John Lewis Christmas Advert 2026: Song, Cast & Meaning

John Lewis’s 2026 Christmas advert is “Gloria and Pickles”, a three-minute film starring Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as a grandmother and Paul Whitehouse as the voice of her toy dog, set to Sam Fender’s new cover of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. John Lewis says its message is “Don’t give up on giving”: choose a thoughtful present instead of putting cash in a card. This page reflects what had been published as of 12:57 GMT on Saturday 7 November 2026.

What is the John Lewis Christmas advert 2026 called?

The advert is called “Gloria and Pickles”, and its tagline is “Don’t give up on giving”. John Lewis describes it as the 20th edition of its Christmas advert. The two names are easy to mix up in coverage, but the title is the characters’ names and the tagline is the slogan that runs alongside it.

When and where did the advert launch?

It launched online at 7.30am GMT on Tuesday 3 November 2026 and made its TV debut that evening. According to John Lewis’s press release, the film premiered on johnlewis.com and the retailer’s social channels, including YouTube and Instagram. On TV it first aired during two programmes on launch night:

• Coronation Street on ITV (8.30pm to 9pm)
• The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4 (8pm to 9.15pm)

After launch night, John Lewis’s media plan has it running on ITV, Sky and Channel 4, on the broadcasters’ catch-up and streaming services, on subscription streaming services (Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+), and across social platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat.

What song is in the John Lewis Christmas advert 2026?

The soundtrack is Sam Fender’s brand-new cover of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, originally by The Rolling Stones. The cover was released on 3 November, the same day as the advert, and John Lewis calls it Fender’s first new music since “Rein Me In”, his record-breaking hit with Olivia Dean.

Fender gave the song a strong local flavour. He said in the release that the children’s choir was re-recorded with pupils from his old school, John Spence Community High School in North Shields, and that the brass section was arranged with the Easington Colliery Band.

The release also carries a quote from Mick Jagger, who said: “I think he’s done a great job with it.”

The single is coming out on 7-inch vinyl and CD, backed with Fender’s 2020 cover of Lindisfarne’s “Winter Song”, which John Lewis and Official Charts both say is available physically for the first time. On launch day John Lewis said the physical copies would be “available soon” on its website. As of 7 November, Official Charts listed the 7-inch and CD as available to pre-order.

Who is in the cast?

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas plays Gloria, and Paul Whitehouse voices Pickles the dog. Those are the only two performers John Lewis credits. In the table below, the first column is the role and the second is who plays it, as named by John Lewis.

John Lewis describes Scott Thomas as an Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning actress. Gloria’s daughter and son-in-law also appear, but they are not named in the story and the actors are not credited. Freddie and Maggie are the grandchildren’s character names; John Lewis has not named the child actors, and neither do we.

Pickles is not a real dog. In the release he is a vintage Fisher-Price Classics “Little Snoopy” pull-along toy, the wooden dachshund on a string that Fisher-Price has made for decades. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with Snoopy from Peanuts.

Whitehouse is best known for The Fast Show, and he plays Argus Filch in HBO’s Harry Potter series, which Creative Salon says director Lucy Forbes has also just finished working on. There is more on that cast in our Harry Potter HBO series cast guide .

What happens in the advert?

Gloria loses confidence about what her grandchildren want, puts cash in their cards, and a talking toy dog pushes her to find a proper gift instead. Here is the story as John Lewis’s official synopsis lays it out:

• On Christmas Eve, Gloria’s daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren Freddie and Maggie arrive at her home after a long journey.
• To keep the restless children busy, she fetches her old toys from the attic and introduces them to Pickles, but they soon lose interest and run off for lunch.
• Feeling she doesn’t know what they really want, Gloria writes their Christmas cards and puts cash in each envelope.
• Pickles comes to life and tells her: “You can do better than cash.”
• He drags her out on a last-minute shopping mission, and a brightly lit TukTuk whisks them through the streets of London. The ride gives Gloria an idea, and she stops it outside John Lewis.
• On Christmas morning the children open their cards and find them empty apart from a single key.
• The key opens Gloria’s home office, which she has turned into a “Gran Cave” full of sparkling lights, disco balls and music inspired by her TukTuk trip. The children hug her.

What does the advert mean, according to John Lewis?

John Lewis says the advert is about not letting the fear of getting a present wrong stop you from giving something thoughtful. The press release frames the story around “the fear of not finding the ‘perfect gift’”, which it says can overshadow the pleasure of giving.

Rosie Hanley, Marketing & Loyalty Director at John Lewis, admitted in the release that she has “definitely resorted to putting cash in an envelope for fear of getting it wrong”. She said “our message this year is simple: ‘Don’t give up on giving’”, and that John Lewis hopes the campaign “restores the nation’s gift-giving confidence”.

Kristin Scott Thomas said in the release that Gloria represents parents and grandparents who want to create lasting memories with the younger generation. Saatchi & Saatchi’s chief creative officer, Franki Goodwin, called it an “intergenerational story”.

Who made the advert?

The advert was created by the agency Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Lucy Forbes. John Lewis describes Forbes as the BAFTA-winning director of the TV dramas This Is Going to Hurt and Eric. Trade coverage in Creative Salon and Famous Campaigns credits the production company Smuggler and the post-production house Selected Works.

Which products and charity are linked to the advert?

All of John Lewis’s profits from the 7-inch and CD sold through its website go to Action for Children, which John Lewis expects to come to at least £18,000 in total. Action for Children is the retailer’s charity partner for its Building Happier Futures programme, which supports people who have grown up in care. Copies sold through Sam Fender’s own online store send their profits to Teenage Cancer Trust instead.

John Lewis also lists the products that appear in the film. They include:

• The Fisher-Price Classics Little Snoopy Pull-Along Toy (Pickles)
• A small disco ball decoration and a neon star light, both John Lewis own-brand
• An Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB turntable
• A Mulberry Eliza leather tote bag
• A John Lewis x RIXO silk floral maxi dress

The release does not give prices, so we haven’t included them here.

How has the advert been received?

Reception has been split: System1’s testing gave it John Lewis’s best score since 2019, while Kantar found it less emotive than past years and some viewers criticised how the grandchildren are portrayed. Here is what measured research and attributed reporting say:

• System1: the creative-effectiveness firm gave “Gloria and Pickles” 5.6 Stars, Advanced Television reported on 4 November. System1 said that makes it John Lewis’s highest-rated Christmas advert since “Excitable Edgar” in 2019, which scored 5.9, and above 2025’s “Where Love Lives” at 5.1. It also said 61% of viewers felt happy watching it, nearly twice the UK TV advertising average. System1 says the scores for Saatchi & Saatchi’s John Lewis adverts have risen every year since the agency’s first, “Snapper: The Perfect Tree”, which scored 3.6 Stars, reaching 4.6 in 2024, 5.1 in 2025 and 5.6 this year.
• Kantar: in comments reported by PA, Kantar’s Lynne Deason praised the humour Pickles brings, the “earworm track” and Scott Thomas’s performance, but said the advert “lacks the emotive punch of previous years” and that the branding could have been stronger.
• Viewer reaction: PA reported that many posters on Mumsnet were irritated by the grandchildren.
• Commentary: newspaper opinion pieces published on 7 November discussed how the advert portrays older people and grandmothers.

Was the TV version of the advert re-edited?

There are claims online that the TV version was re-edited, but John Lewis has not confirmed this. On 6 November, Reach titles including the Mirror and Yorkshire Live reported a viral post on X claiming John Lewis had “quietly re-edited” the advert to tone down the grandchildren’s behaviour. Other social media users replied that a shorter TV edit of a long launch film is standard practice.

The full launch film runs for three minutes, and retailers routinely air shorter cut-downs of long Christmas adverts on TV. Reach said it had approached John Lewis for comment. As of 12:57 GMT on 7 November we had found no response from John Lewis.

Is the John Lewis song in the charts?

Sam Fender’s cover is not in the Official Singles Chart Top 100 dated 6 to 12 November, which counted only three days of sales after the song’s release. Fender is still in that chart with other songs, including “Rein Me In” with Olivia Dean at No. 10. The next chart, dated 13 to 19 November, is published on Friday 13 November and will be the first to cover a full week since the release.

According to Official Charts, the 2026 Christmas Number 1 chart week runs from Friday 18 December to 11.59pm on Thursday 24 December, and the result is revealed on Christmas Day. We don’t make chart predictions.

What other Christmas adverts have launched in 2026?

M&S, Aldi and the National Lottery are among the other retailers and brands to release Christmas adverts since John Lewis launched. In brief, as reported:

• M&S: James Norton plays Santa, the Guardian and the Scotsman reported on 6 November.
• Aldi: Kevin the Carrot returns for an 11th year, searching for a missing “Cauli Dog”, Marketing Week and The Grocer reported on 5 November.
• National Lottery: a determined flying reindeer, with a voiceover by Claudia Winkleman, LADbible and the Daily Mail reported on 6 November.