The Waitrose Christmas advert is here and it’s the best of 2025

Like horses that have bolted, most of the Christmas adverts – John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, M&S – had already arrived before Waitrose issued their 2025 drop. But it’s here and has proven worth the wait.

The high-end supermarket’s festive short, entitled The Perfect Gift, stars Keira Knightley as herself and Joe Wilkinson transformed into the leading man Phil, after playing doddering uncle Phil in Waitrose’s 2024 whodunnit ad.

Already, bravo. Wilkinson is hot off the most talked-about TV show of the year, Celebrity Traitors, while Knightley’s turn in Love Actually has cemented her as a staple of the love meets Christmastime genre.

This four-minute ad is its latest entry and delivers a heart-melting snippet of romance that will leave you yearning for this mini-movie to go maxi. 

We find Wilkinson’s Phil, lovelorn after a break-up, drowning his sorrows with some friends down the Piemakers Arms (a made-up name for a real pub in west London).

‘She said the only person I could move on with was Keira Knightley,’ blubs Wilkinson, playing downcast to a T.

Hey presto, because guess who shows up in the next scene. The meet-cute unfolds, naturally, at the Waitrose cheese counter, where our hero and heroine ask for the same type of cheese at the exact same time – a wedge of Sussex Charmer mature cheddar – to the tune of tinkly, love-mood music.

When chemistry can be so hit and miss on the big screen, it’s a remarkable feat to find it between a film star and a comedian in a Christmas advert. You won’t be able to suppress a smile as Wilkinson does a bumbling Hugh Grant-esque job at asking Knightley on a date (in this Waitrose-y reality, she isn’t married with children). 

The miniature romantic comedy then kicks into gear with a loved-up montage, including a game of backgammon down the Piemakers Arms, to the astonishment of Phil’s mates.

But the frolicking grinds to a halt when he spots Knightley has a Christmas pressie from a mysterious Mark, signed off with a kiss.

Plunged back into the doldrums, Phil turns to his mum for advice on how to wrestle the film star from this Mark character – while nursing a covert plate of Waitrose polar bear bao buns. ‘Cooking for someone is love,’ she tells him and inspiration strikes in the form of Knightley’s nan’s pie recipe. To the kitchen!

This is the moment for the big romantic gesture. Lidl’s Christmas advert might have already paid homage to Love Actually’s infamous doorstep declaration of love, but since Waitrose has Knightley on board, this iteration feels far more fitting.

Wilkinson appears, pie in hand (which you will soon be able to buy in stores) and, after a brief mix-up over Mark, who it turns out is Knightley’s brother, reveals the golden pastry reads ‘I Love You’. Set to the soaring James track She’s a Star, the lovers lock lips. ‘And they ate happily ever after,’ we’re told. It’s winning. 

As if the advert’s rom-com bona fides weren’t already apparent, there’s more behind the scenes, with directing duties taken on by One Day’s Molly Manners. Plus, genre aficionado Richard Curtis, who has clearly inspired the flavours of Love Actually and Notting Hill, shared his take: ‘Sweet as pie’.

In addition to the full four-minute version, Waitrose has a snappy 60-second teaser that plays out like a bygone film trailer, complete with the booming omniscient voice of the trailer spoofs in another Christmas classic, The Holiday.

The Love Actually homage is more overt in this shorter version for TV. Knightley sees Phil at the doorstep and begs, ‘Please don’t have cue cards.’

Waitrose has brilliantly captured a slice of the feel-good movie magic in an advert Knightley described as ‘silly, fun and delicious’.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson said he was happy to see Phil’s 2025 return give him the love and food he deserves. The comedian added: ‘As you can imagine, it was tough having to eat the delicious Waitrose food and falling in love with Keira, but I just got on with it, like the trooper I am!’

This is a big, splashy campaign. Expect to see Knightley and Wilkinson beaming down at you from the side of buses and buildings, as well as behind-the-scenes morsels across social media.

By the time Christmas comes around and you’re trying to rustle up another festive film to stick on, you may very well wish a feature-length version of this existed.

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