“Charlie Bigham – you couldn’t make him up!” So states a cheery Richard Osman at the beginning of this ad, the brand’s biggest since 2015. “Even though most people think we have.”

The ad reinforces Bigham’s corporeality by, er, featuring him throughout in cartoon form. Maybe the brand is looking to create an ‘is he or isn’t he?’ online debate.

Anyway, Osman narrates Bigham’s story – how he travelled the world on a recipe-tasting odyssey, and then returned to cook in his own kitchen, “which grew and grew, and ‘til this day he can still be found in his kitchen, cooking food, tasting food and thinking about food”.

He’s not exactly as implausible a character as the ad’s opening line suggests, is he? And he wouldn’t have had to travel far to find inspiration for its hero dish (fish pie) either. Still, Osman gives it his all, and the animation is charming.

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