Waitrose has reunited Keira Knightley and Joe Wilkinson for its 2026 Christmas campaign, launching a six-minute sequel to last year’s festive romantic comedy. The Perfect Gift 2 premiered on YouTube and Waitrose.com on November 10, with Knightley reprising her role alongside Wilkinson as Phil — the lovelorn chap who won her heart last Christmas — and Alex Hassell joining as Hugo Bunty-Griffin, a suave new love rival.
The film is the longest advert produced by a UK supermarket, according to Waitrose, running two minutes longer than last year’s instalment. It was created with Wonderhood Studios and directed by Molly Manners — the Bafta-winning director behind One Day — through Biscuit Filmworks. The sequel follows Phil’s attempt to win back Knightley with a homemade beef Wellington, according to the Retail Gazette.
A romcom, treated like a film release
Waitrose is approaching the campaign the way a film studio would. The full film sits on the retailer’s owned channels, supported by 60-second and 30-second movie-style trailers, romcom-inspired posters, cinema advertising, and a wider campaign across TV, video on demand, print, outdoor, audio and online, according to the Retail Gazette. Separate product adverts will feature the cast alongside items from the Christmas range, including No.1 Ham & Cheese Croissant Stacks and No.1 Pistachio & Sour Cherry Frangipane Mince Pies.
The film premiered on Waitrose channels including YouTube at 6.30am on November 10, according to The Retail Bulletin, and the campaign will run across the retailer’s channels in the build-up to Christmas. The approach is a deliberate echo of last year’s film, which treated a supermarket advert as a piece of cinema — and which Waitrose says worked well enough to justify a sequel two minutes longer than the original.
The Christmas ad wars begin
The Waitrose sequel arrives as the UK’s Christmas advertising season gets under way in earnest, with Morrisons’ Goldilocks Christmas ad also debuting this week, as covered in an earlier ReportRig post. The supermarket Christmas ad has become a genre of its own in Britain, and Waitrose’s entry — a six-minute romantic comedy starring an Oscar-nominated actor — is the most ambitious of the season so far.
Whether it wins the Christmas ad wars is a matter for the coming weeks. For now, The Perfect Gift 2 is available to watch in full on YouTube and Waitrose.com, with the shorter trailers running across television and cinema.
