Gloria and Pickles

The story

Why it stays with you

John Lewis's twentieth Christmas advert sends a glamorous grandmother across London in a flying tuk-tuk, chaperoned by a vintage pull-along toy dog who refuses to let her give up on giving. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Gloria, Paul Whitehouse voices Pickles, and Sam Fender covers The Rolling Stones.

It is Christmas Eve and Gloria's grandchildren, Freddie and Maggie, have arrived with their eyes on their screens. Her cupboard of old toys gets a shrug, so she does what a lot of grandparents do and starts writing cash into cards. That is when Pickles, a vintage pull-along dog from her own childhood, comes to life and tells her off.

What follows is the most old-fashioned John Lewis structure in years: a character mascot, a flight across London in a tuk-tuk, a stop outside the shop, and a payoff on Christmas morning. The envelopes hold a single key. It opens Gloria's home office, now a Gran Cave of disco balls and fairy lights, and the family dances.

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas plays Gloria and Paul Whitehouse is the voice of Pickles, who is a real Fisher-Price Classics pull-along first made in 1968 and, inevitably, on sale at John Lewis. The film is the twentieth John Lewis Christmas advert and the fourth made with Saatchi & Saatchi. Lucy Forbes directs for Smuggler.

The song is Sam Fender's cover of The Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want. The children's choir is pupils from Fender's old school in North Shields and the brass is Easington Colliery Band. It is out as a single, with a 7-inch and CD carrying a B-side, Winter Song. John Lewis's profits from the single go to Action for Children and the profits from Fender's own store go to Teenage Cancer Trust.

The advert went online at 7:30am on Tuesday 3 November 2026 and made its television debut the same evening, in Coronation Street on ITV and The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4, as a 60-second cut.

The reaction on day one was split. The nostalgia and the Fender cover landed well, while a loud corner of social media decided the grandchildren were spoilt and the whole thing too much of a shop window. John Lewis said it was proud of the film and happy to have the debate. We would file it next to Monty the Penguin and Buster the Boxer: a mascot story, a London flight, and a toy you can buy on the way out.

Day-one backlash is tabloid-amplified social sentiment, not a brand-safety issue. Frame as a divided reaction with the retailer's response, not as the site's verdict on the children.

First shown 3 November 2026. Playback checked 3 November 2026. Video availability may change.