Yes, Keira Knightley (as herself) and Joe Wilkinson (as Phil) are back for a Waitrose Christmas sequel after the success of last year’s The Perfect Gift. This time there’s a love rival in the shape of charming philanderer Hugo Bunty-Griffin, played by Alex Hassell reprising his Rupert Campbell-Black character in Disney+ series Rivals.
Again, it’s made in classic movie style and this time it’s a full six minutes long, complete with knowing references to famous romcom scenes. Keira echoes Julia Roberts’ “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy” profession of love to bookseller Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, and the soundtrack is Jennifer Rush singing The Power of Love, a Hindi language version of which appears in Knightley’s breathrough film, Bend it Like Beckham.
Where the campaign really comes alive is on social media. Like M&S, Waitrose has created a whole load of new content that features the stars of the commercial. In Waitrose’s case, some of this surpasses the entertainment value of the big film: we see Hugo Bunty-Griffin rushing to upload his Tinder profile the moment the wedding’s off; Keira Knightley complaining that Phil has “a lot of beard to navigate” in the kissing scenes; and Joe Wilkinson scoffing sardines and onions ahead of those scenes. There are also vignettes that show Phil meeting Keira’s parents, and the couple being interviewed on the street by a TikTok-style “meet cute” content creator.
Nathan Ansell, Waitrose chief customer officer, describes the retailer as “A premium supermarket turned food entertainment brand” and the creatives behind the ad, Wonderhood’s Stacey Bird and Jack Croft, like to think of it as “The Waitrose cinematic universe,” complete with 30 and 60 second trailers.
Returning director Molly Manners, who won a BAFTA for the Netflix series One Day, said: “We had all the ingredients for an epic love story. Then we put Joe Wilkinson at the centre of it, racing against the clock with a beef Wellington. That contrast is what makes it so much fun. We played every moment completely straight, giving Phil’s increasingly desperate mission the full cinematic treatment. And beneath all the chaos, there’s a genuine story about how food can say what words sometimes can’t.”
Wonderhood and Waitrose have created an impressive and entertaining campaign (full credit for the captivating kissing scene at the end). The updated 2026 version, particularly on social, is easily good enough to win over the audience a second time – as long as they have the patience to sit through a six minute film that won’t be broadcast on TV, without which none of it makes much sense.
MAA creative scale: 8.75
