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If you see Mariah Carey or the Coca-Cola truck, you can start looking forward to Christmas – is it time to add Dawn French and her Marks & Spencer’s advert to that list?
The British actress and comic, 68, has been involved with M&S Christmas adverts since 2021, voicing the magical Fairy who makes festive dreams come true.
She has been subbed out for Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Hannah Waddingham in the past, but then made her first on-screen appearance in the advert last year.
For 2025, she’s returned once more – not just as herself but as her fairy alter-ego – and she’s brought a TV chef along with her, who was the favourite to become a new MasterChef judge before bowing out.
In the advert, Dawn is stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic as she begins singing along to the Chris Rea Christmas classic Driving Home ForChristmas.
Her frustrations grow as the cars heading to their festive meals remain static, but Dawn’s fairy character bursts into life and saves the day, opening up the doors to an M&S truck filled with food.
Dawn races down the road – sliding across a car bonnet – to get to the truck, before serving a range of M&S Christmas treats to her fellow drivers, including some made by chef Tom Kerridge.
The end of the advert shows Tom watching on through binoculars, unable to work out why there’s mass hysteria down the road and unaware that it’s his food they’re tasting.
He looks down the road and laughs that the ‘world’s gone mad’.
Dawn said: ‘Nothing kicks off the festive season more than the drive home for Christmas.
‘This year, my chum Fairy is waving her wand to deliver a truck-load of festive joy to the usual grid-locked Christmas traffic jam, as we feast on the must-have party food of the season, from Tom Kerridge‘s Pork & Mushroom Pâté to Fish, Chip & Pea Bites… with chips IN the salt and vinegar batter. I know! Yum yum, in my sizeable tum.”
A statement was also published by singer Chris, who said: ‘It’s a wonderful thing to see Driving Home for Christmas still connecting with people all these years later.
‘I first wrote it back in the mid-1980s about the simple joy of getting back to the people you love, and that spirit fits perfectly with Christmas and with what Marks & Spencer does so well.’
Earlier this year, Tom was reportedly ready to begin filming a new series of cooking competition MasterChef before pulling out over a contract dispute.
A source told The Sun at the time: ‘Tom and Grace [Dent] are seen as a really safe pair of hands and the BBC thought they were the perfect fit for MasterChef.
‘Internally it’s been known for a long time that they’ll be presenting it together. People at the BBC and staff on MasterChef have all been talking about it.
‘The proposed deal was a one-year term for both Tom and Grace. But in the last couple of weeks, there was a dispute over Tom’s contract and his pay.’
They added: ‘It’s a nightmare for MasterChef and the BBC because filming for the next series is due to start imminently. They need to get Tom locked down with Grace. But if he doesn’t get the deal he wants, they’ll be looking for a replacement.’
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