Bake Off fever sweeps the eclectic British nation in 4Creative’s rousing trailer

4Creative has released this year’s trailer for The Great British Bake Off, featuring an eclectic cast of baking fanatics whipping up into hysteria as the new series approaches. Moving away from the previous two years’ entirely animated trailers – in 2017 by Parabella and in 2018 by Alex Boutell, who returns this year as director – the ad is largely live action with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flourishes of animation and visual effects.

There’s also a subtle nod back to 2017’s ad with the soundtrack, All Together Now, another McCartney number whose lyrics directly correlate with the film’s exact sequence of events. At the start, a count up to ten in the song relates to quick fire scenes showing egg timers and measuring jugs displaying the numbers. Later, a sing-song through the colour spectrum comes in tandem with shots of black burned baked goods, red flustered bakers, an orange person eating a sponge cake in a tanning booth, a swimmer belly-flopping into a chocolate pool, and the actual Cookie Monster.

VFX such as the birthday cake hot air balloon come courtesy of Analog Studio, which has previously worked with FKA Twigs, Bjork, Microsoft and Coca-Cola; while a split-second scene showing hand-drawn scone animations was made by animator Joe Sparkes. Matt Fox# returns from last year’s ad as director of photography, and Simon Davis was behind the production design. The creatives from 4Creative overseeing the project were Andy Shrubsole and Scott Taylor.

“This year we wanted to shift the focus to the people behind the bakes, giving a voice to the diverse and passionate bakers of Britain, a nation blessed with a legacy of rich regional baking traditions, culinary creativity and a universal willingness to give it a go,” says Chris Wood, acting head of 4Creative.

It will air for the first time tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.