Great British Bake Off: Meet the finalists

The final of this year's Great British Bake Off is upon us, with only three bakers remaining.

The finale, which airs at 20:00 BST on BBC One, looks set to become the most watched episode in the show's history, after 10 million tuned in to see last week's chocolate challenge.

Last year's final, won by Nancy Birtwhistle, was watched by 13.3 million viewers. That made it the biggest show of the year, beaten only by England playing Uruguay in the football World Cup.

More than 13,000 people applied this year, from which 12 hopefuls made it into the tent.

Here's a closer look at the last bakers standing:

NADIYA HUSSAIN

Nadiya, 30, from Leeds, has been baking for 10 years after wondering why her father only served ice cream for dessert at his restaurant.

Her family is originally from Bangladesh, where desserts aren't a big feature of mealtimes, but she was encouraged to bake by a school home economics teacher.

According to bookmakers William Hill, Nadiya is favourite to win, with odds of 2/5. "It will take a strong soufflé to knock her off the top spot," said William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly.

• Series high: Despite coming fourth in the technical challenge and crying to the camera that her time was surely up, Nadiya was crowned the semi-final's star baker and received a lingering handshake from Paul Hollywood for her chocolate tart.

• Series low: Pastry week's vol-au-vents challenge saw Nadiya run out of time, after her pastry mix was described as looking like "buttery cellulite." She tearfully presented Paul and Mary with "deconstructed" vol-au-vents with unfilled pastries and separate bowls of fillings. But her delicious flavours saved her from going home.

• Best quote: (On her 'Religeuse L'Ancienne' centre-piece) "This is my eighth nun. I've had some nun disasters, some nun landslides, some nun explosions."

• Nadiya on her Bake Off experience: "My dad has loved the series and he goes up and down the street each Wednesday making sure everyone is going to watch it."

• Special skill: Nadia's repertoire of facial expressions are a joy to behold. Our particular favourite is "joyful bafflement".

IAN CUMMING

Ian, 41, from Cambridgeshire is a renowned travel photographer and the Dalai Lama's personal photographer when he is in the UK.

Ian's passion for foraging and travelling the world mean he's never afraid to bake with an unusual discovery from his garden - or much further afield. Ian is looking like second favourite to win with odds of 7/2.

• Series high: Winning star baker at the start of the season for three consecutive weeks.

• Series low: Ian got cocky with his cream horns, and his "cocoa didn't blend with his puff". His fillings also contained too much cherry liqueur, even for Mary.

• Best hubris: (On his cream horns) "They're relatively easy. There's not much that can go wrong with them."
• Ian on his Bake Off experience: "This summer I have spent an amount of time on social media and buying Heat magazine - two things I didn't think I would ever do in my life."

• Special skill: Ian's home-made cake moulds and inventive designs (he made a wishing well out of chocolate) means he can secure a lucrative second career at ACME.

TAMAL RAY

Tamal, 29, grew up in Hertfordshire where his parents moved to from India in the 1960s. Now a trainee anaesthetist working in Manchester, his older sister taught him to bake - even asking him to create her wedding cake.

Tamal is the current outsider, with 5/1 odds of coming out on top.

• Series high: Winning star baker and receiving a hand shake for his pie during Victorian week.

• Series low: When he put the sesame seeds inside (rather than outside) his flaouna.

• Favourite quote: "I feel like we're a herd of gazelles that's being picked off one by one by lions. Mary and Paul are the lions and they're hungry for bakers."

• Tamal on his Bake-Off experience: "Every week I would be stressed out from combining work with tinkering with recipes at home. But as soon as I got on the train to Bake Off, I would look forward to seeing the other bakers."
• Special skill: Tamal has become Bake Off's official heart-throb, turning Twitter slightly steamy ("Bake me bread, Tamal, you crusty temptress," reads one of the more family-friendly messages). Tamal took it all in good grace, tweeting: "Some of the lustier tweets have had me crying with laughter! Also, glad my folks aren't on Twitter." #blushingbaker

Sheridan Smith role as Cilla Black up for International Emmy

Actress Sheridan Smith has been nominated for an international Emmy for her portrayal of Cilla Black in a three-part ITV drama.

The show, which was broadcast before Black's death earlier this year, looked at the star's early career.

Smith's performance was previously nominated for a Bafta and won a National Television Award.

Other British nominees include Rafe Spall, for his role in the Christmas episode of Black Mirror.

The dystopian satire, written by Charlie Brooker, focused on a not-too-distant future where an implant allows humans to block other people in a similar way to social media.

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes will also receive the International TV Academy's Founders Award at the gala ceremony in New York on 23 November.

BBC Two is up for the arts and documentary award for Messiah at the Foundling Hospital, which recreated the candlelit premiere of Handel's Messiah in 1750.

Channel 4's My Mad Fat Diary is up for best drama, while Sky's 50 Ways To Kill Your Mammy - in which TV presenter Baz Ashmawy set his mum Nancy a number of daredevil challenges - is nominated in the "non-scripted entertainment" category.

The International Emmys honour programming from outside the US, as well as US shows created in languages other than English.

In all, the nominees span 19 countries from Colombia to Turkey and South Korea.

• Full list of nominees:

Arts Programming

Buenaventura No Me Dejes Mas (Buenaventura, Don't Leave Me) - Colombia

Comment Jacques Jaujard a Sauvé le Louvre (The Man Who Saved the Louvre) - France

Messiah at the Foundling Hospital - UK

Trial of Chunhyyang - A Girl Prosecuted by Feudalism - South Korea

Best Performance by an Actor

Engin Akyurek in Kara Para Ask (Black Money Love) - Turkey

Emilio de Mello in Psy (Psi) - Brazil

Maarten Heijmans in Ramses - Netherlands

Rafe Spall in Black Mirror / White Christmas - UK

Best Performance by an Actress

Anneke von der Lippe in Oyevitne (Eyewitness) - Norway

Fernanda Montenegro in Doce de Mae (Sweet Mother) - Brazil

Sheridan Smith in Cilla - UK

Best Comedy

Doce de Mae (Sweet Mother) - Brazil

Fais Pas Ci, Fais Pas Ca (Don't Do This, Don't Do That) - France

Familia en Venta - Colombia

Puppet Nation ZA - South Africa

Sensitive Skin - Canada

Documentary

Africa's Wild West: Stallions of the Namib Desert - Austria

Antes de que Nos Olviden (Before We Are Forgotten) - Mexico

Growing Up Down's - United Kingdom

Miners Shot Down - South Africa

Drama Series

Engrenages (Spiral) - France

MOZU Season 1 - Night Cry of the MOZU - Japan

My Mad Fat Diary - UK

Psi (Psy) - Brazil

Non-English US Primetime Program

Arrepentidos U.S. - El Infierno de Montoya

El Mejor de los Peores

Narco Tec

La Voz Kids

Non-Scripted Entertainment

50 Ways to Kill your Mammy - UK

Barones de la Cerveza - Argentina

Flying Doctors - Belgium

Master Chef South Africa - South Africa

Telenovela

Ciega a Citas (Date Blind) - Spain

Imperio (Empire) - Brazil

Jikulumessu - Angola

Mulheres (Women) - Portugal

TV Movie/Mini-Series

La Celebracion - Argentina

Common - UK

Soldat Blanc (White Soldier) - France

Storytelling of Hostages - Japan

Chris Evans may 'go solo' on Top Gear

New Top Gear host Chris Evans has hinted he won't have co-hosts when he takes over the motoring show next year.

The presenter said he may not follow the old three-presenter format pioneered by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.
"They're the Three Stooges. They are the Bee Gees. They are that and I'm not. I'm me," he said at the Mipcom TV trade fair in Cannes, France.
"I'm a solo artist at the moment, I'm on my own. So do I form a band or not?"
The star had been expected to recruit two sidekicks, with Zoe Ball, Guy Martin and Dermot O'Leary among those previously rumoured to be in the running.
Evans also appealed to fans to send in their own audition tapes, and has given screen tests to some of those who did.

Speaking in Cannes, he told the Press Association: "We are going to do things differently, because we have to, we want to.
"And also, the second you wander off into the, 'Well, I'm the main host, and this is my mate over here and my mate over here', if there's three of you and you go and make a film together, suddenly you're doing what they did.
"Why would you do that? Because they were brilliant at it. I'm not going to do that.
"So, one thing is for sure, there's not going to be me and one guy there, and one guy there, that's not going to happen."

Format overhaul
Evans also gave notice that he would shake up the format of the show, which he said previously consisted of four links and three pre-recorded items.
"We're going to change that," he said. "I can't tell you into what. I know, by the way, but I can't say at the moment.
"We are going to keep some things that I like, and my kids like, and my friends like, and that I liked anyway, but we are not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater."
The Stig - who joined Evans in Cannes - will appear in the new series, which begins next May.
Taking over the show was "formidable", Evans said, adding that it was "the biggest job I've ever had in my life".

Robert Peston leaves BBC for ITV role

The BBC's economics editor, Robert Peston, has been poached by rival broadcaster ITV, it has been confirmed, following days of speculation.

He will become ITV's political editor, and present his own political interview programme, Peston on Sunday.
The correspondent made the announcement on his BBC blog, saying: "You may have noticed that I am off to another place".
"Working for BBC News has been the high point of my working life," he added.
Peston's departure marks the end of a nine-year stint at the BBC, where he covered the financial crisis and broke the story of Northern Rock asking for emergency funding in 2007.
His new Sunday morning show will place him in direct competition with the BBC's Andrew Marr.
Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Marr said he welcomed the challenge.
"If it's true that he's going to do a Sunday morning nine o'clock show directly against mine then on one level I say that's fantastic, bring it on," he told the Radio Times.

"Competition is good."

But he also had a word of warning for his erstwhile colleague. "You have to absolutely subdue yourself and not think the programme's about you because it never is," he said.
"The Andrew Marr Show could be done by anybody if you get the right guests on it and you ask the right questions in the right order."

'Eccentric broadcaster'

Peston joined the BBC from the Sunday Telegraph in 2005, initially as the corporation's business editor.
At first, he was mocked for his stilted delivery. The presenter's idiosyncratic style was variously described as "strangulated", "ragged and querulous" and like "a dalek" - but his reputation grew thanks to a series of scoops about the financial crisis.
"I think lots of people think I'm an eccentric broadcaster," he told The Guardian in 2013.
But, he added: "I don't really care what people think about my style, except in so far as it gets in the way of people understanding the story.
"If I felt I was not communicating the important stuff in a way people can understand, I would worry."
In recent years, he has presented satirical quiz show Have I Got News For You and a one-off edition of Newsnight.
He admitted he wanted to replace Jeremy Paxman on the latter programme, but was "never really in the frame for it".
Earlier this year in an interview with the Radio Times, which first reported his departure for ITV, Peston said he was looking for "another big challenge".
He said: "I love the BBC. I genuinely don't know… I mean, going from print journalism to the BBC was a big change, and I sort of feel that I wouldn't mind another big change, but I haven't the faintest idea what it would be."
As rumours of his departure circulated last week, several of Peston's BBC colleagues recorded a spoof "appeal", begging him to stay.
Among them was Radio 4 presenter Eddie Mair, who said he was "prepared to sell my kidney if it increases the amount of money the BBC can afford to offer."

Announcing Peston's appointment on Wednesday, ITV's head of news, Michael Jermey said: "We're delighted Robert is joining ITV. His distinctive and intelligent approach to journalism will fit well with ITV's news and current affairs output.
"Peston on Sunday will offer viewers a fresh and distinctive approach to political discussion at the weekend."
The BBC's head of news, James Harding, added: "Robert is an exceptional journalist and broadcaster who has broken some of the most important stories of the last decade. He has brought a singular insight to difficult and complex issues and he has a style - not to mention a hairstyle - all of his own.
"We'll all miss him."

Anti-Renoir protesters picket Boston art gallery

Protesters have demonstrated outside a Boston art gallery that is showing work by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, complaining that he "sucks at painting".

The group held placards bearing slogans like "God hates Renoir" and "Aesthetic terrorism" at the Museum of Fine Arts.
The protest was organised by the "Renoir Sucks At Painting movement", who say the French impressionist's work does not deserve to be on show.
They claim it will be "the first of many anti-Renoir direct actions".
In a statement on Instagram, the group said: "The MFA's decision to hang Renoir paintings, considering the fact the museum has masterpieces by actually talented artist [sic] in storage, is a curatorial failing, and amounts to an act of Aesthetic Terrorism."

'Deformed pink fuzzy women'

The Associated Press reported that the museum would not comment and that the demonstrators acknowledged they were being ironic.
The Boston Globe reported that they chanted: "Put some fingers on those hands! Give us work by Paul Gauguin!" and "Other art is worth your while! Renoir paints a steaming pile!"
The protest is being led by Harvard stem cell scientist Dr Ben Ewen-Campen, who wrote: "Seeing Renoirs in the MFA makes me sad.
"All the other art in the museum is great - Manet, Van Gogh, Singer Sargent, they're great! But then we get exposed to Renoir's deformed pink fuzzy women and scary looking babies. It really detracts from the overall experience."