Unwrapped! John Lewis ad tells Elton story
IT’S the advert the nation has been waiting for – and John Lewis has again outshone its rivals by signing Sir Elton John for its £7million Christmas blockbuster.
The ad, to be screened tonight at 9.15pm on ITV in a break during Dark Heart, tells the tale of how the gift of a piano helped to turn shy Reginald Dwight from Pinner, Middlesex, into one of the world’s biggest superstars.
Viewers will take a step back in time as the story unfolds, starting with Sir Elton sitting at the piano in his lounge.
As he plays the opening notes of his chart hit Your Song, the film looks backwards at his life – with five actors playing him at key stages until we finally see him back at the age of four, when he got his first piano.
With the haunting track as a backdrop to his life, viewers are seamlessly taken across the decades until they finally see Elton the showman performing on the world stage.
Earlioer, viewers see the young man setting out on the path to stardom. The film goes back to the teenager thrilling locals by belting out tunes at the pub piano and then to a school concert where his mum gives him a nod of encouragement.
Then finally, we see an excited four-year-old racing downstairs in his pyjamas on Christmas morning and running into the lounge where he rips the paper from a giant present propped up against a wall.
Emotional
His eyes light up as he sees his dream gift – his grandma’s upright piano. Gingerly, the little boy – played by fouryear-old Freddie Henderson – lifts the lid and starts to play a couple of notes.
Then the scene switches back to the present day, as 71-year-old Sir Elton takes up the tune and the message “some gifts are more than a gift” appears across the screen.
Sir Elton broke off from his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour to fly back from America for a day’s filming at London’s Black Island Studios.
Sir Elton said: “The John Lewis Christmas campaign has so many warm memories for me and my family.
“It’s been a lovely opportunity for me to reflect on my life in music and the incredible journey I have been on, and how first playing my grandmother’s piano marks the moment when music came into my life. The ad is absolutely fantastic and I’ve truly loved every minute of being a part of it.”
He has donated part of his reported £5million fee to his Elton John Charitable Trust and his husband David Furnish revealed making the advert was emotional for the singer.
Your Song was first used as a soundtrack on a John Lewis Christmas ad in 2010, when Ellie Goulding sang it and took it to No 2 in the charts.
But Sir Elton may well take his song to No 1 for the first time. Seasonal spotlight... the John Lewis advert eventually switches back to the present day, with footage of Sir Elton in concert, above and right Scenes from the TV ad, in which Freddie, inset, plays the singer as a four-year-old