John Lewis Christmas advert stars Kristin Scott Thomas and a toy dog called Pickles
The department store's 20th Christmas advert is set to a Sam Fender cover of a Rolling Stones song, recorded with pupils from his old school.
John Lewis released its Christmas advert on Tuesday, with Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as a grandmother who would rather put cash in a card than risk choosing the wrong present.
She plays Gloria, whose grandchildren Freddie and Maggie arrive on Christmas Eve and are soon bored. Her old pull-along wooden dog, Pickles, voiced by Paul Whitehouse, comes to life and tells her she can do better than cash, then drags her across London by tuk-tuk to John Lewis. On Christmas morning the children open cards with no money in them and find a key instead. It unlocks Gloria's study, now a "Gran Cave" of disco balls and fairy lights.
The line running through the campaign is "don't give up on giving". It is the 20th John Lewis Christmas advert.
The song
The soundtrack is Sam Fender's cover of You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones. For the choir part, Fender used current pupils from his old school, John Spence Community High School in North Shields, and he added brass from the Easington Colliery Band.
Money from sales of the single, which also carries Fender's 2020 cover of Winter Song, goes to the Teenage Cancer Trust and Action for Children.
First showings
The full advert went up on John Lewis's social media channels, including YouTube and Instagram, on Tuesday morning. Its first TV showing is on ITV and Channel 4 on Tuesday evening.
