Who is Amanda on The Great British Bake Off? Meet the Met Police detective taking part in the new series

Metropolitan Police detective Amanda is one of the 12 amateur bakers who will compete in the Great British Bake Off.

The hit Channel 4 show starts again tonight, and there are four Londoners taking part.

Amanda, 56, is a Metropolitan Police detective who says she is not afraid to arrest judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith if they criticise her bakes.

Who is Amanda?

Amanda was raised in London and has Greek-Cypriot heritage.

She studied graphic design at college and worked in advertising before moving to the Metropolitan Police to train as a detective.

As a child she baked with her mum, and she learned specifically about Greek baking from her paternal auntie.

Amanda says that her style is “generous and creative with Greek and Middle Eastern influences”.

The mum loves painting directly on to her cakes, often giving them a pretty, feminine aesthetic that’s inspired by her two daughters.

And whatever the season, Amanda loves to start her day with an outdoor swim– the colder, the better.

Who are the other bakers?

Chigs, 40, from Leicestershire, is a sales manager who loves sky diving. With his baking, he likes to do intricate chocolate work.

Crystelle, 26, also from London, is a client relationship manager. She sings in an online choir and uses her diverse heritage to inspire her baking.

Freya, 19, is a psychology student from North Yorkshire. She’s a vegan baker, and loves riding her horse Winnie.

George, 34, is a shared lives coordinator, who is also from the capital. He loves to use his Greek heritage to inspire his baking, and also enjoyed dancing with his dog Eli.

Giuseppe, 45, is a chief engineer from Bristol. The dad-of-three loves cooking Italian-flavoured bakes for his sons.

Jairzeno, 51, also from London, is a head of finance, who loves combining guava and chocolate. He enjoys using Caribbean spices in his baking.

Jürgen, 56, is a trombonist from the Black Forest, Germany, who moved to Sussex. He’s works in IT and takes that precision into his baking.

Lizzie, 28, is a car production operative from Liverpool with a criminology degree. She loves doing the samba, and experimenting with flavour in her bakes.

Maggie, 70, is a retired nurse and midwife from Dorset who loves the great outdoors. She loves making traditional bakes.

Rochica, 27, a junior business partner in HR from Birmingham. She’s been a dancer since the age of two, and loves using Jamaican flavours in her bakes.

Tom, 28, is a software developer from Kent who loves to sing and run. He loves to take the foundations of a recipe and make it his own.

When is the Great British Bake Off on this year?

The newest season of the Great British Bake Off will kick off on Tuesday 21 September.

It will air at 8pm on Channel 4, and will be available to watch on demand through All4 if you miss it live.

Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith are still the judges, and the show will be presented by Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas.

Who won last year?

The 11th series, which aired in late 2020, saw cast and crew move into Down Hall Hotel near Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, throughout the duration of filming, after being tested for the virus and self-isolating.

Peter Sawkins, an accounting and finance student from Edinburgh, was crowned the show’s youngest ever winner at 20.

He was also the first winner from Scotland in the show’s decade-long history.

The programme also saw its biggest-ever final on Channel 4, attracting a record average audience of 9.2 million viewers and a 39.7% share of the audience.