Clockwise order from top left:
- Val, 66, is a former primary school head teacher from Yorkshire who now lives with husband near Yeovil, Somerset. She took over her family's baking aged 15 and says she can make the classics with her eyes closed.
- At 20, Michael is the youngest of this year's contenders. He is from London but is currently studying politics and economics in Durham. His kitchen creations are also influenced by his family's Cypriot roots.
- Benjamina started baking nine years ago at the age of 14. She recently graduated with a first in economics and now fits her baking around a job as a teaching assistant in south London.
- Lee, who lives in Bolton, is the oldest contestant at 67. He began his career as a builder but switched careers and has worked in pastoral ministries for the past 30 years, most recently as pastor in a church in the Greater Manchester town.