2020 has been a tough one, and we've never needed soothing content more. Thankfully, it looks like The Great British Bake Off will soon be back on our screens to help get us through the end of this wretched year.
GBBO is now two weeks back into production after a significant delay caused by COVID-19, according to Sky Studios, the parent company of Love Productions, which makes the show. Deadline reports that the show was supposed to begin filming back in April but production was postponed due to safety concerns. Now, however, production is back on track and the new series will probably be released later this year.
Gary Davey, CEO of Sky Studios, and Jane Millichip, Sky's chief commercial officer, said on Wednesday that the show's cast and crew were in quarantine leading up to filming as a safety measure. (We're happy to know Noel Fielding is protected.) Davey and Millichip also told Deadline the two weeks of filming had been going "very well."
Fans of the show are aware that host Sandi Toksvig sadly left GBBO after the most recent series and has been replaced by actor and comedian Matt Lucas, but that might not be the only big change in the forthcoming series. Following the announcement that GBBO's production was postponed, rumours swirled that the show would not shoot in its usual location, a tent in Welford Park, due to coronavirus concerns. The two Sky Studio execs would neither confirm nor deny this claim. According to Deadline, Millichip only said, "It's all happening in deep secret, somewhere in darkest deepest Britain in the shires.” Sounds like just the mood we need to remain as calm as possible through the end of 2020.