Monday

All eyes on America as a nation decides, but this week Brits faced an equally large question: namely, how do we feel about this year’s John Lewis Christmas ad? It’s a confusing one. On the one hand, high off her flinty brilliance in six seasons of Slow Horses , Kristin Scott Thomas is a welcome addition to any production and I could watch her waft around a big house without the pretext of either John Lewis or Christmas.

On the other hand, it’s all a bit odd. The advert’s much discussed storyline in which Scott Thomas’s daughter and son-in-law come to the door with their owl-eyed children doesn’t exactly emanate Christmas spirit, even as the “before” in a before-and-after story.

Why does the grandma appear to have no relationship with her grandkids? Has there been a massive fight in the family? If there has, is it about new inheritance tax rules and how they might push Christmas gift-giving more in the direction of money – deed transfer, not 20 quid in an envelope – over presents?…