a new interpretation of the title, but all of the titles surround the baking principle.
Furthermore, each deviation that can be detected remains a non-culturally specific adaptation. They all still refer back to the original title of The Great British Bake Off and therefore, it is just more of the same instead of something new. The different references to a specific nation are actually just banal reminders of that nation, a mechanism that is present in every single title. Therefore, this difference is actually the same difference over and over again, which just results in sameness at the end. That is why these titles, identical by difference, in fact display the spread of
sameness and homogeneity.
Almost all of the titles use the name of the country in the title; thirteen of the local adaptations did this. By doing this, these local adaptations actually do the same thing as the original British title. This title is built up by the name of the nation
(“British”), the referral to the baking element (“Bake”) and the competition itself (by using “Great” and “Bake Off”). This makes the use of another name of a nation in the title just a different way of doing exactly the same thing.
All of the English spoken versions of the show – the Irish, Australian,
American and South African version – did exactly that. The original title is used and only “British” is changed into the specific name of the country where the format is adapted to. The Great South African Bake Off was even produced by BBC itself, so the choice for the name was predictable. The American title is the only English spoken show that used more altering. In this version the title is changed into The American Baking Competition and by doing so, there is more emphasis on the
29 competition part. But still, this alteration provides a similar kind of title as the original British title.
The Italian and Brazilian title is changed up a bit more, by adding an extra title to their local versions. These subtitles are in their native languages, whereby more emphasis is put on the difference with the original title. But what is important to notice, is that these subtitles – “Dolci in Forno” (Sweets in the Oven) and “Mão na Massa (Hands-on) – relate to the baking element of the show. Something that
attracts even more attention is the main title of these shows: Bake Off Italia and Bake Off Brasil (just as the Romanian title, which just consists of Bake Off Romania). The “Great” part of the original title is left out, but the rest is exactly the same. This is remarkable, because “Bake Off” is in English, while English is not the native language of these countries.
The rest of the countries used their own native languages for the title of their version, but these differences are still subjected to the original British title. The Polish title for instance, still uses exactly the same build up: the name of the nation
(“Polskj”), the baking element (“Wypieków”, what means baking) and the element of competition (“Turniej”, what means tournament). The Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Dutch titles are also in their native languages and they all use the structure of “All of [nation] Bakes”. By doing so, the element of competition is left out and is replayed with a more inclusive element. This inclusion relates to the country, of which the name is mentioned in the title as well. This again means that this alteration, the use of the country’s name, is just the same as in the original. The baking element is also still very present, even though it is not in English. Just as with the Polish title, a translation of a word related to baking is used (“Bakar”, “Bakt”, “Bakar” and “Leipoo”).
The five remaining titles do not use the country’s name in the title. They are also not in English, but in their native language. However, even though they differ on these parts, they still resemble the original British title, by surrounding the baking principle and almost all of them refer to the element of competition. The Danish and Ukrainian titles both roughly translate into “The Great Bake Competition” (Den Store Bagedyst and Великий пекарський турнір). The French and Belgian titles refer to the winner, to the best baker (Le Meilleur Pâtissier and De MeesterBakker). The Turkish title is the only one that only refers to the baking, but still, this resonates from the original British title. In the end, the title sequence and titles show that the format of The Great British Bake Off and its local adaptations all over the world show a great amount of sameness. They also show, that deviations do not necessarily mean difference, but can also show more similarity in the points where these deviations can be found.
30
Conclusion
A large amount of sameness can be found within the format of The Great British Bake Off and its global spread. The form of the format dictates a lot for the local adaptations. This is useful for the producers in a rationalizing way, because these predesigned components of the show provide an efficient style of working. The local producers do not have to think about an episode structure, weekly themes, or title sequence of their own, because this has all been done before in the original version of the format. This efficient, but also simplified, way of working is all part of the
rationalization process, because “in a McDonaldized society, people rarely search for the best means to an end on their own. Rather they rely on previously discovered and institutionalized means” (Ritzer 1993: 43 - 44). All of this is used to produce television programmes “more quickly with less effort” so that “greater profits are earned” (Ritzer 1993: 43). As a result of this, “the national origin of the format is less important than its effectiveness. Formats are de-territorialized; they have no national home; they represent the disconnection between culture, geography, and social spaces that characterizes globalization” (Waisbord 2004: 378).
So the national is being erased out of the format in the process of
rationalization. The only thing that is left, are the culturally neutral elements, or the banal referrals to the nation, that deliver more sameness. Remarkable to notice is that even in the differences, more sameness is shown. These differences even reinforce the visibility of the sameness, because they are deviations of the same element. The remarkable sameness in the different title sequences provides a great site of this process. Hence, the spread of The Great British Bake Off as a global format shows grobalization at work; the different versions of the format around the world reproduce sameness, which has the effect of homogenization
31
3. Bake Off as Glocalization
The format of The Great British Bake Off may spread sameness around the entire globe, yet the success of the show is locally being praised on an entire opposite feature. The newspaper reviews state that The Great British Bake Off for instance has “tapped into a plangent sense of Britishness” (Higgins 2015: n. pag.) or that “it has captured what it means to be British” (Dixon 2013: n. pag.). On the other hand, the success of Heel Holland Bakt, the Dutch adaptation, is being explained by “de mengeling van herkenbaarheid en positieve tuttigheid" (NU.nl 2013: n. pag.) and the “Hollandse kneuterigheid ten top” (van Batenburg 2015: n. pag.). The Great British Bake Off is still perceived as ultimately British, whereas Heel Holland Bakt is typically Dutch, Bake Off Italia is ultimately Italian, Das Grosse Backen is entirely German, and so on for every other local adaptation. Each version is still perceived as an epitome of its specific nation. Therefore, there is more to the global format of The Great British Bake Off than just the grobalizing practices. The format “may escape national boundaries, but the need for national belonging remains” (Aslama & Pantii 2007: 65). The concept of glocalization helps to see the manner in which this global format gets its meaning of national identity, when situated within its own local context.
To do so, this chapter will look at the ways in which the original Great British Bake Off and the Dutch adaptation Heel Holland Bakt reproduce the meaning of their specific national identities. First of all, national identity is seen in banal signs, from the flags hanging in the marquee to the representation of food culture. Whereas banality served as a way to look at a grobalization of culture, it is also a strong tool to create national identity. These banal and mundane symbols reproduce a nation, which presents itself as an all including imagined community that overcomes all difference by the strong unity it presents. But the national identity that is reproduced does have elements that fill this identity in. Therefore, as a second step, the
construction of class as element of reproducing national identity is discussed. Third, I will look at the mechanism of difference and the construction of multiculturalism in both versions of the show. With this analysis, I will look at multiple aspects of both television programmes, but the focus lies mainly on dialogue, because that is where national identity becomes explicitly visible. In the end, all of the different ways in which national identity is formed within the different programmes show how glocalization also plays a part within this global format.
