Great British Bake Off: A look at the best bits of Matt Lucas’ ‘fantastic’ hosting debut  

Matt Lucas has been lauded for his debut as new host of Great British Bake Off, following Tuesday night’s episode of the show. 

The Little Britain star, 46, who has replaced Sandi Toksvig as host, was praised by delighted viewers as the 11th season of the show kicked off, with the show starting with his impression of a bumbling Boris Johnson. 

Fans flooded Twitter with praise, after his best moments included comforting a heartbroken Sura by speaking of his beauty, singing to a contestant and enjoying amazing chemistry with his co-host Noel Fielding. 

Thrilled fans on the show penned: ‘#gbbo on catchup. Matt Lucas can certainly do a Boris Johnson impression… The whole show was brill . Especially Matt…

‘People need light relief and this show wraps you up and makes you smile . No need for negativity here please. Keep on carrying on.x… 

‘Best start to the series ever!. Loved it! Matt as Boris made all the family laugh out loud! Thank you as it’s what the nation needed x… Agree! They’re a great bunch and Matt Lucas fits in perfectly. Have a good, safe day, babe… 

‘Just when you think the Great British Bake Off couldn’t get any better they put Matt Lucas on it- brilliant! This will get me through the next few months!… 

‘It really is. And I LOVED Matt Lucas. I wasn’t sure when they first announced him but last night I thought he was lovely, and great with Noel…   Matt Lucas – you are a star thats what i needed after boris’s gloomy announcement… Oh god…

‘@RealMattLucas you are just magical… If you could squeeze Wichita Lineman in at some point I’d be eternally grateful #GreatBritishBakeOff’. 

During his Boris take, Matt was a spitting image of the Prime Minister in the show opener, which was postponed by 15 minutes, after Boris addressed the nation with the new lockdown measures in the fight against coronavirus. 

In the skit Matt, who donned a platinum blonde wig and stood in front of a Union Jack flag, said: ‘I’ve talked about this, you know, the printer is upside down again. And oh no.. well… how? Ah, yes well that works actually, I can read that fine.

‘Um, right, let’s err… yeah. Good evening, let’s get straight to it. We are now approaching Phase 46. Which means that from Tuesday morning, or Wednesday evening depending on your height…

‘We are, we are, we are saying with regards to baking if you must bake in a tent, bake in a tent. ‘But please don’t bake in a tent. And we are asking people to use common sense with regards to the distribution of hundreds and thousands.’

Aside from his take on the Prime Minister, another stand out moment for the hilarious star was when pharmacy worker Sura, 31, collided with security guard Dave, 30, Hampshire and knocked over his tray of pineapple upside down cakes. 

While he joined Noel in comforting the bereft baker after her gaffe, Matt said: ‘It might be my fault because I was looking at you and I think you were probably hypnotised by my beauty’, after which he was met with a stunned silence. 

In another moment of cheeky comfort for the bakers, as he spoke to eventual evictee Loriea about her hometown of Durham, during which he belted out Roger Whittaker’s Old Durham Town in her ear – much to viewers’ delight. 

Fans penned: ‘I love Roger Whittaker and live in Durham. Great singing Matt Face with tears of joy… and singing Roger Whittaker….whistling next week?… 

‘Petition for Matt Lucas to sing every episode of Bake Off cause i love his singing voice… Matt Lucas singing a song with ‘Durham’ in it… surely… not… #eyetest?… 

‘loriea being from durham, matt lucas singing ‘old durham town’, and mak making a cake of bill bryson all being shown in the first episode feels like a sign from the universe that i’ve picked the right uni to do my degree at #GBBO’.

Another highlight to the show saw Matt balance various items on his head during rallying calls to bakers – including a cup of tea and a rolling pin.