Baking products went up in sales by around 600% during the peak of British Bake Off mania, so it was only a matter of time before the format was pushed into a different context. But is sewing the right one? Will be see a marked increase in needles and thread?

It’s ironic, really, that the BBC are trying to swap a few ingredients around to get the same results, such is the science of baking, but that’s exactly what they’re doing. Sewing Bee will hold the same format; contestants being judged on three weekly tasks by an expert in the field with a star sewer being decided on each episode. It’s designed for Bake Off fans, but with a twist. Can it work? Host Claudia Winkleman certainly thinks so. "I think it's exciting to see people making something from nothing,” she explained of the new series. "At one point they're asked to make a tailored jacket. I assumed they were made by wizards or dolphins, you can't be a human and just make a jacket, that's ridiculous, but they did it right in front of our eyes.” Winkelman will have to go round and bother people while they sew, and laugh about sewing, so, don’t ever say she’s got it easy. "The contestants would hate me because I'd go in and say, 'How's it going?' And they'd be like, 'Get out of my way'.

Claudia WinklemanClaudia Winkleman has no arms, apparently

She also added that she was such a fan of Bake Off, she’d “lick the telly” when it was on. "When they said they were making another show I didn't even ask what it was,” she explained to Whats On TV. "If they'd said, 'We're making an eight-part series on what squirrels do, it isn't being shown on telly and you have to pay us for it', I would still have been like, 'Absolutely yeah!'"