The Great British Sewing Bee viewers left raging over 'spoiled' show saying 'I find this infuriating'

The Great British Sewing Bee left viewers 'infuriated' just moments into the new series. The hit BBC show returned to TV screens on Tuesday, 21 May, with a fresh set of amateur sewers competing to be crowned Britain’s best seamster.

Patrick Grant and Esme Young returned as judges, while presenting duties have been taken over by actor Kiell Smith-Bynoe, who has replaced former host Sara Pascoe for the tenth series. He made his hosting debut in the 2023 Christmas special, and also competed on a celebrity edition of the show in 2021.

While many TV viewers were thrilled to see The Great British Sewing Bee return, some were left unimpressed by the new series. Just minutes in to the first episode, fans took to social media to complain.

At the beginning of the episode, several sneak peeks were shown to give viewers a taste of what they could expect from the series. Many outfits created by the contestants were shown, leaving viewers very disappointed as they claimed it had "spoilt" the show.

"Why show more or less every outfit made at the beginning....absolute joke... BBC have spoilt it..." one viewer penned on X, formerly known as Twitter. A second said: "Don't need to watch now that I've seen all the outfits."

A third agreed: "Why are they showing highlights? I find this infuriating I don’t want to see what’s getting made weeks ahead. Let’s meet the contestants and just get on with it."

Each challenge in the first episode of the 10th series was a nod back to the very first series, which aired in 2013 with Claudia Winkleman hosting. For the first task, contestants were asked to created an A-line denim skirt.

Then, in the transformation challenge, they were given a t-shirt and asked to reinvent it into something else. Patrick, 52, explained the link between the series, telling contestants: "In the very first sewing bee, we gave our sewers tops like these and asked them to alter the necklines. It is now the transformation challenge."

Their third and final task was the made-to-measure challenge. The contestants were told to make a casual day dress in five hours.

Sadly, Neil - a 52 year old woodwork instructor - became the the first contestant eliminated from the series. He had left viewers, and host Kiell, slightly terrified after bringing along his "sidekick" to the competition.

Neil introduced his mascot, a ventriloquist dummy called Terry Pastry, leaving viewers uneasy. He explained that he'd built the dummy during lockdown to keep him company, and Kiell later said it was "terrifying".