1. Why? Because of her facial expressions of course.
2. And the contrast we saw in just a few seconds.
3. Her face during "alternative ingredients" week.
4. How you thought she was the smallest.
When she was actually THE tallest contestant.
Apparently I appeared tall on bake off, in real life I'm small and elf like. Here's me with the giant @BegumNadiya
5. And how she ran LIKE HELL during the finals.
RAN LIKE HELL.
6. She's more than that. She became our favourite for her reviews of how well she thought she was doing.
7. And there were moments when she risked leaving, especially during vol-au-vent HELL week. This resulted in her becoming the underdog for the whole series.
8. And then her bakes became crazy, crazy inventive.
9. Not forgetting her fab fizzy pop cheesecakes.
10. We then started to shout at the TV when she said she was doing badly, because she was doing really well.
11. In the final, she helped Tamal when he dropped some of his kitchen utensils on the floor. In. The. Final.
12. And her reason for making a wedding cake in the final was so thought through and ever so sweet.
13. Of course she had to win. Nobody else could have.
14. Our favourites never win television shows normally. Never. The favourites usually come second. But Nadiya proved to be the exception, for these reasons.
15. Nadiya's speech that followed was the best goddamn winning speech on TV for a long, long time.
16. This speech had quite an unexpected impact.
Went into my son's high school today, big poster of @BegumNadiya in the foyer "I'm never going to say 'I can't do it'" #GBBO
HAVE IT @sophie_gadd. RT AWAY. NADIYA FOREVS. #GBBO
17. And when some right-wing newspaper columnists came back with snarky comments about Nadiya's win...
Rod Liddle is such an absolute wank basket...
...she came back with this reasoned, intelligent point of view in an interview with The Times Magazine.
I tried hard not to get too engaged in the politics of the whole thing. Somebody said, "You have done more for race relations than anyone has done in the past ten years," and, actually, that's not a bad thing, so I'm not going to sit here and say, "No, I'm not proud of that." Absolutely I am proud of that.
I am proud that, at whatever level, over however many layers, I seem to have related to stay-at-home mums, wives, mothers, Muslims, Bangladeshis, Lutonians, Yorkshire folk – everyone. I didn't expect to do that. I thought I'd disappear under the radar, and I am proud to have done that, and the only way I have is because I am just a normal person.
As well as in an interview with The Guardian.
For me, it's important to instil in my children that they can do whatever they like, that no matter what their religion and colour, they can achieve what they want through hard work. And it's nice to be able to do the same for a wider audience. If I have - amazing.
She's a hero. And a talent. And I'm so excited to see what 2016 brings for her.
Love knows no bounds... Thankyou everyone for all the love you have shown me
Thank you for all of the entertainment and inspiration you have provided this year, Nadiya. You have absolutely nailed 2015. ABSOLUTELY NAILED IT.
