Story highlights Moran: It's been a rough 12 months. And now, more than ever, we need to curl up on our sofas and watch other people making cakes

Through the dark times of daily bereavement and the bitter divisions of Brexit, we had a television show that brought us all together

Michael Moran is a British journalist who writes about TV and popular culture. The opinions below belong to the author

(CNN) On Wednesday, the world looked on with bemusement as the British people united to bid farewell to one of their most beloved institutions: a TV show about people baking cakes.

The Great British Bake Off final on BBC1 represented the last time that the national broadcaster will air the show that, for many, crystallizes what it is to be British.

Bake Off demonstrates the three things that we Brits most like about ourselves: a sense of fair play, bordering on downright uncompetitiveness; childish innuendo; and cake.

But one of the things that we don't like about ourselves -- a willingness to sell the most precious pieces of our family silver to make a quick buck -- has led to Bake Off moving to Channel 4 . And in doing so, it will shed many, if not all, of the things that made it so dear to our hearts.

If Bake Off were the only British institution to be cruelly wrenched away from us this year, we'd probably be able to deal with it. We survived Hitler's Blitz. We'd probably be able to cope with a baking competition having its format changed.