A sonic Sweet Relief

Modern life can sometimes be tough… so when 4creative approached us to work on the GBBO launch film, the objective was clear - give the country some much-needed ‘Sweet Relief’. To distil the joyful essence of the much-loved show into a mesmerising, delightful soundscape. “What does a group of flying croissants sound like?” - we were hooked from the very first briefing.

Of course the driving elements in the film are Noel and Alison with their characterful quips. Their upbeat chemistry really elevated the animatic in the early stages and showed us how great the film could really be. Some fun additions later on involved hearing Noel through the jelly - done by simulating his voice travelling through a wonky steel pipe.

As the film is packed full of easter-eggs nodding to the show, we wanted to explore this in the soundtrack too. One of the thunder layers in the opening scene is a baking tray being shook and wobbled violently (to emulate the classic thunder sheet effect used in early theatre/cinema) and we couldn’t resist a baking-themed cry for the diving Gingerbread man - ”Battenburg!”

One of the most enjoyable parts of the process was fleshing out the wonderful hand-drawn environments - using a mixture of library recordings and my own field recordings from travels around the UK; including a Scottish dawn chorus and a babbling Welsh stream.

The final piece of the puzzle was the music. Each track we tested along the way gave the film a unique flavour, but in the end Sammy Davis Jnr’s ‘Sweet Gingerbread Man’ from 1972 fit the bill perfectly - adding a youthful sweetness that balanced perfectly with the visuals.

Huge kudos to the whole team at 4creative - Stuart Gittings, Reuben Dangoor, Lex Down, Lynsey Atkin and Paul Gleeson, and Nexus director, Bonnie Taylor Forsyth, for such a joyful collaboration. We are chomping at the bit for the GBBO 2024 first episode!