It might seems strange that an advert for a shop — no matter how pleasant it is — becomes a surefire sign that the Christmas season has begun, but that's exactly what has happened with John Lewis's now-famous adverts in recent years.
Who can forget Buster the Dog version from 2016? Or the Elton John John Lewis advert from last year? Unlikely stars they may be to prompt you to spend more on your nearest and dearest, but it's impossible to deny that they've entered the zeitgeist.
This year's star is Edgar the Excitable Dragon, whose fire-breathing antics get him into all sorts of trouble before earning him banishment, only for him to be brought back into the fold by a caring friend — with the help of a Waitrose Christmas pudding, naturally.
We can't help but wonder what children's author Julia Donaldson — and indeed her lawyers — might make of a character who is quite clearly inspired by Zog, right down to the fact that his human helper is a pale-faced girl with red hair.
Here's the full version — expect this to be the first of many times you see it, and expect to be humming 'Can't fight this feeling' for the rest of the day:
For our money it doesn't quite meet the same tear-jerking levels as previous years, but as ever it's beautifully-produced and very watchable. Not to mention the finest free advertising that the partners of John Lewis and Waitrose could ever hope for.
If it does make you hanker to revisit those classic older ads, here they are:
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About time: The fastest and slowest moving housing markets revealedNew research by Zoopla has shown where it's easy to sell and where it will take quite a while to find a buyer.
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Betty is the first dog to scale all of Scotland’s hundreds of mountains and hillsFewer than 100 people have ever completed Betty's ‘full house’ of Scottish summits — and she was fuelled by more than 800 hard boiled eggs.
