Hannah Waddingham, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Zawe Ashton join Queer Eye’s Tan France in a very star-studded ad to kick off the festive season in style

‘Twas the month before Christmas and Marks & Spencer has dropped a surprise with festive advertising which is sure to jingle some bells. 

In a television campaign that will run from today, M&S appears to be encouraging shoppers to do what they want this Christmas, instead of being hidebound by endless chores, the demands of others and the tyranny of festive perfection.

Using a starry line up of singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, actresses Zawe Ashton and Hannah Waddingham, and TV star Tan France, the M&S missive for 2023 is to put yourself and your own needs first.

Thus we have Sophie turning a kitchen blow torch she is using to toast the meringue roof on her giant gingerbread house, onto a pile of unwritten Christmas cards and gift tags instead. 

‘I’ll do anything for love, but I won’t do that,’ sings a Meatloaf-alike on the backing track, as a bonfire of goodwill erupts on Sophie’s kitchen table. 

Meanwhile Zawe Ashton, best known for her role in Channel 4 sitcom Fresh Meat, loses the will to live playing charades to a sofa full of people who don’t understand her mimes. 

In a plot jump that isn’t really explained, Zawe is suddenly on the roof of her home, going full Tarantino in her sequins, using a roll of wrapping paper like a baseball bat to whack a blameless elf across the city skyline.

At a party somewhere else, Tan France — the fashion guy from Netflix hit Queer Eye — is wearing a white bow tie for no good reason. 

He sighs at the style affront, but still puts some kid’s hideous loo roll angel on the top of his tree instead of the tasteful star decoration he prefers. 

But he draws the line at playing board games. Enough is enough, he thinks, before throwing a tantrum and said game into a tropical fish tank.

Cue Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso actress and Eurovision Song Contest co-host, and the real star of this show, a glamorous character who wants to sneak out of the house to do something – but has to stay at home and glue cotton wool balls onto a snowman instead. 

That is until the madness grips her, and she goes outside to throw all her party hats and festive baubles into a woodchipper instead. Then Zawe’s luckless airborne elf lands at her feet, and the wicked smile that spreads across Hannah’s face is quite delicious.