Twenty Christmases in, the John Lewis ad is less a commercial than a national fixture, and that is exactly the problem every new one has to solve. “Gloria and Pickles” solves it with star casting and a talking toy. Saatchi & Saatchi and director Lucy Forbes put Dame Kristin Scott Thomas in the role of a stylish grandmother who has quietly given up on choosing presents, and a vintage pull-along dog voiced by Paul Whitehouse who refuses to let her. The tagline is “Don’t give up on giving.” It is warm, funny and beautifully dressed, and also, underneath the tinsel, a three-minute argument against putting cash in a card, made by a shop.
Note: at launch, the official upload on the John Lewis YouTube channel is restricted to UK viewers, so readers elsewhere may see a “video unavailable” message in the player above.
WHAT HAPPENS ON SCREEN
It is Christmas Eve. Gloria finishes decorating a handsome, slightly museum-like home and welcomes her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, Freddie and Maggie. The kids are restless after the journey, so she brings her old toys down from the attic, including Pickles, a little red-wheeled pull-along dog that was her own childhood present. They lose interest the moment lunch is called. Alone at her desk, Gloria writes their cards and slips cash into each envelope.
Then Pickles wakes up. Whitehouse gives him the voice of a grumpy old pal, and he goes straight to the point: she can do better than cash, and you cannot fit the feeling of unwrapping something into an envelope. A shopping montage through crowded London stores follows, with Gloria rejecting one generic option after another. Just as the pair are about to give up, a neon-lit tuk-tuk appears, and the ride through the Christmas streets, all pink streaks and fairy lights, sparks her idea. She stops it outside John Lewis.
On Christmas morning the children open their cards and find them empty. Gloria holds up a key, unlocks her home office and reveals the “Gran Cave”: tinsel curtains, disco balls, cushions and music, a party room built in the spirit of the tuk-tuk. The kids throw their arms around her, and the end card reads “Don’t give up on giving” over Pickles and the John Lewis logo. According to the press coverage, everything in the room was either recycled from elsewhere in the house or cost under GBP 100.
CREDITS
Brand: John Lewis. Film: “Gloria and Pickles,” 3:00, the retailer’s 20th Christmas campaign, launched on November 3, 2026. Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London (CCO Franki Goodwin, CD Simon Cheadle). Production: Smuggler London, director Lucy Forbes. Edit: tenthree. Post and VFX: Selected Works. Colour: Harbor. Sound: 750mph. Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas as Gloria, Paul Whitehouse as the voice of Pickles. Music: Sam Fender’s new cover of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Credits per shots and LBB Online.
THE EXECUTION
Lucy Forbes, whose TV work includes This Is Going to Hurt and Eric, brings the right kind of dryness. The first half is shot in deep, warm interiors and plays almost as a chamber piece: a woman, a desk, a pile of envelopes and a toy that will not stop judging her. Scott Thomas is the best thing here. She plays Gloria not as a sweet granny but as a capable, slightly prickly woman who is embarrassed to be out of her depth, and her reactions to Pickles carry the comedy far more than the lines do.
The tuk-tuk sequence is the visual high point, a blast of magenta and motion blur that breaks the brown-and-gold palette open, and the Gran Cave pays it off with the same colours. Fender’s cover is the most conventional element: a slowed, choir-backed rework of a famous song, which is precisely the John Lewis formula. It works, but surprises nobody.
WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T
What works: the insight is real. Plenty of grandparents do default to cash because they are afraid of getting the present wrong, and the ad treats that fear with affection rather than mockery. The payoff is also nicely judged. The gift is not a product shot but an experience Gloria builds herself, and the detail that it was assembled from things around the house gives the film a little cost-of-living cover.
What doesn’t: the logic of the epiphany is thin. A tuk-tuk ride inspires a disco room, and John Lewis is where she happens to stop, so the store’s actual role in the story is vague; we never really see what she buys there. The moral also sits awkwardly with the messenger. A retailer telling the nation that cash is lazy and proper presents are better is not exactly a neutral observation, and the film’s charm only partly disguises the sales pitch. And the UK-only YouTube restriction means one of the year’s most discussed ads is, for a global audience, a grey box.
VERDICT
“Gloria and Pickles” is a solid, polished 20th anniversary entry rather than a classic. Kristin Scott Thomas and Paul Whitehouse make a genuinely fun double act, the tuk-tuk and Gran Cave give it colour and energy, and the gifting insight is truer than most. But the story bends a little too conveniently toward the till, and the formula of star, toy and slowed-down cover is starting to show its age. Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
