"Behind Brilliant Things"

7 May 2026

90s

Modernising the legacy.

Having thoroughly modernised the advertising of British Airways, Uncommon are aiming to do the same for another of the institutions nationalised by Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s... BT. They've got off to a grand start with this eye-catching opener made in the style of Daniel Wolfe by, well, Daniel Wolfe.

And 'grand' is the word as everything in this film reminds us that BT is a nexus of the infrastructure that keeps this country going. And by including other more intimate aspects of that infrastructure, it places the tech company’s efforts into a context of allyship. The other smaller operations, with personnel who start their working day at 5am so we have what we need to make our contribution, are depicted here as equally vital cogs in a machinery of almost unimaginable complexity who are, nonetheless, humans with their own concerns and their own lives.

The assembly is beautiful, as you'd expect with Wolfe at the helm, and a shout out to editor Scot Crane, who sat alongside the director until everything was just so. The music and sound design make a vital contribution as well, with the 'speaking clock' narration offering a reminder of BT's legacy as a colossus of the past as well as of the future.

The slogan 'Behind Brilliant Things' sits alongside the sliding button iconography to remind us that BT is in the background keeping Britain 'on', even if recent political developments suggest it may be time to try turning the country off and on again... come to think of it, maybe we should ask BT to give that a go!

UK

Telecommunications