JUST DESSERTSCLASSIFIED RESEARCH
TOP SECRET
Property of The National — Do Not Distribute
Click to open file
← Return to Widdersham
EYES ONLY

Just Desserts

CLASSIFIED RESEARCH

File Ref. WBF–14 · Compiled by P. Sharma, The National

Pitch
Background
Correspondents
Judges
Contestants
Timeline
Episodes
Market Analysis
Contact
Document 01 · The Pitch
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
ReWiddersham — series overview
A disgraced journalist. A village baking competition. Seven suspicious deaths.
Just Desserts · 8 × 60’ Dark Comedy Mystery Thriller

After a botched stakeout lands her on the front page for all the wrong reasons, investigative journalist Priya Sharma is demoted and dispatched to cover the Widdersham Baking Festival — a beloved annual competition in an impossibly pretty Cotswolds village.

She arrives contemptuous of the assignment. She stays because Fran Donoghue and Damien Beauregard tell her to leave — and Priya Sharma does not leave when people tell her to leave.

What she finds is seven suspicious deaths, a fourteen-year cover-up, a local reporter called Neil who goes down on one knee every time she says his name, and a village that would very much like her to go back to London.

When her press credentials are revoked, her only way back into the tent is to enter the competition herself — baking her late father’s recipe while simultaneously solving a murder.

She arrives thinking she is too good for the story. She leaves having learned that the best journalism — and the best people — come to those who slow down and listen.

Tone: Hot Fuzz meets Knives Out, set inside the world of The Great British Bake Off. Genuinely funny. Genuinely tense. Completely committed to being both at once.

8
Episodes
60’
Runtime
12
Bakers
7+
Bodies
The Black List

The pilot script ranked in the top 19% of all material evaluated on The Black List.

Document 02 · Background
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
ReThe village, the festival, what I know so far
Widdersham–upon–Wensleydale.
Population 140 · Cotswolds, England · Festival Founded 2013

Widdersham sits in a fold of the Cotswolds. Honey-coloured stone, a duck pond with plastic ducks, a war memorial, and one pub — the Crown & Whisk — that does not permit outside drinks and does exceptional crisps.

The Widdersham Baking Festival has run without interruption since 2013. Six rounds across six weeks. A committee, a judging panel, and a Golden Whisk that has changed hands only a handful of times in fourteen years.

The festival is the single most important thing that happens in Widdersham each year. It is also, per subject’s ongoing research, ████████████████████ during competition week, every year, without exception.

Notable locations: Dorothy & Harold’s B&B (the Ghost Suite is haunted by a man called Tony, not a ghost). The memorial garden (six plaques, one low stone wall, a flower rota). St. Botolph’s churchyard (one additional grave, unmarked as festival-related).

Document 03 · Correspondents
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
RePersonnel currently assigned, for better or worse
The National — Widdersham Desk.
Personnel Assigned to This Investigation
EXCELLENT REPORTER

Priya Sharma

Lead Correspondent

Demoted from serious journalism to a baking festival after a stakeout went spectacularly wrong. Sharp, stubborn, allergic to being told what to do. Assigned to cover scones. Found a body by the end of episode one.

“I’ve been tear-gassed in Cairo. I’m not frightened of a scone.”
USELESS

Neil Beckett

Consultant / Assistant Correspondent

Local reporter. Knows every resident of Widdersham personally and has never once questioned why so many of them are dead. Invaluable once he starts actually investigating rather than eating scones.

“Accidents happen. Nobody asked Fat Hammond to eat all those sausages.”
INTERFERES

Nigel Crosby

Editor

Sent Priya to Widdersham as a punishment. Arrives in person to drag her back to London. Does not leave. Currently residing at Dorothy’s B&B indefinitely.

“I don’t want to hear any more about it.”
OBSESSED

Abbie Wakefield

Expert Consultant

Has recorded every episode of the Widdersham Baking Festival for fourteen years — purely for personal interest, don’t make it weird. Colour-coded spreadsheet. Bounced from the assignment by Priya’s reassignment. Not bitter. Slightly bitter.

“Your caramel crown is uneven.”
Document 04a · The Panel
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
ReThree judges. One of them knows more than he's saying.
The Judges.
Widdersham Baking Festival · Judging Panel
HIDING SOMETHING

Damien Beauregard

Judging Chair, Six Years

Food critic. Pocketwatch. Refused my handshake within four minutes of meeting me. Chair of this panel for six years running — exactly as long as the financial irregularities I still can’t prove.

INTENSE

Judith Marsh

Cookbook Author

Closes her eyes for a full forty-five seconds when something is exceptional. Calls Fran every year before the competition starts. Won’t say why. Guard is up around me specifically.

HARMLESS

Dean Castle

Former Premiership Midfielder

Scores bread like it’s a football match. Genuinely has no idea why he was hired for this. Has asked me to call him three separate times. Not a suspect. Possibly a friend.

Document 04 · Subjects
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
ReEveryone currently in the tent. Assume nothing.
The Contestants.
Widdersham Baking Festival · Fourteenth Annual Competition
Subject 01

Fran Donoghue

Seven-Time Winner
  • Control freak
  • Too tall
  • Always colour coordinated outfits
  • Always wins
Subject 02

Margaret Cavendish

Five-Time Runner-Up
  • Very nice
  • Clammy hands
  • Always staring
  • Close to Fran
  • Always runner up
Subject 03

Beverley Holt

Fran’s Associate
  • Big forearms
  • Smelly coat
  • Gets bad nosebleeds
  • Needs Listerine
Subject 04

Rohit Desta

Frontrunner, Round One
  • Genuinely seems nice — suspicious?
  • Likes herb butter
  • Laughs like a donkey
Subject 05

Jerome Albright

Accountant
  • Weird notebook
  • Looks like he’s choking with his tie
  • Doesn’t smile
  • Eyebrows too big
Subject 06

Becky Hargreaves

Strangely Competent
  • Neil is obsessed?
  • Talks too fast
  • Klutzy
  • Peroxide job
Subject 07

Simon Marsh

Eliminated, Round One
  • Boring bastard
  • Carries an actual handkerchief?
  • Smells like mould
Subject 08

Agnes Fletcher

Eleven-Year Veteran
  • Butterfingers
  • Nervous
  • Aggressive cat
Subject 09

Carol Simmons

Village Favourite
  • Friendly
  • Loves her soup
  • Everyone loves her
  • Seems too perfect — perhaps an alien???
  • Probably a bit of a bitch
Subject 10

Donna Webb

Fran’s Entry
  • Flinches a lot
  • Likes sauerkraut
  • Goblin hands
Subject 11

Greta

Wildcard Entry
  • Angry German
  • Also likes sauerkraut — possible cabal w/ Donna???
  • Shouts a lot
  • Don’t think she understands what scones are
Subject 12

Gabrielle — Surname Unknown

Postal Entry · Did Not Attend
  • Entered by post
  • Sent a trifle. Through the post.
  • Judith says best trifle she’s ever had
  • Never turned up
  • Why does this sound familiar?
Document 05 · Timeline
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
ReFourteen years. Six names. Still counting.
Fourteen Years. Six Names.
Deaths Recorded During Festival Week · Compiled from Committee & Parish Records
2018
Jean Alcott. Locked in the walk-in freezer. Ruled accidental.
2020
Gerald Humphries. Choked at the dinner table. “Always a mouthful,” per witnesses.
2022
Roger Twelvetrees. Cardiac event. Leading the competition at time of death.
2023
Martin Hammond. Found in the downstairs lavatory. PC Danny: “probably pushed too hard.”
2023
Keith Wrexham. Self-inflicted, eight times, through the neck. Ruled misadventure.
2024
Patricia Doone. Fell from a roof. “A very loud cry for help,” per PC Danny.
Full fourteen-year timeline in progress — additional entries pending research
Document 06 · Season One
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
ReWhat actually happens, in order
Eight Hours.
Full Episode Breakdown · Series One
Episode One
Out of the Frying Pan
Disgraced after a stakeout goes catastrophically wrong, journalist Priya Sharma is sent to cover the Widdersham Baking Festival, lodging at a B&B run by motherly Dot and feisty Harold, while her editor Nigel warns her to “stay out of trouble.” In the local cemetery she’s found by naïve but lovable local reporter Neil Beckett, who walks her through years of “happy accidents” the festival has swept under the rug. Priya asks her Widdersham-obsessed best friend Abbie, back in London, to research the victims. The next day, Widdersham 2026 kicks off, and Neil talks Priya through the judges: Damien, a defensive food critic and restaurateur; Judith, an intense and judgmental cookbook author; and Dean, a delusional but affable ex-footballer. First-time baker Rohit wins the bread round, while old hand Simon is eliminated after seven-time champion Fran Donoghue quietly sabotages his oven. Pressed on the death toll, Neil takes Priya to the grave of a journalist who drowned in a duck pond three years earlier. Damien materialises out of the dark with a plane ticket out of town and a request to leave Widdersham in peace. Priya declines. By morning, Rohit is found dead in a freezer, and Priya realises this assignment is a very different kind of dead end than she expected.
Episode Two
Into the Fire
PC Danny rules Rohit’s death an accident, courtesy of a frozen turkey. Priya isn’t convinced and digs into Damien, but while searching his car outside the village hall, she’s caught by a hostile old man with the eyes of someone who’s buried things before. In London, Abbie sets off for Dorset on a lead from fourteen years of festival footage: Eric Hobbs, a 2013 finalist who mysteriously quit the competition and moved south. A Widdersham affiliate is already watching her, determined she won’t bring anything home. Priya’s accusations of a cover-up are dismissed by the judges, but not before she learns Fran and Judith meet privately every year, a week before the competition. The pastry round turns chaotic: Agnes is eliminated by sabotaged butter, and Greta is badly burned when loose screws collapse her caramel rigging. Checking on Greta that evening, Priya arrives moments too late, glimpsing someone slipping away as Greta pitches over the staircase railing. Neil helps Becky with her lamination technique, completely failing to notice it’s a date.
Episode Three
Mission Improbable
Nigel arrives to drag Priya back to London; within an hour, Harold has him eight pints deep at the Crown and Whisk. In Dorset, Eric Hobbs warns Abbie that meddling with Widdersham is dangerous. Driving home, she’s run off the road and comes face to face with Edna, who looks ready to finish the job until the police arrive and Edna plays dumb. It’s written off as an accident. Priya’s digging into Damien turns up nothing but an unexplained fortune, so she turns to a new lead: the drowned journalist, Ryan Dickson. Bart Fenwick, Harold’s rival of thirty years and the man who caught Priya at Damien’s car, darkens Harold’s doorstep, enjoying every second. The biscuit round claims no elimination; Jerome’s mille-feuille stops the tent cold, and Becky earns praise too. That night, Priya and Neil catch Fran and Margaret storming out of a heated exchange, clearly plotting. They argue over who to follow, Priya telling Neil he hasn’t got a decent investigative bone in his body, and split up. Neil trails Margaret to Beverley’s house, where they argue until Beverley storms off. Priya trails Fran to a meeting with Damien; he spots her, and she confronts him about the murders. As she leaves, Damien makes a call: “Pull the trigger.”
Episode Four
Whisk Taking
Jerome is found dead, the shadow of Damien’s call hanging over everything, until Priya learns what he meant: her press access has been pulled. Her London colleague sends early research on Ryan Dickson, with word of more in paper storage and possibly at Ryan’s flat, which he owned and his family never cleared, a hoarder’s time capsule. Craig and Tamsin arrive to a festival in crisis, Fran working hard to keep them away from the body. Overnight, the B&B is broken into: Priya’s string wall is torn down and Harold’s prized tomatoes are smashed, which tells Harold it was Bart. Rejected by Judith and Dean, Priya breaks into what she thinks is Damien’s office, lands in Judith’s instead, and cracks the safe, taking recipe cards that mean nothing to her yet. Becky wins the free-form round and the golden medal after Neil talks her through a wobble, earning a giddy kiss. Craig and Tamsin fawn over her, then tell Fran privately they see Becky as the future face of the competition. Abbie returns from Dorset, and Neil has a rare brilliant idea: get Priya into the empty spot in the competition. Harold distracts Damien while a catastrophically drunk Nigel nearly lets him slip, and Priya tries Judith and Dean again. Rejected. Abbie insists she keeps seeing Edna; nobody believes her. Priya sends Nigel to London for Ryan’s files and retreats to the B&B, where Dot glances at a recipe card and calls it one of Judith’s. The handwriting is Fran’s. Priya heads straight back to Judith. That evening, Edna drives into Widdersham.
Episode Five
Baker, Baker, Baker, Spy
Priya confronts Judith with the recipe cards and accuses her of the murders. Judith denies it, but admits she’s been softening Fran’s scores in exchange for her recipes. Priya blackmails her way into the empty slot. In the savoury round, Priya is in deep. Margaret warns her there’s more at stake than she knows, and people here can be dangerous. Becky’s dish excites Judith and Dean, a problem for Craig and Tamsin, who tell Fran that Becky’s romance with Neil makes her unmarketable and they want Fran as the face of the brand. Margaret overhears. In London, Nigel recruits four local heavies to break into Ryan’s old flat, but these disarmingly polite, alarmingly clever young men won’t help until he’s explained Priya’s entire investigation. Once inside, Nigel starts digging, but Bart’s on his tail; after a cat-and-mouse chase around the estate, Nigel escapes back to Widdersham. Fran tries to sabotage Becky’s station; Neil catches it. Becky wins anyway, Priya scrapes through, and Donna is eliminated. Nigel reaches Dot and Harold’s with Bart in pursuit, and Harold and Bart come face to face in a confrontation that nearly turns physical. Edna meets Fran: Abbie knows about Eric Hobbs, possibly more, and can’t be a loose end. That night, Neil stakes out Becky’s house, and Priya and Nigel go for a walk to talk performance reviews, leaving Abbie at the B&B with Dot and Harold. Knife in hand, Edna approaches the door.
Episode Six
Knead for Speed
Edna faces down Abbie in Dot’s kitchen, Dot caught between them, until Priya and Nigel return and Abbie runs to fetch them, giving Edna time to slip out the back. The four hold a kitchen council: this is no longer theoretical. Harold will fit new locks in the morning, and nobody comes in until then. Abbie sends Priya to bed. With the festival’s rest day to prepare, Abbie drills Priya for the cake round, Priya grumbling that she can’t interrogate anyone elbow-deep in buttercream. Neil, worried sick about Becky, and Nigel, puzzling over Ryan’s files, each take her aside, and Dot and Harold remind her that to these women, the competition is their whole lives: to bring the house of cards down, she has to be inside it. Priya finishes the cake round in the bottom, until Becky spends her golden medal to save her. Beverley goes home instead. Brian remarks to Priya how selfless that was, though it makes sense, since Becky’s pulling out anyway. With Beverley out of the competition, Margaret sends her after Becky, who is grabbed off the street in broad daylight. Priya and Neil give chase in his battered Vauxhall under gunfire, ending in a warehouse knife fight that unmasks Beverley as the kidnapper. Neil throws her out of a first-floor window; she survives, barely. As she’s loaded into the ambulance, Margaret makes sure she’s strapped in tight, and Damien offers to ride with her. Priya is shaken but unharmed, and Neil takes Becky to hospital to be checked over.
Episode Seven
Piping Hot
Beverley goes out the back of the ambulance and Neil, following too close, runs her over. She’s dead at the scene. Abbie slipped away the night before to steal a look at Judith’s notes for the technical: financiers. Edna spots her leaving. Abbie drills Priya on financiers overnight. Neil tells Becky how he feels and asks her to be his girlfriend; she says yes. The technical is a kouign-amann, swapped last minute by Damien on Fran’s word, via Edna. With Abbie in her ear through a hidden earpiece, Priya just scrapes through, and Carol goes home. Craig and Tamsin unveil the prize: the winner’s own baking show, worth millions, and a look between Fran and Damien tells Priya they already knew. Edna sets something in motion. That night, fire tears through the B&B just as Nigel finds what he’s been looking for in Ryan’s files. He gets Dot out, then goes back for the boxes. Harold chases the arsonist to the duck pond, unmasks Bart, and drowns him in the same water where Ryan Dickson died. Priya pulls Nigel from the wreckage, and before he’s taken away, he tells her she was right: there’s proof. Fran emerges from the fire too, having gone in to help, and for a moment Priya’s enemies are unclear. With Nigel in hospital, Harold wounded and the B&B in ruins, dawn brings the grand final.
Episode Eight
The Showstopper
Nigel’s in hospital, the B&B is ash, and the final goes ahead behind closed doors, the four finalists baking in private while the village waits at a fete on the green for the grand reveal. Abbie hides behind the tent, ready to feed Priya instructions through a Bluetooth earpiece. Dot offers words of wisdom; Harold offers a jar of tomatoes, just in case. Priya’s stand mixer is sabotaged before the clock starts, forcing a pivot to her late father’s croquembouche. Mid-bake, Priya asks Becky what brought her back after withdrawing. Becky never withdrew. Through Abbie, Priya and Neil realise that the call Brian received reporting Becky’s withdrawal came before the kidnapping: whoever made it knew what was coming. Neil asks Brian who called. Margaret, who fiddled with the ambulance straps, and who is in the tent with them. Falling behind, Fran has Damien cut the power and retrieves a pre-made showstopper. Under red emergency lights, Margaret picks up a knife. Out back, Edna ambushes Abbie and drags her away while the village looks elsewhere. Fran and Margaret go at each other with knives and rolling pins, and Margaret wounds Fran. Priya and Becky are caught in the fight through flour, caramel and collapsing stations. Neil storms in and is felled by a frying pan; Priya smashes Harold’s jar of tomatoes over Margaret’s head and turns the tide. In an old warehouse, Edna strings Abbie up to make it look like she couldn’t handle the pressure of the village, but Abbie smashes the chair she’s tied to and overpowers her. Edna escapes. Neil gets back up and finishes Margaret as Fran, bleeding, pulls down the tent walls, exposing everything to the crowd. Margaret is led away by police. Fran confesses to poisoning Eric Hobbs in 2013, and to the long watch she set up afterwards: Edna guarding Eric, and Bart guarding Ryan Dickson’s secrets after drowning him in the duck pond. She is detained. Priya accuses Damien in front of the judges of siphoning competition funds. The police say it’s a matter for Scotland Yard; Priya tells them Nigel’s on the phone with them now. Priya wins on merit and hands the prize to Becky, leaning on Craig and Tamsin to make it stick. Neil announces he’s moving to London with Becky, having landed a job as a private investigator. At Nigel’s bedside, Priya and Abbie talk about going home. Priya has no idea what’s next. Nigel puts his head on the desk. After the credits: sweet, gentle Dot pays Edna a visit.
Document 07 · Market Relevancy
ToFile
FromP. Sharma
ReWhy this isn’t a hard sell
This is not a speculative genre. It is a proven one, moving right now.
Market Relevancy & Comparable Performance · Sources Cited Throughout

Just Desserts sits where two proven categories meet: comedy-forward murder mystery, and the competitive baking world built by The Great British Bake Off. British broadcasters are commissioning the first right now, and the second is one of the most-watched programmes in the country. Neither is a bet on future taste.

Working Right Now in the UK

Ludwig

BBC One · Big Talk Studios

9.5M viewers in its first 28 days, the BBC’s biggest comedy launch since at least 2018. Won the 2025 International Emmy for Comedy. A third series was ordered before the second had aired.

Death Valley

BBC One · BBC Studios Comedy

A comedy murder mystery with an amateur sleuth. 2.9M overnight viewers at launch, the most-watched new BBC scripted comedy in five years. Back for a second series.

The Marlow Murder Club

UKTV · Monumental Television

Cosy crime with amateur sleuths in a picturesque English town. Co-commissioned by UKTV and PBS Masterpiece in the US. Renewed for a fourth series in 2026.

Death in Paradise

BBC One · Red Planet Pictures

Fifteen years on air and recommissioned in April 2026 for two more series. Watched in 230 territories, with two spin-offs: Beyond Paradise and Return to Paradise.

Bad Sisters

Apple TV+ · Merman

Dark comedy built around a suspicious death and a family of suspects. BAFTA for Best Drama Series, a Peabody Award, and four Emmy nominations. Renewed for a second season.

Ghosts

BBC One · Monumental Television

A British ensemble comedy that became a hit American remake on CBS, with further international versions in development in Germany and Spain.

Why Now

The Thursday Murder Club (Netflix, 2025). Richard Osman’s elderly amateur sleuths, adapted with Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley. 24.7M views in its first week on Netflix, and the most-watched programme in the UK that week (6.58M viewers, Barb). The closest tonal comparable currently in market. ████████████████

Death at the White Hart (2025). Written by Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch), set in a picturesque village concealing dark secrets. The bestselling UK crime debut of 2025, and now being adapted for television by Red Planet Pictures.

The Great British Bake Off. The number one programme among 16–34 year olds on UK commercial television in 2025. Format licensed to 30+ countries. US audience demand measured at 16.3× the average show, in the top 2.7% of titles tracked (Parrot Analytics, 2025).

Two audiences, one show. Bake Off delivers the young audience British broadcasters find hardest to reach. Cosy crime delivers the mass mainstream one. Just Desserts is built to bring both into the same tent.

International Comparables

Only Murders in the Building

Hulu / Disney+

Renewed for a 6th season. Popular in 25+ countries. Single-week Nielsen record of 599M viewing minutes (Oct 2024).

Glass Onion

Netflix, 2022

Netflix paid $469M for two sequel films. 82.1M hours viewed in week one (~35M households). One of Netflix’s ten most-watched films ever.

Knives Out

Theatrical, 2019

Grossed over $300M worldwide from an approximate $40M budget.

Hot Fuzz

Theatrical, 2007

Grossed $80.7M worldwide from a $16M budget. Rated in Empire’s Top 100 British films.

Derry Girls

Channel 4, 2018

Channel 4’s biggest comedy launch since 2004. Consolidated UK average of 2.5M viewers. Now globally available on Netflix.

Format Precedent

Channel 4 / Netflix

Game of Wool, Blown Away and The Big Flower Fight all extend Bake Off’s exact format DNA into new crafts — commissioners are already building here.

How Shows Like This Get Made

A UK broadcaster plus a US partner. The Marlow Murder Club is co-commissioned by UKTV and PBS Masterpiece. Masterpiece also co-produces Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders series with the BBC. British village crime is a genre American public television actively pays into.

A European co-producer. Ludwig is co-produced with Germany’s ZDF, with ITV Studios handling international distribution.

International sales. Death in Paradise is watched in 230 territories through BBC Studios. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, an Australian cosy-crime series, was bought by broadcasters in 120 countries and territories and went on to spawn a spin-off, a feature film and a Chinese-language remake.

An Australia/UK co-production. The writer is Australian, and the UK is one of Australia’s official co-production treaty partners. Approved official co-productions may access Australia’s Producer Offset (30% for television, subject to Screen Australia approval and minimum Australian spend). In 2026 Screen Australia and Ausfilm launched Partner with Australia (UK) specifically to build Australia/UK co-productions.

What This Deliberately Excludes

No production budget, revenue forecast, or return projection appears in this file. Without an attached broadcaster, distributor, or cast, any such figures would be estimates dressed as facts. They belong to a line producer and sales agent once a real commissioning conversation is underway — not to a case file compiled before one exists.

Every figure above is sourced to public reporting. Nothing here needs to be defended because nothing here was invented.

Document 08 · Contact
ToWhoever Finds This
FromP. Sharma
ReGet in touch with whoever actually wrote this file
Enquiries.
Just Desserts · Written by Lex Peel

Lex Peel

Writer & Creator

Email
alexander.peel@outlook.com

Available on Request

Materials

The pilot script. The full season bible. The pitch deck. The series synopsis, ending included. A conversation, by phone or otherwise.