How can I save this hedge?

[UncomfortableSilence]

So I have an old well established garden mainly full of evergreen hedges. We have lived here for 16 years and apart from trimming they haven't seemed to have needed any maintenance they just do their thing.

This has started to turn brown, I'm no gardener but I believe it's a Bay? Can it be salvaged? It will leave an awful gap if it does and has to be removed.

Bay is almost bulletproof in my garden. I would trim it back to green and let it regrow.

Does it smell like bay?

Does look like bay. It is susceptible to getting crispy in hot sun/drought.

My bay got scorched half to death last year in the hot summer and I cut it back nearly to a stump but I had seen a single green leaf.. this year it's back, bushy and green, making out as if nothing ever happened.

So there's hope, it does have a bit of a smell. It survived last years heatwave and the weathers obviously not been great so far this year so not sure what's causing it.

I'll cut it back and see what happens, thanks all.