document_title: One Thousand and One Nights

question_text: who was responsible for the death of the hunchback in the arabian nights tale

question_tokens: who was responsible for the death of the hunchback in the arabian nights tale

text: One Thousand and One Nights

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: The main frame story concerns Shahryār (Arabic: شهريار, from Middle Persian šahr-dār, lit. "holder of realm"[6]), whom the narrator calls a "Sasanian king" ruling in "India and China".[7] He is shocked to learn that his brother's wife is unfaithful; discovering that his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her killed. In his bitterness and grief, he decides that all women are the same. Shahryār begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonour him. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade (Arabic: شهرزاد, from Middle Persian čehr/lineage + āzād/noble[6][8]), the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion of this tale, postpones her execution once again. This goes on for 1,001 nights.

text: The tales vary widely: they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, burlesques, and various forms of erotica. Numerous stories depict jinns, ghouls, apes,[9] sorcerers, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography, not always rationally. Common protagonists include the historical Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, his Grand Vizier, Jafar al-Barmaki, and the famous poet Abu Nuwas, despite the fact that these figures lived some 200 years after the fall of the Sassanid Empire, in which the frame tale of Scheherazade is set. Sometimes a character in Scheherazade's tale will begin telling other characters a story of his own, and that story may have another one told within it, resulting in a richly layered narrative texture.

text: The different versions have different individually detailed endings (in some Scheherazade asks for a pardon, in some the king sees their children and decides not to execute his wife, in some other things happen that make the king distracted) but they all end with the king giving his wife a pardon and sparing her life.

text: The narrator's standards for what constitutes a cliffhanger seem broader than in modern literature. While in many cases a story is cut off with the hero in danger of losing his life or another kind of deep trouble, in some parts of the full text Scheherazade stops her narration in the middle of an exposition of abstract philosophical principles or complex points of Islamic philosophy, and in one case during a detailed description of human anatomy according to Galen—and in all these cases turns out to be justified in her belief that the king's curiosity about the sequel would buy her another day of life.

text: History: versions and translations[edit]

text: The history of the Nights is extremely complex and modern scholars have made many attempts to untangle the story of how the collection as it currently exists came about. Robert Irwin summarises their findings: "In the 1880s and 1890s a lot of work was done on the Nights by Zotenberg and others, in the course of which a consensus view of the history of the text emerged. Most scholars agreed that the Nights was a composite work and that the earliest tales in it came from India and Persia. At some time, probably in the early 8th century, these tales were translated into Arabic under the title Alf Layla, or 'The Thousand Nights'. This collection then formed the basis of The Thousand and One Nights. The original core of stories was quite small. Then, in Iraq in the 9th or 10th century, this original core had Arab stories added to it—among them some tales about the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Also, perhaps from the 10th century onwards, previously independent sagas and story cycles were added to the compilation [...] Then, from the 13th century onwards, a further layer of stories was added in Syria and Egypt, many of these showing a preoccupation with sex, magic or low life. In the early modern period yet more stories were added to the Egyptian collections so as to swell the bulk of the text sufficiently to bring its length up to the full 1,001 nights of storytelling promised by the book’s title."[10]

text: Similar literature of Indian origins[edit]

text: Devices found in Sanskrit literature such as frame stories and animal fables are seen by some scholars as lying at the root of the conception of the Nights.[11] The motif of the wise young woman who delays and finally removes an impending danger by telling stories has been traced back to Indian sources.[8] Indian folklore is represented in the Nights by certain animal stories, which reflect influence from ancient Sanskrit fables. The influence of the Panchatantra and Baital Pachisi is particularly notable.[12] The Jataka Tales are a collection of 547 Buddhist stories, which are for the most part moral stories with an ethical purpose. The Tale of the Bull and the Ass and the linked Tale of the Merchant and his Wife are found in the frame stories of both the Jataka and the Nights.[13]

text: It is possible that the influence of the Panchatantra is via a Sanskrit adaptation called the Tantropakhyana. Only fragments of the original Sanskrit form of this work exist, but translations or adaptations exist in Tamil,[14] Lao,[15] Thai[16] and Old Javanese.[17] The frame story is particularly interesting, as it follows the broad outline of a concubine telling stories in order to maintain the interest and favour of a king—although the basis of the collection of stories is from the Panchatantra—with its original Indian setting.[18]

text: The Panchatantra and various tales from Jatakas were first translated into Persian by Borzūya in 570 CE,[19] they were later translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa in 750 CE.[20] The Arabic version was translated into several languages, including Syriac, Greek, Hebrew and Spanish.[21]

text: Persian prototype: Hezār Afsān[edit]

text: The earliest mentions of the Nights refer to it as an Arabic translation from a Persian book, Hezār Afsān (or Afsaneh or Afsana), meaning "The Thousand Stories". In the 10th century Ibn al-Nadim compiled a catalogue of books (the "Fihrist") in Baghdad. He noted that the Sassanid kings of Iran enjoyed "evening tales and fables".[22] Al-Nadim then writes about the Persian Hezār Afsān, explaining the frame story it employs: a bloodthirsty king kills off a succession of wives after their wedding night; finally one concubine had the intelligence to save herself by telling him a story every evening, leaving each tale unfinished until the next night so that the king would delay her execution.[23] In the same century Al-Masudi also refers to the Hezār Afsān, saying the Arabic translation is called Alf Khurafa ("A Thousand Entertaining Tales") but is generally known as Alf Layla ("A Thousand Nights"). He mentions the characters Shirāzd (Scheherazade) and Dināzād.[24] No physical evidence of the Hezār Afsān has survived;[11] so its exact relationship with the existing later Arabic versions remains a mystery.[25] Apart from the Scheherazade frame story, several other tales have Persian origins, although it is unclear how they entered the collection.[26] These stories include the cycle of "King Jali'ad and his Wazir Shimas" and "The Ten Wazirs or the History of King Azadbakht and his Son" (derived from the 7th-century Persian Bakhtiyārnāma).[27]

text: In the 1950s, the Iraqi scholar Safa Khulusi suggested (on internal rather than historical evidence) that the Persian writer Ibn al-Muqaffa' may have been responsible for the first Arabic translation of the frame story and some of the Persian stories later incorporated into the Nights. This would place genesis of the collection in the 8th century.[28][29]

text: Arabic versions[edit]

text: In the mid-20th century, the scholar Nabia Abbott found a document with a few lines of an Arabic work with the title The Book of the Tale of a Thousand Nights, dating from the 9th century. This is the earliest known surviving fragment of the Nights.[31] The first reference to the Arabic version under its full title The One Thousand and One Nights appears in Cairo in the 12th century.[32] Professor Dwight Reynolds describes the subsequent transformations of the Arabic version:

text: Some of the earlier Persian tales may have survived within the Arabic tradition altered such that Arabic Muslim names and new locations were substituted for pre-Islamic Persian ones, but it is also clear that whole cycles of Arabic tales were eventually added to the collection and apparently replaced most of the Persian materials. One such cycle of Arabic tales centres around a small group of historical figures from 9th-century Baghdad, including the caliph Harun al-Rashid (died 809), his vizier Jafar al-Barmaki (d.803) and the licentious poet Abu Nuwas (d. c. 813). Another cluster is a body of stories from late medieval Cairo in which are mentioned persons and places that date to as late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[33]

text: Two main Arabic manuscript traditions of the Nights are known: the Syrian and the Egyptian. The Syrian tradition includes the oldest manuscripts; these versions are also much shorter and include fewer tales. It is represented in print by the so-called Calcutta I (1814–1818) and most notably by the Leiden edition (1984), which is based above all on the Galland manuscript. It is believed to be the purest expression of the style of the mediaeval Arabian Nights.[34][35]

text: Texts of the Egyptian tradition emerge later and contain many more tales of much more varied content; a much larger number of originally independent tales have been incorporated into the collection over the centuries, most of them after the Galland manuscript was written,[36] and were being included as late as in the 18th and 19th centuries, perhaps in order to attain the eponymous number of 1001 nights. The final product of this tradition, the so-called Zotenberg Egyptian Recension, does contain 1001 nights and is reflected in print, with slight variations, by the editions known as the Bulaq (1835) and the Macnaghten or Calcutta II (1839–1842).

text: All extant substantial versions of both recensions share a small common core of tales, namely[37]:

text:
The Merchant and the Genie;
The Fisherman and the Genie;
The Porter and the Three Ladies;
The Three Apples
Nur al-Din Ali and Shams al-Din (and Badr al-Din Hasan);
The Hunchback cycle;
Nur al-Din Ali and Anis al-Jalis; and
Ali Ibn Bakkar and Shams al-Nahar

text: The texts of the Syrian recension do not contain much beside that core. It is debated which of the Arabic recensions is more "authentic" and closer to the original: the Egyptian ones have been modified more extensively and more recently, and scholars such as Muhsin Mahdi have suspected that this may have been caused in part by European demand for a "complete version"; but it appears that this type of modification has been common throughout the history of the collection, and independent tales have always been added to it.[36][38]

text: Modern translations[edit]

text: The first European version (1704–1717) was translated into French by Antoine Galland from an Arabic text of the Syrian recension and other sources. This 12-volume work, Les Mille et une nuits, contes arabes traduits en français ("Thousand and one nights, Arab stories translated into French"), included stories that were not in the original Arabic manuscript. "Aladdin's Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor" (as well as several other, lesser known tales) appeared first in Galland's translation and cannot be found in any of the original manuscripts. He wrote that he heard them from a Syrian Christian storyteller from Aleppo, a Maronite scholar whom he called "Hanna Diab." Galland's version of the Nights was immensely popular throughout Europe, and later versions were issued by Galland's publisher using Galland's name without his consent.

text: As scholars were looking for the presumed "complete" and "original" form of the Nights, they naturally turned to the more voluminous texts of the Egyptian recension, which soon came to be viewed as the "standard version". The first translations of this kind, such as that of Edward Lane (1840, 1859), were bowdlerized. Unabridged and unexpurgated translations were made, first by John Payne, under the title The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1882, nine volumes), and then by Sir Richard Francis Burton, entitled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885, ten volumes) – the latter was, according to some assessments, partially based on the former, leading to charges of plagiarism.[39][40] In view of the sexual imagery in the source texts (which Burton even emphasized further, especially by adding extensive footnotes and appendices on Oriental sexual mores[40]) and the strict Victorian laws on obscene material, both of these translations were printed as private editions for subscribers only, rather than published in the usual manner. Burton's original 10 volumes were followed by a further six (seven in the Baghdad Edition and perhaps others) entitled The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, which were printed between 1886 and 1888. It has, however, been criticized for its "archaic language and extravagant idiom" and "obsessive focus on sexuality" (and has even been called an "eccentric ego-trip" and a "highly personal reworking of the text").[40]

text: Later versions of the Nights include that of the French doctor J. C. Mardrus, issued from 1898 to 1904. It was translated into English by Powys Mathers, and issued in 1923. Like Payne's and Burton's texts, it is based on the Egyptian recension and retains the erotic material, indeed expanding on it, but it has been criticized for inaccuracy.[39]

text: A notable recent version, which reverts to the Syrian recension, is a critical edition based on the 14th or 15th-century Syrian manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, originally used by Galland. This version, known as the Leiden text, was compiled in Arabic by Muhsin Mahdi (1984) and rendered into English by Husain Haddawy (1990). Mahdi argued that this version is the earliest extant one (a view that is largely accepted today) and that it reflects most closely a "definitive" coherent text ancestral to all others that he believed to have existed during the Mamluk period (a view that remains contentious).[36][41][42] Still, even scholars who deny this version the exclusive status of "the only real Arabian Nights" recognize it as being the best source on the original style and linguistic form of the mediaeval work[34][35] and praise the Haddawy translation as "very readable" and "strongly recommended for anyone who wishes to taste the authentic flavour of those tales".[42] An additional second volume of Arabian nights translated by Haddawy, composed of popular tales not present in the Leiden edition, was published in 1995.

text: In 2008 a new English translation was published by Penguin Classics in three volumes. It is translated by Malcolm C. Lyons and Ursula Lyons with introduction and annotations by Robert Irwin. This is the first complete translation of the Macnaghten or Calcutta II edition (Egyptian recension) since Burton's. It contains, in addition to the standard text of 1001 Nights, the so-called "orphan stories" of Aladdin and Ali Baba as well as an alternative ending to The seventh journey of Sindbad from Antoine Galland's original French. As the translator himself notes in his preface to the three volumes, "[N]o attempt has been made to superimpose on the translation changes that would be needed to 'rectify' ... accretions, ... repetitions, non sequiturs and confusions that mark the present text," and the work is a "representation of what is primarily oral literature, appealing to the ear rather than the eye".[43] The Lyons translation includes all the poetry (in plain prose paraphrase) but does not attempt to reproduce in English the internal rhyming of some prose sections of the original Arabic. Moreover, it streamlines somewhat and has cuts. In this sense it is not, as claimed, a complete translation.

text: Timeline[edit]

text: Scholars have assembled a timeline concerning the publication history of The Nights:[44][45][46]

text:
One of the oldest Arabic manuscript fragments from Syria (a few handwritten pages) dating to the early 9th century. Discovered by scholar Nabia Abbott in 1948, it bears the title Kitab Hadith Alf Layla ("The Book of the Tale of the Thousand Nights") and the first few lines of the book in which Dinazad asks Shirazad (Scheherazade) to tell her stories.[33]
10th century: Mention of Hezār Afsān in Ibn al-Nadim's "Fihrist" (Catalogue of books) in Baghdad. He attributes a pre-Islamic Sassanian Persian origin to the collection and refers to the frame story of Scheherazade telling stories over a thousand nights to save her life. However, according to al-Nadim, the book contains only 200 stories. Curiously, al-Nadim also writes disparagingly of the collection's literary quality, observing that "it is truly a coarse book, without warmth in the telling".[47]
10th century: Reference to The Thousand Nights, an Arabic translation of the Persian Hezār Afsān ("Thousand Stories"), in Muruj Al-Dhahab (The Meadows of Gold) by Al-Masudi.[24]
11th century: Mention of The Nights by Qatran Tabrizi in the following couplet in Persian:

text:
12th century: A document from Cairo refers to a Jewish bookseller lending a copy of The Thousand and One Nights (this is the first appearance of the final form of the title).[32]
14th century: Existing Syrian manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (contains about 300 tales).
1704: Antoine Galland's French translation is the first European version of The Nights. Later volumes were introduced using Galland's name though the stories were written by unknown persons at the behest of the publisher wanting to capitalize on the popularity of the collection.
1706: An anonymously translated version in English appears in Europe dubbed the "Grub Street" version. This is entitled The Arabian Nights' Entertainment—the first known use of the common English title of the work.
1768: first Polish translation, 12 volumes. Based, as many European on the French translation.
1775: Egyptian version of The Nights called "ZER" (Hermann Zotenberg's Egyptian Recension) with 200 tales (no surviving edition exists).
1814: Calcutta I, the earliest existing Arabic printed version, is published by the British East India Company. A second volume was released in 1818. Both had 100 tales each.
Early 19th century: Modern Persian translations of the text are made, variously under the title Alf leile va leile, Hezār-o yek šhab (هزار و یک شب), or, in distorted Arabic, Alf al-leil. One early extant version is that illustrated by Sani al-Molk (1814–1866) for Mohammad Shah Qajar.[48]

text:
1825–1838: The Breslau/Habicht edition is published in Arabic in 8 volumes. Christian Maximilian Habicht (born in Breslau, Kingdom of Prussia, 1775) collaborated with the Tunisian Murad Al-Najjar and created this edition containing 1001 stories. Using versions of The Nights, tales from Al-Najjar, and other stories from unknown origins Habicht published his version in Arabic and German.
1842–1843: Four additional volumes by Habicht.
1835: Bulaq version: These two volumes, printed by the Egyptian government, are the oldest printed (by a publishing house) version of The Nights in Arabic by a non-European. It is primarily a reprinting of the ZER text.
1839–1842: Calcutta II (4 volumes) is published. It claims to be based on an older Egyptian manuscript (which was never found). This version contains many elements and stories from the Habicht edition.
1838: Torrens version in English.
1838–1840: Edward William Lane publishes an English translation. Notable for its exclusion of content Lane found immoral and for its anthropological notes on Arab customs by Lane.
1882–1884: John Payne publishes an English version translated entirely from Calcutta II, adding some tales from Calcutta I and Breslau.
1885–1888: Sir Richard Francis Burton publishes an English translation from several sources (largely the same as Payne[39]). His version accentuated the sexuality of the stories vis-à-vis Lane's bowdlerized translation.
1889–1904: J. C. Mardrus publishes a French version using Bulaq and Calcutta II editions.
1973: First Polish translation based on the original language edition, but compressed 12 volumes to 9, by PIW.
1984: Muhsin Mahdi publishes an Arabic edition based on the oldest Arabic manuscript surviving (based on the oldest surviving Syrian manuscript currently held in the Bibliothèque Nationale).
1986–1987: French translation by Arabist René R. Khawam
1990: Husain Haddawy publishes an English translation of Mahdi.
2008: New Penguin Classics translation (in three volumes) by Malcolm C. Lyons and Ursula Lyons of the Calcutta II edition

text: Literary themes and techniques[edit]

text: The One Thousand and One Nights and various tales within it make use of many innovative literary techniques, which the storytellers of the tales rely on for increased drama, suspense, or other emotions.[49] Some of these date back to earlier Persian, Indian and Arabic literature, while others were original to the One Thousand and One Nights.

text: Frame story[edit]

text: An early example of the frame story, or framing device, is employed in the One Thousand and One Nights, in which the character Scheherazade narrates a set of tales (most often fairy tales) to the Sultan Shahriyar over many nights. Many of Scheherazade's tales are also frame stories, such as the Tale of Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman being a collection of adventures related by Sindbad the Seaman to Sindbad the Landsman. The concept of the frame story dates back to ancient Sanskrit literature, and was introduced into Persian and Arabic literature through the Panchatantra.

text: Embedded narrative[edit]

text: An early example of the "story within a story" technique can be found in the One Thousand and One Nights, which can be traced back to earlier Persian and Indian storytelling traditions, most notably the Panchatantra of ancient Sanskrit literature. The Nights, however, improved on the Panchatantra in several ways, particularly in the way a story is introduced. In the Panchatantra, stories are introduced as didactic analogies, with the frame story referring to these stories with variants of the phrase "If you're not careful, that which happened to the louse and the flea will happen to you." In the Nights, this didactic framework is the least common way of introducing the story, but instead, a story is most commonly introduced through subtle means, particularly as an answer to questions raised in a previous tale.[50]

text: The general story is narrated by an unknown narrator, and in this narration the stories are told by Scheherazade. In most of Scheherazade's narrations there are also stories narrated, and even in some of these, there are some other stories.[51] This is particularly the case for the "Sinbad the Sailor" story narrated by Scheherazade in the One Thousand and One Nights. Within the "Sinbad the Sailor" story itself, the protagonist Sinbad the Sailor narrates the stories of his seven voyages to Sinbad the Porter. The device is also used to great effect in stories such as "The Three Apples" and "The Seven Viziers". In yet another tale Scheherazade narrates, "The Fisherman and the Jinni", the "Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban" is narrated within it, and within that there are three more tales narrated.

text: Dramatic visualization[edit]

text: Dramatic visualization is "the representing of an object or character with an abundance of descriptive detail, or the mimetic rendering of gestures and dialogue in such a way as to make a given scene 'visual' or imaginatively present to an audience". This technique dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights.[52] An example of this is the tale of "The Three Apples" (see Crime fiction elements below).

text: Fate and destiny[edit]

text: A common theme in many Arabian Nights tales is fate and destiny. The Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini observed:[53]

text: every tale in The Thousand and One Nights begins with an 'appearance of destiny' which manifests itself through an anomaly, and one anomaly always generates another. So a chain of anomalies is set up. And the more logical, tightly knit, essential this chain is, the more beautiful the tale. By 'beautiful' I mean vital, absorbing and exhilarating. The chain of anomalies always tends to lead back to normality. The end of every tale in The One Thousand and One Nights consists of a 'disappearance' of destiny, which sinks back to the somnolence of daily life ... The protagonist of the stories is in fact destiny itself.

text: Though invisible, fate may be considered a leading character in the One Thousand and One Nights.[54] The plot devices often used to present this theme are coincidence,[55] reverse causation and the self-fulfilling prophecy (see Foreshadowing below).

text: Foreshadowing[edit]

text: Early examples of the foreshadowing technique of repetitive designation, now known as "Chekhov's gun", occur in the One Thousand and One Nights, which contains "repeated references to some character or object which appears insignificant when first mentioned but which reappears later to intrude suddenly in the narrative".[56] A notable example is in the tale of "The Three Apples" (see Crime fiction elements below).

text: Another early foreshadowing technique is formal patterning, "the organization of the events, actions and gestures which constitute a narrative and give shape to a story; when done well, formal patterning allows the audience the pleasure of discerning and anticipating the structure of the plot as it unfolds". This technique also dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights.[52]

text: Another form of foreshadowing is the self-fulfilling prophecy, which dates back to the story of Krishna in ancient Sanskrit literature, and Oedipus or the death of Heracles in the plays of Sophocles. A variation of this device is the self-fulfilling dream, which dates back to medieval Arabic literature (or the dreams of Joseph and his conflicts with his brothers, in the Hebrew Bible). Several tales in the One Thousand and One Nights use this device to foreshadow what is going to happen, as a special form of literary prolepsis. A notable example is "The Ruined Man who Became Rich Again through a Dream", in which a man is told in his dream to leave his native city of Baghdad and travel to Cairo, where he will discover the whereabouts of some hidden treasure. The man travels there and experiences misfortune, ending up in jail, where he tells his dream to a police officer. The officer mocks the idea of foreboding dreams and tells the protagonist that he himself had a dream about a house with a courtyard and fountain in Baghdad where treasure is buried under the fountain. The man recognizes the place as his own house and, after he is released from jail, he returns home and digs up the treasure. In other words, the foreboding dream not only predicted the future, but the dream was the cause of its prediction coming true. A variant of this story later appears in English folklore as the "Pedlar of Swaffham" and Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist"; Jorge Luis Borges' collection of short stories A Universal History of Infamy featured his translation of this particular story into Spanish, as "The Story Of The Two Dreamers."[57]

text: Another variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy can be seen in "The Tale of Attaf", where Harun al-Rashid consults his library (the House of Wisdom), reads a random book, "falls to laughing and weeping and dismisses the faithful vizier" Ja'far ibn Yahya from sight. Ja'afar, "disturbed and upset flees Baghdad and plunges into a series of adventures in Damascus, involving Attaf and the woman whom Attaf eventually marries." After returning to Baghdad, Ja'afar reads the same book that caused Harun to laugh and weep, and discovers that it describes his own adventures with Attaf. In other words, it was Harun's reading of the book that provoked the adventures described in the book to take place. This is an early example of reverse causation.[58] Near the end of the tale, Attaf is given a death sentence for a crime he didn't commit but Harun, knowing the truth from what he has read in the book, prevents this and has Attaf released from prison. In the 12th century, this tale was translated into Latin by Petrus Alphonsi and included in his Disciplina Clericalis,[59] alongside the "Sinbad the Sailor" story cycle.[60] In the 14th century, a version of "The Tale of Attaf" also appears in the Gesta Romanorum and Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.[59]

text: Repetition[edit]

text: Leitwortstil is 'the purposeful repetition of words' in a given literary piece that "usually expresses a motif or theme important to the given story". This device occurs in the One Thousand and One Nights, which binds several tales in a story cycle. The storytellers of the tales relied on this technique "to shape the constituent members of their story cycles into a coherent whole."[49]

text: Thematic patterning is "the distribution of recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among the various incidents and frames of a story. In a skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may be arranged so as to emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea which disparate events and disparate frames have in common". This technique also dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights (and earlier).[52]

text: Several different variants of the "Cinderella" story, which has its origins in the Egyptian story of Rhodopis, appear in the One Thousand and One Nights, including "The Second Shaykh's Story", "The Eldest Lady's Tale" and "Abdallah ibn Fadil and His Brothers", all dealing with the theme of a younger sibling harassed by two jealous elders. In some of these, the siblings are female, while in others they are male. One of the tales, "Judar and His Brethren", departs from the happy endings of previous variants and reworks the plot to give it a tragic ending instead, with the younger brother being poisoned by his elder brothers.[61]

text: Sexual humour[edit]

text: The Nights contain many examples of sexual humour. Some of this borders on satire, as in the tale called "Ali with the Large Member" which pokes fun at obsession with human penis size.[62][63]

text: Unreliable narrator[edit]

text: The literary device of the unreliable narrator was used in several fictional medieval Arabic tales of the One Thousand and One Nights. In one tale, "The Seven Viziers" (also known as "Craft and Malice of Women or The Tale of the King, His Son, His Concubine and the Seven Wazirs"), a courtesan accuses a king's son of having assaulted her, when in reality she had failed to seduce him (inspired by the Qur'anic/Biblical story of Yusuf/Joseph). Seven viziers attempt to save his life by narrating seven stories to prove the unreliability of women, and the courtesan responds back by narrating a story to prove the unreliability of viziers.[64] The unreliable narrator device is also used to generate suspense in "The Three Apples" and humor in "The Hunchback's Tale" (see Crime fiction elements below).

text: Crime fiction elements[edit]

text: An example of the murder mystery[65] and suspense thriller genres in the collection, with multiple plot twists[66] and detective fiction elements[67] was "The Three Apples", also known as Hikayat al-sabiyya 'l-maqtula ("The Tale of the Murdered Young Woman"),[68] one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the One Thousand and One Nights. In this tale, Harun al-Rashid comes to possess a chest, which, when opened, contains the body of a young woman. Harun gives his vizier, Ja’far, three days to find the culprit or be executed. At the end of three days, when Ja’far is about to be executed for his failure, two men come forward, both claiming to be the murderer. As they tell their story it transpires that, although the younger of them, the woman’s husband, was responsible for her death, some of the blame attaches to a slave, who had taken one of the apples mentioned in the title and caused the woman’s murder. Harun then gives Ja’far three more days to find the guilty slave. When he yet again fails to find the culprit, and bids his family goodbye before his execution, he discovers by chance his daughter has the apple, which she obtained from Ja’far’s own slave, Rayhan. Thus the mystery is solved.

text: Another Nights tale with crime fiction elements was "The Hunchback's Tale" story cycle which, unlike "The Three Apples", was more of a suspenseful comedy and courtroom drama rather than a murder mystery or detective fiction. The story is set in a fictional China and begins with a hunchback, the emperor's favourite comedian, being invited to dinner by a tailor couple. The hunchback accidentally chokes on his food from laughing too hard and the couple, fearful that the emperor will be furious, take his body to a Jewish doctor's clinic and leave him there. This leads to the next tale in the cycle, the "Tale of the Jewish Doctor", where the doctor accidentally trips over the hunchback's body, falls down the stairs with him, and finds him dead, leading him to believe that the fall had killed him. The doctor then dumps his body down a chimney, and this leads to yet another tale in the cycle, which continues with twelve tales in total, leading to all the people involved in this incident finding themselves in a courtroom, all making different claims over how the hunchback had died.[69] Crime fiction elements are also present near the end of "The Tale of Attaf" (see Foreshadowing above).

text: Horror fiction elements[edit]

text: Haunting is used as a plot device in gothic fiction and horror fiction, as well as modern paranormal fiction. Legends about haunted houses have long appeared in literature. In particular, the Arabian Nights tale of "Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad" revolves around a house haunted by jinns.[70] The Nights is almost certainly the earliest surviving literature that mentions ghouls, and many of the stories in that collection involve or reference ghouls. A prime example is the story The History of Gherib and His Brother Agib (from Nights vol. 6), in which Gherib, an outcast prince, fights off a family of ravenous Ghouls and then enslaves them and converts them to Islam.[71]

text: Horror fiction elements are also found in "The City of Brass" tale, which revolves around a ghost town.[72]

text: The horrific nature of Scheherazade's situation is magnified in Stephen King's Misery, in which the protagonist is forced to write a novel to keep his captor from torturing and killing him. The influence of the Nights on modern horror fiction is certainly discernible in the work of H. P. Lovecraft. As a child, he was fascinated by the adventures recounted in the book, and he attributes some of his creations to his love of the 1001 Nights.[73]

text: Fantasy and science fiction elements[edit]

text: Several stories within the One Thousand and One Nights feature early science fiction elements. One example is "The Adventures of Bulukiya", where the protagonist Bulukiya's quest for the herb of immortality leads him to explore the seas, journey to Paradise and to Hell, and travel across the cosmos to different worlds much larger than his own world, anticipating elements of galactic science fiction;[74] along the way, he encounters societies of djinn,[75] mermaids, talking serpents, talking trees, and other forms of life.[74] In "Abu al-Husn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud", the heroine Tawaddud gives an impromptu lecture on the mansions of the Moon, and the benevolent and sinister aspects of the planets.[76]

text: In another 1001 Nights tale, "Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman", the protagonist Abdullah the Fisherman gains the ability to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater society that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land, in that the underwater society follows a form of primitive communism where concepts like money and clothing do not exist. Other Arabian Nights tales also depict Amazon societies dominated by women, lost ancient technologies, advanced ancient civilizations that went astray, and catastrophes which overwhelmed them.[77] "The City of Brass" features a group of travellers on an archaeological expedition[78] across the Sahara to find an ancient lost city and attempt to recover a brass vessel that Solomon once used to trap a jinn,[79] and, along the way, encounter a mummified queen, petrified inhabitants,[80] lifelike humanoid robots and automata, seductive marionettes dancing without strings,[81] and a brass horseman robot who directs the party towards the ancient city,[82] which has now become a ghost town.[72] "The Ebony Horse" features a flying mechanical horse controlled using keys that could fly into outer space and towards the Sun.[83] Some modern interpretations see this horse as a robot.[82] The titular ebony horse can fly the distance of one year in a single day, and is used as a vehicle by the Prince of Persia, Qamar al-Aqmar, in his adventures across Persia, Arabia and Byzantium. This story appears to have influenced later European tales such as Adenes Le Roi's Cleomades and "The Squire's Prologue and Tale" told in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.[84] "The City of Brass" and "The Ebony Horse" can be considered early examples of proto-science fiction.[85] The "Third Qalandar's Tale" also features a robot in the form of an uncanny boatman.[82]

text: Poetry[edit]

text: There is an abundance of Arabic poetry in One Thousand and One Nights. Characters occasionally provide poetry in certain settings, covering many uses. However, pleading, beseeching and praising the powerful is the most significant.

text: The uses would include but are not limited to:

text:
Giving advice, warning, and solutions.
Praising God, royalties and those in power.
Pleading for mercy and forgiveness.
Lamenting wrong decisions or bad luck.
Providing riddles, laying questions, challenges.
Criticizing elements of life, wondering.
Expressing feelings to others or one’s self: happiness, sadness, anxiety, surprise, anger.

text: In a typical example, expressing feelings of happiness to oneself from Night 203, Prince Qamar Al-Zaman,[86] standing outside the castle, wants to inform Queen Bodour of his arrival. He wraps his ring in a paper and hands it to the servant who delivers it to the Queen. When she opens it and sees the ring, joy conquers her, and out of happiness she chants this poem (Arabic):[87]

text: وَلَقـدْ نَدِمْـتُ عَلى تَفَرُّقِ شَمْــلِنا :: دَهْـرَاً وّفاضَ الدَّمْـعُ مِنْ أَجْفـاني

text:
وَنَـذَرْتُ إِنْ عـادَ الزَّمـانُ يَلُمـُّـنا :: لا عُــدْتُ أَذْكُــرُ فُرْقًــةً بِلِســاني
هَجَــمَ السُّــرورُ عَلَــيَّ حَتَّـى أَنَّهُ :: مِـنْ فَــرَطِ مـا سَــرَّني أَبْكــــاني
يا عَيْـنُ صـارَ الدَّمْـعُ مِنْكِ سِجْيَةً :: تَبْكيــنَ مِـنْ فَـــرَحٍ وَأَحْزانـــــي

text: Transliteration:

text:
Wa-laqad nadimtu ‘alá tafarruqi shamlinā :: Dahran wa-fāḍa ad-dam‘u min ajfānī
Wa-nadhartu in ‘āda az-zamānu yalumanā :: la ‘udtu adhkuru furqatan bilisānī
Hajama as-sarūru ‘alayya ḥattá annahu :: min faraṭi mā sarranī abkānī
Yā ‘aynu ṣāra ad-dam‘u minki sijyatan :: tabkīna min faraḥin wa-’aḥzānī

text: Literal translation:

text:
And I have regretted the separation of our companionship :: An eon, and tears flooded my eyes
And I’ve sworn if time brought us back together :: I’ll never utter any separation with my tongue
Joy conquered me to the point of :: which it made me happy that I cried
Oh eye, the tears out of you became a principle :: You cry out of joy and out of sadness

text: Burton's verse translation:

text:
Long, long have I bewailed the sev'rance of our loves, With tears that from my lids streamed down like burning rain
And vowed that, if the days deign reunite us two, My lips should never speak of severance again:
Joy hath o'erwhelmed me so that, for the very stress Of that which gladdens me to weeping I am fain.
Tears are become to you a habit, O my eyes, So that ye weep as well for gladness as for pain.

text: In world culture[edit]

text: The influence of the versions of The Nights on world literature is immense. Writers as diverse as Henry Fielding to Naguib Mahfouz have alluded to the collection by name in their own works. Other writers who have been influenced by the Nights include John Barth, Jorge Luis Borges, Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, Goethe, Walter Scott, Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Nodier, Flaubert, Marcel Schwob, Stendhal, Dumas, Gérard de Nerval, Gobineau, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Hofmannsthal, Conan Doyle, W. B. Yeats, H. G. Wells, Cavafy, Calvino, Georges Perec, H. P. Lovecraft, Marcel Proust, A. S. Byatt and Angela Carter.[88]

text: Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba. Part of its popularity may have sprung from improved standards of historical and geographical knowledge. The marvelous beings and events typical of fairy tales seem less incredible if they are set further "long ago" or farther "far away"; this process culminates in the fantasy world having little connection, if any, to actual times and places. Several elements from Arabian mythology are now common in modern fantasy, such as genies, bahamuts, magic carpets, magic lamps, etc. When L. Frank Baum proposed writing a modern fairy tale that banished stereotypical elements, he included the genie as well as the dwarf and the fairy as stereotypes to go.[89]

text: In 1982, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) began naming features on Saturn's moon Enceladus after characters and places in Burton's translation[90] because “its surface is so strange and mysterious that it was given the Arabian Nights as a name bank, linking fantasy landscape with a literary fantasy”.[2]

text: In Arabic culture[edit]

text: There is little evidence that the Nights was particularly treasured in the Arab world. It is rarely mentioned in lists of popular literature and few pre-18th century manuscripts of the collection exist.[91] Fiction had a low cultural status among Medieval Arabs compared with poetry, and the tales were dismissed as khurafa (improbable fantasies fit only for entertaining women and children). According to Robert Irwin, "Even today, with the exception of certain writers and academics, the Nights is regarded with disdain in the Arabic world. Its stories are regularly denounced as vulgar, improbable, childish and, above all, badly written."[92] Nevertheless; the Nights have proved an inspiration to some modern Egyptian writers, such as Tawfiq al-Hakim (author of the Symbolist play Shahrazad, 1934), Taha Hussein (Scheherazade's Dreams, 1943)[93] and Naguib Mahfouz (Arabian Nights and Days, 1981).

text: Possible early influence on European literature[edit]

text: Although the first known translation into a European language only appeared in 1704, it is possible that the Nights began exerting its influence on Western culture much earlier. Christian writers in Medieval Spain translated many works from Arabic, mainly philosophy and mathematics, but also Arab fiction, as is evidenced by Juan Manuel's story collection El Conde Lucanor and Ramón Llull's The Book of Beasts.[94] Knowledge of the work, direct or indirect, apparently spread beyond Spain. Themes and motifs with parallels in the Nights are found in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (in The Squire's Tale the hero travels on a flying brass horse) and Boccaccio's Decameron. Echoes in Giovanni Sercambi's Novelle and Ariosto's Orlando furioso suggest that the story of Shahriyar and Shahzaman was also known.[95] Evidence also appears to show that the stories had spread to the Balkans and a translation of the Nights into Romanian existed by the 17th century, itself based on a Greek version of the collection.[96]

text: Western literature from the 18th century onwards[edit]

text: The modern fame of the Nights derives from the first known European translation by Antoine Galland, which appeared in 1704. According to Robert Irwin, Galland "played so large a part in discovering the tales, in popularizing them in Europe and in shaping what would come to be regarded as the canonical collection that, at some risk of hyperbole and paradox, he has been called the real author of the Nights."[97] The immediate success of Galland's version with the French public may have been because it coincided with the vogue for contes de fées ("fairy stories"). This fashion began with the publication of Madame d'Aulnoy's Histoire d'Hypolite in 1690. D'Aulnoy's book has a remarkably similar structure to the Nights, with the tales told by a female narrator. The success of the Nights spread across Europe and by the end of the century there were translations of Galland into English, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Flemish and Yiddish.[98] Galland's version provoked a spate of pseudo-Oriental imitations. At the same time, some French writers began to parody the style and concoct far-fetched stories in superficially Oriental settings. These tongue-in-cheek pastiches include Anthony Hamilton's Les quatre Facardins (1730), Crébillon's Le sopha (1742) and Diderot's Les bijoux indiscrets (1748). They often contained veiled allusions to contemporary French society. The most famous example is Voltaire's Zadig (1748), an attack on religious bigotry set against a vague pre-Islamic Middle Eastern background.[99] The English versions of the "Oriental Tale" generally contained a heavy moralising element,[100] with the notable exception of William Beckford's fantasy Vathek (1786), which had a decisive influence on the development of the Gothic novel. The Polish nobleman Jan Potocki's novel Saragossa Manuscript (begun 1797) owes a deep debt to the Nights with its Oriental flavour and labyrinthine series of embedded tales.[101]

text: The work was included on a price-list of books on theology, history, and cartography, which was sent by the Scottish bookseller Andrew Millar (when an apprentice) to a Presbyterian minister. This is illustrative of the title's widespread popularity and availability in the 1720s.[102]

text: The Nights continued to be a favourite book of many British authors of the Romantic and Victorian eras. According to A. S. Byatt, "In British Romantic poetry the Arabian Nights stood for the wonderful against the mundane, the imaginative against the prosaically and reductively rational."[103] In their autobiographical writings, both Coleridge and de Quincey refer to nightmares the book had caused them when young. Wordsworth and Tennyson also wrote about their childhood reading of the tales in their poetry.[104] Charles Dickens was another enthusiast and the atmosphere of the Nights pervades the opening of his last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870).[105]

text: Several writers have attempted to add a thousand and second tale,[106] including Théophile Gautier (La mille deuxième nuit, 1842)[93] and Joseph Roth (Die Geschichte von der 1002. Nacht, 1939).[106] Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade" (1845). It depicts the eighth and final voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, along with the various mysteries Sinbad and his crew encounter; the anomalies are then described as footnotes to the story. While the king is uncertain—except in the case of the elephants carrying the world on the back of the turtle—that these mysteries are real, they are actual modern events that occurred in various places during, or before, Poe's lifetime. The story ends with the king in such disgust at the tale Scheherazade has just woven, that he has her executed the very next day.

text: Another important literary figure, the Irish poet W. B. Yeats was also fascinated by the Arabian Nights, when he wrote in his prose book, A Vision an autobiographical poem, titled The Gift of Harun Al-Rashid,[107] in relation to his joint experiments with his wife Georgie Hyde-Lees, with Automatic writing. The automatic writing, is a technique used by many occultists in order to discern messages from the subconscious mind or from other spiritual beings, when the hand moves a pencil or a pen, writing only on a simple sheet of paper and when the person's eyes are shut. Also, the gifted and talented wife, is playing in Yeats's poem as "a gift" herself, given only allegedly by the caliph to the Christian and Byzantine philosopher Qusta Ibn Luqa, who acts in the poem as a personification of W. B. Yeats. In July 1934 he was asked by Louis Lambert, while in a tour in the United States, which six books satisfied him most. The list that he gave placed the Arabian Nights, secondary only to William Shakespeare's works.[108]

text: Modern authors influenced by the Nights include James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Jorge Luis Borges and John Barth.

text: Cinema[edit]

text: Stories from the One Thousand and One Nights have been popular subjects for films, beginning with Georges Méliès' Le Palais des Mille et une nuits (1905).

text: The critic Robert Irwin singles out the two versions of The Thief of Baghdad (1924 version directed by Raoul Walsh; 1940 version produced by Alexander Korda) and Pier Paolo Pasolini's Il fiore delle Mille e una notte, 1974) as ranking "high among the masterpieces of world cinema."[109] Michael James Lundell calls Il fiore "the most faithful adaptation, in its emphasis on sexuality, of The 1001 Nights in its oldest form."[110]

text: UPA, an American animation studio, produced an animated feature version of 1001 Arabian Nights (1959), featuring the cartoon character Mr. Magoo.[111]

text: The animated feature film, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (1969), produced in Japan and directed by Osamu Tezuka and Eichii Yamamoto, featured psychedelic imagery and sounds, and erotic material intended for adults.[112]

text: Alif Laila (The Arabian Nights), a 1997–2002 Indian TV series based on the stories from One Thousand and One Nights produced by Sagar Entertainment Ltd, starts with Scheherazade telling her stories to Shahryār, and contains both the well-known and the lesser-known stories from One Thousand and One Nights.

text: Arabian Nights (2000), a two-part television mini-series adopted for BBC and ABC studios, starring Mili Avital, Dougray Scott, and John Leguizamo, and directed by Steve Barron, is based on the translation by Sir Richard Francis Burton.

text: Shabnam Rezaei and Aly Jetha created, and the Vancouver-based Big Bad Boo Studios produced 1001 Nights (2012), an animated television series for children, which launched on Teletoon and airs in 80 countries around the world, including Discovery Kids Asia.[113]

text: Arabian Nights (2015, in Portuguese: As Mil e uma Noites), a three-part film directed by Miguel Gomes, is based on One Thousand and One Nights.[114]

text: Music[edit]

text: The Nights has inspired many pieces of music, including:

text: Classical[edit]

text:
François-Adrien Boieldieu: Le calife de Bagdad (1800)
Carl Maria von Weber: Abu Hassan (1811)
Luigi Cherubini: Ali Baba (1833)
Peter Cornelius: Der Barbier von Bagdad (1858)
Ernest Reyer: La statue (1861)
C. F. E. Horneman (1840–1906), Aladdin (overture), 1864
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Scheherazade Op. 35 (1888)[115]
Dikran Tchouhadjian (1837–1898), Zemire (1891)
Ferrucio Busoni: Piano Concerto in C major (1904)
Henri Rabaud: Mârouf, savetier du Caire (1914)
Carl Nielsen, Aladdin Suite (1918–1919)
Collegium musicum, Suita po tisic a jednej noci (1969)
Fikret Amirov: Arabian Nights (Ballet, 1979)
Ezequiel Viñao, La Noche de las Noches (1990)
Carl Davis, Aladdin (Ballet, 1999)

text: Pop and Rock[edit]

text:
Renaissance: Scheherazade and Other Stories (1975)
Icehouse: No Promises (From the album 'Measure for Measure', 1986)
Kamelot, Nights of Arabia (1999)
Sarah Brightman, Harem and Arabian Nights (2003)
Ch!pz, "1001 Arabian Nights" (2004)
Nightwish, Sahara (2007)
Abney Park (band), Scheherazade (2013)

text: Video games[edit]

text: Popular modern video games with an Arabian Nights theme include Nadirim, a game placed in a fantasy world inspired by the tales of the 1001 Nights,[116] Disney's Aladdin, Prince of Persia and Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Bookworm Adventures

text: Illustrators[edit]

text: Many artists have illustrated the Arabian nights, including: Pierre-Clément Marillier for Le Cabinet des Fées (1785–1789), Gustave Doré, Léon Carré (Granville, 1878 – Alger, 1942), Roger Blachon, Françoise Boudignon, André Dahan, Amato Soro, Albert Robida, Alcide Théophile Robaudi and Marcelino Truong; Vittorio Zecchin (Murano, 1878 – Murano, 1947) and Emanuele Luzzati; The German Morgan; Mohammed Racim (Algiers, 1896 – Algiers 1975), Sani ol-Molk (1849–1856), Anton Pieck and Emre Orhun.

text: Famous illustrators for British editions include: Arthur Boyd Houghton, John Tenniel, John Everett Millais and George John Pinwell for Dalziel's Illustrated Arabian Nights Entertainments, published in 1865; Walter Crane for Aladdin's Picture Book (1876); Frank Brangwyn for the 1896 edition of Lane's translation; Albert Letchford for the 1897 edition of Burton’s translation; Edmund Dulac for Stories from the Arabian Nights (1907), Princess Badoura (1913) and Sindbad the Sailor & Other Tales from the Arabian Nights (1914). Others artists include John D. Batten, (Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights, 1893), Kay Nielsen, Eric Fraser, Errol le Cain, Maxfield Parrish, W. Heath Robinson and Arthur Szyk (1954).[117]

text: Gallery[edit]

text:
The Sultan

One Thousand and One Nights book.

Harun ar-Rashid, a leading character of the 1001 Nights

The fifth voyage of Sindbad

William Harvey, The Fifth Voyage of Es-Sindbad of the Sea, 1838–40, woodcut

William Harvey, The Story of the City of Brass, 1838–40, woodcut

William Harvey, The Story of the Two Princes El-Amjad and El-As'ad, 1838–40, woodcut

William Harvey, The Story of Abd Allah of the Land and Abd Allah of the Sea

William Harvey, The Story of the Fisherman, 1838–40, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Friedrich Gross, ante 1830, woodcut

Frank Brangwyn, Story of Abon-Hassan the Wag ("He found himself upon the royal couch"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard

Frank Brangwyn, Story of the Merchant ("Sheherezade telling the stories"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard

Frank Brangwyn, Story of Ansal-Wajooodaud, Rose-in-Bloom ("The daughter of a Visier sat at a lattice window"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard

Frank Brangwyn, Story of Gulnare ("The merchant uncovered her face"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard

Frank Brangwyn, Story of Beder Basim ("Whereupon it became eared corn"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard

Frank Brangwyn, Story of Abdalla ("Abdalla of the sea sat in the water, near the shore"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard

Frank Brangwyn, Story of Mahomed Ali ("He sat his boat afloat with them"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard

Frank Brangwyn, Story of the City of Brass ("They ceased not to ascend by that ladder"), 1895–96, watercolour and tempera on millboard


document_title: The Great British Bake Off

question_text: who won the 2015 great british baking show

root

text: The Great British Bake Off

text: Background[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: The idea of the baking competition was conceived by producer Anna Beattie after she spoke to a friend who had seen 'bake-offs' in America.[6] Beattie was also inspired by the classic English village fête baking competitions; she said: "I loved that idea of village fetes and an old-fashioned baking competition with people who only wanted to bake a good cake."[5] However, Beattie failed to interest any channel in the idea for four years. In early 2009, they pitched the idea to Janice Hadlow, the then controller of BBC Two.[7] The pitch was successful, and Hadlow and the Commissioning Editor Charlotte Moore commissioned the programme,[8][9] which was then developed over the next six months. The development team first selected Mary Berry as a judge, and following an audition Paul Hollywood was also appointed. Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc were approached to be presenters of the show.[7] Reproducing the surroundings of the English village fête, the series is filmed in bunting-draped marquees in scenic gardens.[10]

tag: p

text: Broadcast and personnel changes[edit]

text: On 17 August 2010, the first episode of The Great British Bake Off was shown on BBC Two.[11] It stayed on BBC Two for four years, grew in popularity and become the most popular programme on that channel. In its fifth series it was moved to BBC One where it stayed for three years. It was the most-watched programme on British television in 2015 and 2016.[12][13] Following extended negotiations, Love Productions announced that the seventh series of the show would be the last broadcast by the BBC. On 12 September 2016, Love agreed to a three-year deal to broadcast the show on Channel 4.[14][2] Giedroyc and Perkins subsequently announced that they would not be returning when the show moves to its new network.[15] On 22 September, Berry announced that she would also be leaving the show when it moved to Channel 4,[16] while Hollywood later announced he would stay.[17] In March 2017, it was announced that Prue Leith would join Hollywood as judge, while Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig would take over as presenters.[18]

text: Format[edit]

text: The programme operates on a weekly elimination process to find the best all-around baker from the contestants, who are all amateurs. The applicants to the show are assessed by a researcher, followed by an audition in London with two of their bakes. They then undergo a screen test and an interview with a producer. A second audition involves the applicants baking two recipes for the judges in front of the cameras.[6] Ten contestants were chosen for the first series, twelve for the following two series, thirteen for the fourth, and back to twelve from series five onwards.

text: In each episode, the amateur bakers are given three challenges: a signature bake, a technical challenge, and a show-stopper.[6] The three challenges take place over two days, and the filming takes up to 16 hours a day. The contestants are assessed by the judges who then choose a "Star Baker" for the week (introduced in series 2), and a contestant is also eliminated. In the final round, three bakers are left and a winner is chosen from the three.

text: In the first series, the location of the cast and crew moves from town to town each week, but starting from the second series, the competition is held in one location in a specially constructed marquee. Interspersed in the programme are the background of the contestants as well as video vignettes on the history of baking. What each baker intends to bake during a particular challenge is illustrated using animated graphics. These graphics have been created by illustrator Tom Hovey since the show's inception in 2010.[19][20]

text: Series overview[edit]

text:
Series
Episodes
Premiere
Finale
Winner
Runners-up
Average UK viewers
(millions)[21][22]
Timeslot
Channel

1
6
17 August 2010
21 September 2010
Edd Kimber
Miranda Gore Browne
2.77
Tuesday
8:00 pm
BBC Two

Ruth Clemens

2
8
14 August 2011
4 October 2011
Joanne Wheatley
Holly Bell
4.00

Mary-Anne Boermans

3
10
14 August 2012
16 October 2012
John Whaite
Brendan Lynch
5.00

James Morton

4
10
20 August 2013
22 October 2013
Frances Quinn
Kimberley Wilson
7.35

Ruby Tandoh

5
10
6 August 2014
8 October 2014
Nancy Birtwhistle
Luis Troyano
10.04
Wednesday
8:00 pm
BBC One

Richard Burr

6
10
5 August 2015
7 October 2015
Nadiya Hussain
Ian Cumming
12.50

Tamal Ray

7
10
24 August 2016
26 October 2016
Candice Brown
Andrew Smyth
13.85

Jane Beedle

8
10
29 August 2017
31 October 2017
Sophie Faldo
Kate Lyon
9.29
Tuesday
8:00 pm
Channel 4

Steven Carter-Bailey

tag: table

text: Series 1 (2010)[edit]

text: Series 1 of The Great British Bake Off saw ten home bakers take part in a bake-off to test their baking skills as they battled to be crowned the Great British Bake Off's best amateur baker. Each week the nationwide tour saw the bakers put through three challenges in a particular discipline. The rounds took place in various locations across the UK, with the final round being held at Fulham Palace, London.

text: The three finalists were Ruth Clemens, Miranda Gore Browne, and Edd Kimber. On 21 September 2010, Edd Kimber was crowned the best amateur baker.[23]

text: Series 2 (2011)[edit]

text: The number of amateur baker contestants increased to twelve for the second series. Unlike Series 1, this year The Great British Bake Off stayed in one location – Valentines Mansion, a 17th-century mansion house in Redbridge, London.

text: All the Series 2 finalists were female: Holly Bell, Mary-Anne Boermans, and the winning contestant Joanne Wheatley.[24]

text: Series 3 (2012)[edit]

text: A third series of The Great British Bake Off began on 14 August 2012.[25] The series was filmed at Harptree Court in East Harptree, Somerset.

text: In contrast to Season 2, there was an all-male final. The finalists were Brendan Lynch, James Morton and John Whaite,[26] who won the final in a surprise result.[27]

text: Series 4 (2013)[edit]

text: The fourth series of The Great British Bake Off started on 20 August 2013 on BBC Two. The series was again filmed at Harptree Court in East Harptree, Somerset.[28] The all-female final was won by Frances Quinn, with Ruby Tandoh and Kimberley Wilson as runners up.[29]

text: In the U.S., the fourth series was broadcast as season 2 on PBS.

text: Series 5 (2014)[edit]

text: The fifth series of The Great British Bake Off began airing on 6 August 2014 on BBC One. This series was filmed at Welford Park in Berkshire.[30] There were twelve bakers taking part. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood returned as judges, whilst Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc continued to present the series. Richard Burr was awarded the largest number of star baker designations of any series so far, but was beaten by Nancy Birtwhistle in the final.

text: A spin-off show The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice, hosted by comedian Jo Brand on BBC Two, was also launched as a companion series this year. Each episode was broadcast two days after the main show but later moved to the same night. The show includes interviews with eliminated contestants.[31]

text: In the U.S., the fifth series was broadcast as season 1 on PBS.

text: Series 6 (2015)[edit]

text: The sixth series began on 5 August 2015[32] on BBC One, again from Welford Park in Berkshire. Spin-off show The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice returned for a second series, with Jo Brand as host. This series was won by Nadiya Hussain, with Ian Cumming and Tamal Ray as runners up.[33]

text: In the U.S., the sixth series was broadcast as season 3 on PBS.

text: Series 7 (2016)[edit]

text: The seventh series began on 24 August 2016 on BBC One, once again from Welford Park in Berkshire, a later than usual start following the BBC's coverage of the Olympic Games.[34] This series was won by Candice Brown, with Jane Beedle and Andrew Smyth as runners up.

text: In the U.S., the seventh series was broadcast as season 4 on PBS.

text: Series 8 (2017)[edit]

text: The eighth series of The Great British Bake Off began airing on 29 August 2017.[35] This is the first series of The Great British Bake Off to be broadcast on Channel 4 following its move from the BBC.[36] The series features new hosts Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, and new judge Prue Leith along with returning judge Paul Hollywood. This series was won by Sophie Faldo, with Kate Lyon and Steven Carter-Bailey finishing as runners-up.

text: Incomplete bakes and other incidents[edit]

text: As of the sixth series, there have been a number of incomplete bakes.

text:
Presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins have accidentally interfered with several bakes. In Series 4, Sue leaned on Howard Middleton's English Muffins in the Technical Challenge and in Series 6, she broke Nadiya Hussain's biscuit lid in the Showstopper Challenge. Similarly, Frances Quinn's biscuit tower collapsed as Mel was measuring it with seconds to spare in Series 4.
On several occasions (mostly in technical challenges), contestants haven't met the required quantity of the bake if the judges specified. Several instances of this include Cathryn Dresser presenting forty-six crackers instead of the required forty-eight in Series 3, two of the bakers being unable to present the required twelve custard tarts in Series 4 and Marie Campbell only presenting four of the required eight arlettes in Series 6 after having not set her oven.
In Series 2, Robert Billington accidentally dropped his tiered showstopper while applying finishing touches to the cake. Both judges and presenters came to his aid to salvage the bottom tier of his cake. He was able to present the incomplete showstopper as a single-tiered cake.
In Series 3, John Whaite was unable to complete his bake after he suffered a severe cut to his finger on the food processor. He tried to continue working on his strudel wearing a rubber glove, but the bleeding required medical attention and he therefore had to abandon the last bake. As a result, no one was eliminated that week.[37]
In Series 4, contestant Deborah Manger accidentally used Howard Middleton's custard instead of her own. As a result, Howard was forced to use Deborah's custard, and this was taken into account by the judges, who judged the trifles and custards individually.[38]
In Series 5, during the Baked Alaska challenge, Iain Watters's ice cream melted for reasons that were not entirely clear, although the editing of the show suggested that it had been caused by another contestant's actions. He threw his ice cream into the bin in frustration and left the tent. He returned shortly after, and as he had no cake for judging (he produced his bin instead, and the incident was labelled "bingate"), he was eliminated from the competition. The event that led to his departure provoked extreme anger from the viewers.[39]

tag: ul

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The early reviews for the first series were mixed. Lucy Mangan of The Guardian wondered if "competitive baking [is] a contradiction in terms" and found the proceedings humourless.[40] Iain Hollingshead of The Daily Telegraph was scathing, describing the presenters as "annoying", the judge Paul Hollywood as looking "sinister without being interesting", and that the audience would be so bored that they "could certainly forgive the cameraman if he were to commit hara-kiri in a giant pool of egg and flour."[41]

text: However, reviews from the later series were more positive. Andrew Collins of The Guardian called it "the nicest show on television" and judged it the best TV programme of 2012.[42][43] Rachel Ward of The Daily Telegraph thought the programme "had just the right consistency of mouth-watering morsels, good humour, and fascinating history",[44] while Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent considered the contest "perfectly baked".[45]

text: Bake Off was moved to Channel 4 in 2017, and reviews of the programme on the channel were largely positive, although a few felt that it did not compare well to the BBC version.[46][47][48] Mark Lawson of The Guardian described the programme on Channel 4 as "both exactly the same but also just subtly different enough", and that "only someone desperate to dislike the re-plated show could argued that [it] has soured, spoiled or binned its recipe".[49] Michael Hogan of The Telegraph thought that "Mary, Mel and Sue might be gone but the show's recipe remains as winning as ever. The four Cs – chemistry, camaraderie, comedy, cakes – were all present and correct."[50] Anna Leszkiewicz of the New Statesman however considered that while the format had been left largely unchanged and the contestants "irresistibly likeable", "every single change to the show has been for the worse".[47]

text: Cultural impact[edit]

text: The show has become a significant part of British culture and is credited with spurring an interest in home baking, with supermarkets and department stores in the UK reporting sharp rises in sales of baking ingredients and accessories.[51][52] It was also credited with reviving the Women's Institute, whose membership reached its highest level since the 1970s.[53] The show also boosted the sales of bakery books and the number of baking clubs, and independent bakeries also showed an increase. According to one analyst, more than three-fifths of adults have baked at home at least once in 2013 compared with only a third in 2011.[54]

text: TV ratings[edit]

text: The first series of The Great British Bake Off premiered in August 2010 with moderate ratings of just over 2 million viewers for its first episode.[55] This was enough to place it in BBC Two's top ten for that week, and over the series the audience grew to over three million, with the semi-final and final both achieving first place in BBC Two's weekly ratings. During the second series, the ratings gradually increased, and it became a surprise hit with nearly 4 million watching each episode.[56] Week two was the last time that the show was out-rated by another BBC Two programme in the same week (it came second to the drama Page Eight); from then until the show's move to BBC One, every competition episode would be the channel's number one rated programme of the week. By its final episode it had averaged 4.56 million viewers, peaking at 5.1 million in its last 15 minutes.[57]

text: The ratings continued to strengthen in the third series, and the show began to beat its competition in its timeslot.[58] The final of the series where John Whaite was crowned the winner saw its highest rating yet, with an average of 6.5 million viewers that peaked at 7.2 million, which made it the second highest-rated BBC Two-originated show after Top Gear since at least 2006.[59][60] The fourth series achieved some of the highest ratings seen on BBC Two. The viewer count for its premiere episode was more than two million higher than that of the previous series,[61] while the final episode was seen by 9.1 million viewers at its peak, more than twice the number of viewers on BBC One and ITV.[62] The final episode is the most-watched show on BBC Two since the present ratings system was introduced in 2002, beating the previous record set by Top Gear.[63] As a result of its high ratings, the show was moved to BBC One.[64]

text: After its move to BBC One, the opening episode was watched by over 7 million viewers according to overnight figures, beating the figure of 5.6 million for the opening episode of the previous year.[65] the Bingate controversy surrounding episode four helped the show gain its biggest ever audience of 10.3 million viewers, with 2 million people who watched it on BBC iPlayer.[66] The final of the show gained an overnight viewing figure of 12.29 million, then the highest viewing figure of the year for a non-sporting event on UK TV.[67] In the following year, the top ten ratings for 2015 was also dominated by The Great British Bake Off, with seven of the year's ten most-watched television programmes being episodes of the show, topped by the final episode with 15.05 million viewers.[68] In the last series on the BBC in 2016, nine of the top ten most-watched programmes of the year were episodes of the show, with 16.03 million viewers watching the finale.[69]

text: The first series broadcast by Channel 4 opened with average viewing figures of 5.8 million, rising to 6.5 million to include those watching on Channel 4+1, and 9.46 million for the 7-day rating.[70] Although the overnight figure was the lowest for an opening episode since 2013, it was Channel 4's biggest audience since the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics.[71] This series attracted an average audience of 9 million viewers on Channel 4.[72]

text: Controversies[edit]

text: Product placement sanction[edit]

text: In September 2012, production company Love Productions was sanctioned by the BBC for product placement of Smeg fridges. The issue came to light after a viewer wrote to the Radio Times complaining of "blatant product promotion". After an investigation, the BBC said Love Production's loan agreement with Smeg did not meet editorial guidelines and was being revised for the third series, and that appropriate retrospective hire payments would be made.[73] The BBC asked Smeg to remove a notice from its website promoting its association with the show, which it has since done.[74]

text: Favouritism[edit]

text: During the fourth series, there were accusations of favouritism towards female contestants after the last man Glenn Cosby was eliminated from the show;[75] however, similar claims were not made the previous year over the all-male final, or even the year before, when there was also an all-female quarter-final. The fourth series also suffered allegations of Paul Hollywood's favouritism towards Ruby Tandoh,[76][77] and personal attacks on Tandoh by various people including the chef Raymond Blanc.[78][79][80] Both Paul Hollywood and Ruby Tandoh denied the accusation.[81][82]

text: Baked Alaska controversy ("Bingate")[edit]

text: In the fourth episode of the fifth series, there was controversy around the elimination of contestant Iain Watters. During the final showstopper round contestants were tasked with producing a Baked Alaska. Iain's ice cream was shown as having not set and in a show of frustration he threw his bake in the bin. The editing of the show suggested that another contestant, Diana Beard, had caused the failure by removing the ice cream from a freezer, and the perceived "sabotage" resulted in a uproar on social media networks.[83] However, unseen footage broadcast in the accompanying programme An Extra Slice shows Luis holding the large floor freezer that contained Iain's ice cream open as he piped the sides of his own baked Alaska, while Mel warns him to pipe quickly and close the freezer. Later in the episode, when Iain removes his ice cream to begin the next step of his dish, it is still quite soft, indicating it went into the freezer he shared with Diana without being completely frozen. Various members of the cast posted comments in support of Diana[84] and a BBC spokesman later issued a statement that "Diana removing Iain's ice cream from the freezer for less than a minute was in no way responsible for Iain's departure."[85]

text: More than 800 complaints were lodged with the BBC over the incident and some also complained to the communication watchdog Ofcom.[86]

text: Use of innuendo[edit]

text: A number of viewers complained to the BBC feedback show Points of View in the fifth series about the "constant smutty remarks" from the presenters Mel and Sue.[87][88] This series was seen as having more innuendos than previous ones; some reviewers noted the "extra pinch of saucy spice" and "the increasingly filthy-minded hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins",[89][90][91] while the Daily Mail argued that the "smutty" innuendos made the show no longer fit for family entertainment.[92] The series 3 winner John Whaite however argued that innuendo is part of what made the show a success,[93] whilst judge Paul Hollywood described the innuendos as banter in the spirit of the Carry On films and is a part of British culture,[94] a view shared by others.[95][96]

text: Clones, legal challenges and move to Channel 4[edit]

text: The success of The Great British Bake Off led to the BBC commissioning many other series closely following the format from Love Productions for example The Great British Sewing Bee and The Great Pottery Throw Down. However the 2014 series Hair using the same format was produced in house by the BBC, Love Productions responded by making preparations to sue the BBC for infringing their copyright.[97][98] Although the matter was kept quiet, with the BBC settling out of court and compensating Love Productions,[97][98] the matter soured relations between the BBC and Love Productions.[98] In September 2016, it was announced that the BBC had lost the broadcast rights of the show to Channel 4.[99] Channel 4 offered £25 million for the show outbidding the £15 million offered by the BBC.[99] In January 2017 the BBC waived its rights to keep the program off the air until 2018, and wished the programme "well for the future".[100]

text: Accidental revealing of Series 8 winner[edit]

text: On 31 October 2017, judge Prue Leith accidentally revealed the winner of Series 8 on Twitter twelve hours before the finale was due to air. This caused uproar among many fans of the show. She quickly deleted the tweet and apologised to the fans who saw the tweet.[101]

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: The Great British Bake Off was nominated for a Rose d'Or in the Lifestyle section of the 2012 competition and won.[102][103] The programme has been nominated a number of times in various categories for the BAFTA awards and won in 2012, 2013, and 2016.[104][105] It also won two 2015 National Television Award for Skills Challenge Show.[106]

text:
Year
Award
Category
Recipient
Results
Ref.

2012
Rose d'Or
Lifestyle
The Great British Bake Off
Won
[107]

BAFTA TV Awards
Features
Anna Beattie, Andy Devonshire, Simon Evans, Richard McKerrow
Won
[108]

YouTube Audience Award
The Great British Bake Off
Nominated
[104]

2013
Features
Anna Beattie, Kieran Smith, Amanda Westwood, Scott Tankard
Won
[109]

Radio Times Audience Award
The Great British Bake Off
Nominated
[109]

National Television Award
Factual Entertainment
Nominated
[110]

2014
BAFTA TV Awards
Features
Anna Beattie, Amanda Westwood, Samantha Beddoes, Simon Evans
Nominated
[111]

National Television Award
Factual Entertainment
The Great British Bake Off
Nominated
[112]

2015
BAFTA TV Awards
Features
Anna Beattie, Samantha Beddoes, Andy Devonshire, Simon Evans
Nominated
[113]

Radio Times Audience Award
The Great British Bake Off
Nominated
[114]

National Television Award
Skills Challenge Show
Won
[115]

2016
National Television Award
Challenge Show
Won
[115]

BAFTA
Features
The Great British Bake Off production team
Won
[116]

Radio Times audience award
The Great British Bake Off
Nominated
[116]

2017
National Television Award
Challenge Show
The Great British Bake Off
Nominated
[117]

TV judge
Mary Berry
Won
[118]

BAFTA
Features
The Great British Bake Off production team
Nominated
[119]

text: International broadcast and versions[edit]

text: The UK version of The Great British Bake Off is broadcast in many countries and it has been sold to 196 territories as of 2015.[120] The format has also been sold to 20 territories by 2015, making it the third most successful BBC format after Dancing with the Stars (Strictly Come Dancing) and The Weakest Link.[121] Many of these shows have been successful.[122][123] The Junior Bake Off format has also been sold to Thailand.[124]

text: Beginning in 2014, the US broadcaster PBS has aired several series of the show under the name The Great British Baking Show.[125] The change of name was necessary due to the fact that "Bake-Off" is a registered trademark of Pillsbury in the United States. The fifth series was broadcast as Season 1 in Winter 2014–2015;[126] the fourth series was then broadcast as Season 2 in Fall 2015,[127] the sixth series was broadcast as Season 3 in Summer 2016, and the seventh series was broadcast as Season 4 in Summer 2017.

text: The CBC began broadcasting The Great British Bake Off in Canada in August 2016, starting with the sixth series and also with the Great British Baking Show title. The seventh series aired the year after.[128]

text: International versions[edit]

text: Current and upcoming versions include:[129]

text: Legend:      Airing or in production        No longer airing

text:
Country
Local title
Host(s)
Judges
Channel
Premiere

 Argentina
Bake Off Argentina, El Gran Pastelero
(Bake Off Argentina, The Great Baker)
Paula Chaves[130]
Christophe Krywonis
Damián Petular
Pamela Villar
Telefe[131]
8 April 2018

 Australia
The Great Australian Bake Off
Shane Jacobson
Anna Gare[132]
Dan Lepard
Kerry Vincent
Nine Network[133]
9 July 2013

Claire Hooper
Mel Buttle
Maggie Beer
Matt Moran[134]
LifeStyle Food
13 October 2015

 Belgium
De MeesterBakker
(The Master Baker)
Rani De Coninck
Sofie Dumont
Bernard Proot
vtm
4 April 2012

 Brazil
Bake Off Brasil
Carolina Fiorentino (2017–)
Ticiana Villas Boas (2015–16)
Fabrizio Fasano Jr.
Beca Milano (2017–)
Carolina Fiorentino (2015–16)
SBT
Discovery Home & Health
26 July 2015

Bake Off SBT
Carolina Florentino
Danilo Gentili
Ratinho
Fabrizio Fasano Jr.
Beca Milano
23 December 2017

Júnior Bake Off Brasil
Carolina Florentino
6 January 2018

 Bulgaria
Bake Off: Най-сладкото състезание
(Bake Off: The Sweetest Competition)
Aleksandra Raeva
Raffi Bohosyan
Julia Pandzherova
Yuri Baltaliyski
Nova TV
15 November 2016

 Canada
The Great Canadian Baking Show
Dan Levy
Julia Chan
Bruno Feldeisen
Rochelle Adonis
CBC
1 November 2017

 Denmark
Den store bagedyst
(The Great Baking Contest)
Timm Vladimir
Mette Blomsterberg
Jan Friis-Mikkelsen
DR1
28 August 2012[135]

 Estonia
Eesti parim pagar[136]
Kristjan Rabi (2015)
Indrek Vaheoja (2015)
Alari Kivisaar
Angeelika Kang
Ants Uustalu
TV3
31 August 2015

 Finland
Koko Suomi leipoo[137]
(The whole of Finland bakes)
Anne Kukkohovi
Mika Parviainen
Sami Granroth
MTV3[138]
24 September 2013

 France
Le Meilleur Pâtissier[139][140]
(The Best Baker)
Faustine Bollaert (2012–17)
Julia Vignali (2017–)
Cyril Lignac
Jacqueline Mercorelli
M6[141]
RTL-TVI (Belgium)
26 November 2012

 Germany
Das große Backen
(The great Bake)
Britt Hagedorn (2013)
Meltem Kaptan (2013)
Enie van de Meiklokjes (2014–16)
Annika Lau (2017)
Christian Hümbs
Enie van de Meiklokjes (2013)
Andrea Schirmaier-Huber (2013–14)
Betty Schliephake-Burchardt (2015–17)
Sat.1
1 December 2013

 Greece
Bake Off Greece
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
Alpha TV
2018

 Hungary
Ide süss!
(Az ország nagy cukrászversenye)
Hajós András
Sass Dániel
Baracskay Angéla
Szabadfi Szabolcs
Viasat 3
26 March 2018

 Ireland
The Great Irish Bake Off
Anna Nolan[142]
Biddy White Lennon
Paul Kelly[143]
TV3
19 September 2013

 Italy
Bake Off Italia – Dolci in forno[144]
(Bake Off Italy – Sweets in the oven)
Benedetta Parodi
Ernst Knam
Clelia d'Onofrio
Damiano Carrara
Real Time[145]
November 2013

 Israel
בייק אוף ישראל[146]
(Bake Off Israel)
Paula Rosenberg
Aya Kremerman
Ran Shmueli
Oded Brenner
Carine Goren
Channel 2
9 April 2016

 Netherlands
Heel Holland Bakt
(All of Holland bakes)
Martine Bijl[147]
(2013–15)
André van Duin
(2016–present)
Robèrt van Beckhoven
Janny van der Heijden
MAX (NPO 1)
5 June 2013[148]

 New Zealand
The Great Kiwi Bake Off
TBA
TBA
TVNZ 1
2018 [149]

 Norway
Hele Norge baker
(All of Norway Bakes)
Line Verndal
Pascal Dupuy
Øyvind Lofthus[150]
TV3[151]
10 March 2013[152]

 Poland
Bake Off – Ale Ciacho!
(Bake Off – What A Cake!)
Anna Gacek
Paulina Mikuła[153]
Krzysztof Ilnicki
Gosia Molska[154]
TVP2
5 September 2016[155]

 Portugal
Best Bakery – A Melhor Pastelaria de Portugal
(Best Bakery – The Best Pastry in Portugal)
Ana Guiomar
Luca Arguelles
Telmo Moutinho
SIC
3 October 2016

 Romania
Bake Off Romania[156]
Nicolle Stanese[157]
Alex Stan
Simona Pope
Tudor Constantinescu
Pro TV
29 February 2016[158]

 South Africa
The Great South African Bake Off[159]
Anne Hirsch
Lentswe Bhengu
Shirley Guy
Tjaart Walraven
BBC Lifestyle
8 October 2015

 Sweden
Hela Sverige bakar[160]
(All of Sweden Bakes)
Tilde de Paula
Johan Sörberg
Birgitta Rasmussen
TV4 (Sjuan)
20 September 2012

Hela kändis-Sverige bakar[161]
(Celebrity All of Sweden Bakes)
11 November 2014

 Turkey
Ver Fırına
Burcu Esmersoy
Arda Türkmen
Emel Başdoğan
TV8[162]
20 October 2014[163]

 Ukraine
Великий пекарський турнір
(Great Bakers Tournament)
Yuri Gorbunov[164]
Serge Markovic
Catherine Ahronik
Olga Ganushchak
1+1[165]
1 September 2013[166]

 United States
The American Baking Competition[167][168]
Jeff Foxworthy
Marcela Valladolid
Paul Hollywood
CBS[169]
29 May 2013[170]

 United States
The Great American Baking Show
Ayesha Curry
Anthony Adams
Johnny Iuzzini
Paul Hollywood[171]
ABC
30 November 2015 (as The Great Holiday Baking Show)[172][173][174][175]

text: The Great Sport Relief Bake Off[edit]

text:
The Great Sport Relief Bake Off

Genre

Cooking
Baking

Presented by

Mel Giedroyc
Jennifer Saunders (2016)
Ed Byrne (2014, 2016)
Sarah Millican (2016)
Sue Perkins (2014)
Jo Brand (2014)
Omid Djalili (2014)

Judges

Mary Berry
Paul Hollywood

Country of origin
United Kingdom

Original language(s)
English

No. of series
3

No. of episodes
12

Production

Running time
60 minutes

Production company(s)
Love Productions

Release

Original network
BBC Two (2012–2013)
BBC One (2014–2016)

Picture format
16:9

Original release
10 January 2012 (2012-01-10) – 23 February 2016 (2016-02-23)

text: Episode viewing figures from BARB.[176]

text: Series 1 (2012)[edit]

text:
Episode No.
Signature Challenge
Technical Challenge
Showstopper Challenge
Contestants
Airdate
Viewers
(millions)

1
Traybake
Wholemeal Cheese Scones
Meringue Dessert
Angela Griffin
10 January 2012 (2012-01-10)
3.52

James Wong

Joe Swift

Sarah Hadland

2
Savoury Flan
Banana & Chocolate Chip Loaves
Layered Cake
Arlene Phillips
11 January 2012 (2012-01-11)
2.79

Fi Glover

Gus Casely-Hayford

Saira Khan

3
Classic Crumble
Coffee & Walnut Cake
24 Miniature Tarts
Alex Deakin
12 January 2012 (2012-01-12)
2.56

Alex Langlands

Anita Rani

Pearl Lowe

4
Trio of Baked Biscuits
6 Sausage Rolls
Covered Tiered Occasion Cake
Angela Griffin
13 January 2012 (2012-01-13)
3.43

Anita Rani

Fi Glover

text: Series 2 (2014)[edit]

text:
Episode No.
Guest host
Signature Challenge
Technical Challenge
Showstopper Challenge
Contestants
Airdate
Viewers
(millions)

1
Sue Perkins
12 Sandwich Biscuits
Tarte Tatin
3D Novelty Cake
Bonnie Wright
13 January 2014 (2014-01-13)
4.37

Johnny Vaughan

Michael Vaughan

Samantha Bond

2
Jo Brand
12 Gingerbread Biscuits
Banoffee Pie
Chocolate Cake
Greg Rutherford
14 January 2014 (2014-01-14)
5.07

Jane Horrocks

Jason Gardiner

Kirsty Young

3
Omid Djalili
Traybake
Iced Ring Dougnuts
Layered Cakes
Emma Freud
15 January 2014 (2014-01-15)
5.02

Jamelia[177]

Michael Ball

Victoria Pendleton

4
Ed Byrne
Pizzas
Eccles Cakes
Tiered Cakes
Alistair McGowan
16 January 2014 (2014-01-16)
4.94

Doon Mackichan

Helen Skelton

Rochelle Humes

text: Series 3 (2016)[edit]

text:
Episode No.
Guest host
Signature Challenge
Technical Challenge
Showstopper Challenge
Contestants
Airdate
Viewers
(millions)

1
Mel Giedroyc
Canapés
Paris–Brest
Trophy Cake
David James
27 January 2016 (2016-01-27)
6.03

Jason Manford

Maddy Hill

Samantha Cameron

2
Jennifer Saunders
American Muffins
Football Pie
Tiered Cake
Chris Kamara
3 February 2016 (2016-02-03)
7.44

Ed Balls

Kimberley Walsh

Victoria Coren Mitchell

3
Ed Byrne
Savoury tarts
Chocolate and Beetroot Tray Bake
3D Biscuits
Geri Horner
17 February 2016 (2016-02-17)
7.12

Jermaine Jenas

John Simpson

Louise Redknapp

4
Sarah Millican
Open-top Pie
Salmon Roulade
Cupcakes
Ade Edmondson
24 February 2016 (2016-02-24)
6.74

Alison Steadman

Morgana Robinson

Will Young

text: The Great Comic Relief Bake Off[edit]

text:
The Great Comic Relief Bake Off

Genre

Cooking
Baking

Presented by

Mel Giedroyc (2013, 2015)
Sue Perkins (2015)
Jo Brand (2015)
Ed Byrne (2015)

Judges

Mary Berry
Paul Hollywood

Country of origin
United Kingdom

Original language(s)
English

No. of series
2

No. of episodes
8

Production

Running time
60 minutes

Production company(s)
Love Productions

Release

Original network
BBC Two (2013)
BBC One (2015)

Picture format
16:9

Original release
21 January 2013 (2013-01-21) – 4 March 2015 (2015-03-04)

text: Series 1 (2013)[edit]

text:
Episode No.
Signature Challenge
Technical Challenge
Showstopper Challenge
Contestants
Airdate
Viewers
(millions)

1
Shortbread
Custard Slices
Portrait Cake
Jo Brand
21 January 2013 (2013-01-21)
4.17

Stephen K. Amos

Lorna Watson

Ingrid Oliver

2
Iced Biscuits
Bakewell Tart
Gateaux
Warwick Davis
22 January 2013 (2013-01-22)
4.44

Duncan Bannatyne

Simon Reeve

Andy Akinwolere

3
Scones
Chocolate Eclairs
Novelty Cake
Ellie Simmonds
23 January 2013 (2013-01-23)
4.34

Kirsty Wark

Julia Bradbury

Bob Mortimer

4
Chocolate Biscuits
Lemon Meringue Pie
Comic Relief Birthday Cake
Claudia Winkleman
24 January 2013 (2013-01-24)
4.39

Ed Byrne

Martha Kearney

Helen Glover

text: Series 2 (2015)[edit]

text:
Episode No.
Guest host
Signature Challenge
Technical Challenge
Showstopper Challenge
Contestants
Airdate
Viewers
(millions)

1
Sue Perkins
Giant Cookie or Biscuit
12 Mini Fruit Tarts
Tiered Chocolate Cake
Dame Edna Everage
11 February 2015 (2015-02-11)
7.75

Joanna Lumley

Jennifer Saunders

Lulu

2
Mel Giedroyc
24 cupcakes
20 profiteroles
Marble "Building" Cake
Jonathan Ross
18 February 2015 (2015-02-18)
8.39

Zoe Sugg

Gok Wan

Abbey Clancy

3
Jo Brand
24 Shortbread
6 Mini Pork Pies
Triple-tiered Pavlova
Sarah Brown
25 February 2015 (2015-02-25)
7.92

David Mitchell

Michael Sheen

Jameela Jamil

4
Ed Byrne
Tray Bake
12 Crumpets
Vegetable Self Portrait Cake
Alexa Chung
4 March 2015 (2015-03-04)
8.21

Victoria Wood

Chris Moyles

Kayvan Novak

text: The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off[edit]

text:
The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off

Genre

Cooking
Baking

Presented by

Sandi Toksvig
Noel Fielding

Judges

Prue Leith
Paul Hollywood

Country of origin
United Kingdom

Original language(s)
English

No. of series
1

No. of episodes
5

Production company(s)
Love Productions

Release

Original network
Channel 4

Picture format
16:9

Original release
6 March 2018 – present

text: Series 1 (2018)[edit]

text:
Episode No.
Signature Challenge
Technical Challenge
Showstopper Challenge
Contestants
Airdate
Viewers
(millions)

1
12 cupcakes
6 crepes suzette
3D biscuit scene
Roisin Conaty
6 March 2018 (2018-03-06)
5.91

Martin Kemp

Harry Hill

Bill Turnbull

2
24 scones
Devil's food cake
Self-portrait croquembouches
Nick Hewer
13 March 2018 (2018-03-13)
5.65

Perri Kiely

Stacey Solomon

Ricky Wilson

3
Loaf cake
8 Tiramisu sandwich biscuits
Meringue towers
Ella Eyre
20 March 2018 (2018-03-20)
5.95

Ruth Davidson

Jamie Laing

Tim Minchin

4
12 blondies
6 fruit turnovers
Secret passion cake
Griff Rhys Jones
27 March 2018 (2018-03-27)
5.48

Joe Lycett

Lee Mack

Melanie Sykes

5
12 muffins
Custard pie
Rainbow dream cake
Aisling Bea
3 April 2018 (2018-04-03)

Alan Carr

Kadeena Cox

Teri Hatcher