Following The Great British Bake Off’s debut on Channel 4, here are some fun facts from the UK show’s history and The Great Bake Off’s foreign counterparts, still overseen by BBC Worldwide.

:: With a peak audience of 15.9 million viewers, the seventh season of The Great British Bake Off ranks within the UK’s top 10 highest rated programmes under the current BARB measurement system, and as the most watched title in the last five years, and the most watched reality programme in the world in 2016.

:: The Great British Bake Off was the UK’s highest rated programme in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

:: The Great Australian Bake Off was the most watched show on Lifestyle Food in 2015, and its second series premiered as the highest rating broadcast for Lifestyle Food in 2016 to date.

:: Germany likes to theme its shows, which in one episode inspired a contestant to create a cake out of meat.

:: Italy likes to theme series and has had a tent decorated in a Sicilian style, after Frida Kahlo, and the Junior Bake Off will be designed like a jungle treehouse.

:: In France each episode is nearly two hours in length per show, with four challenges instead of three.

:: The presenter of The Great Irish Bake Off, Anna Nolan, was a contestant in the first ever series of Big Brother.

:: Sweden also makes celebrity versions and in 2015 a junior version, Hela Sverige Bakar ranked as the highest rated title on the country’s digital channel Sjuan in 2015.

:: In Norway the series winner receives a kitchen.

:: Brazil is the first country to have a mother and daughter compete in the same season. The first series was a huge hit and was followed swiftly by a second season.

:: The winner of Bake Off Italia season three in 2015 was a male professional boxer, and the show added a “hunky” Sicilian male judge for 2016.

:: In Italy they film three episodes per series outside the tent – in a recent broadcast the contestants baked in food vans in Sorrento, and for the semi-final they went to Vienna to try their hand at baking Sachertortes.

Missing #GBBO? Try your hand at one of the finalists recipes for your weekend bake. Recipes are up on our website (link in bio 👆).

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:: Israel is the first country to allow couples to compete, and one team included two Israeli policemen.

:: Israel was also the first to hold audition episodes, starting with 100 contestants, who were whittled down to 25 contestants over four episodes.

:: Turkey cannot get enough of Bake Off and airs it five days a week. At the last count they had transmitted over 200 episodes.

:: There are three international versions of Junior Bake Off, in Italy, Sweden and Thailand.

:: Some interesting filming locations for foreign shows include a castle (Germany), the grounds of a villa near Milan (Italy), by a lake (Poland), by the sea (Israel) and swapping the tent for a shed (Australia).

:: The Great Bake Off is licensed to 26 countries (excluding the UK), and these include: Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Central Europe for Ide Suss (Bake Off Hungary), Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, Thailand, Ukraine, USA.