The Darkness plan festive fun on The Great British Bake Off Christmas special

(Image credit: Simon Emmett)

The Darkness will perform their festive hit Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) on The Great British Bake Off on Christmas Day, the band have confirmed.

The one-off edition of the show is titled The Great Festive Bake Off, and will see four bakers put through their paces in front of Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig.

The Darkness will also be in the tent, ready to light things up in style by playing their 2003 hit, with the show set to air in the UK on Channel 4 on Christmas Day at 8pm, with a repeat on New Year's Day at 7:40pm.

To mark the announcement, The Darkness have released a live stream of the track, which has been lifted from their album Live At Hammersmith, which launched earlier this year.

Frontman Justin Hawkins says: “As Santa prepares to empty his sack into our collective Christmas chimney, and young faces smeared with festive brandy butter gaze up expectantly, every day is a fun-filled festive frolic of presents and pies. 

“Much as you will enjoy your turkey leftovers on Boxing Day, we are serving up Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) again, this time in a tasty live sauce. Hooray, eh? A rocking good Christmas to one and all!”

It also looks as if 2019 will be a busy year for The Darkness. Not only are they headlining the Ramblin’ Man Fair on July 19, but they are due to enter the studio to begin work on the follow-up to 2017’s Pinewood Smile.

The Darkness: Live At Hammersmith

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2FLive-at-Hammersmith-Explicit-Darkness%2Fdp%2FB07CKJQRNQ%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Darkness: Live At Hammersmith
Recorded in London in December 2017, Live At Hammersmith showcases The Darkness at their best and includes the tracks Black Shuck, Growing On Me and Open Fire.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.