A man has recreated this year's John Lewis advert and he's done so for just £23 - but despite the cost, fans are saying it's better than the real deal.
Mark Goodwin, 42, has taken on John Lewis for the third year in a row and made his own down-to-earth version of the big-budget advert.
The small piano shop owner and dad of two made his own film, which shows Santa almost failing to pick up his order - and it took just five nights to create the 25 seconds of animation.
However, his advert was just a fraction of the cost of John Lewis’ Unexpected Guest telly advert which cost an estimated £5million - and fans are saying they prefer Mark's version.
What do you think about Mark's advert? Let us know in the comments...
Mark, who runs his family-run shop in Oldham, Gtr Mancs created the video at night after putting his kids Sally, ten and seven-year-old Louis to bed.
He said: "I would fill my bag with snacks every night at 9 pm and head off alone to the piano shop. I'd get home at around 2 am every night with aching bones after moving the pianos around 200 times each night.
"There is 25 seconds worth of animation featuring up to five pianos in each scene.
"That means I was moving the pianos over 1,000 times in total. If you include the deleted out-takes it was probably over 2,000 piano moves."
The video features Mark’s wife and piano shop manager Julie Goodwin, 35, and piano cabinet repair technician Phil Reynolds, 57 - who plays Santa.
Phil stole the role of Santa from another employee after it was discovered that he had the longest and whitest beard.
In 2019, Mark’s children starred in the £10 ad where they delivered a piano to their granddad for Christmas and it racked up over 50,000 views on YouTube.
Last year, he spent £30 on a Covid-19-themed one of the kids dropping a piano off for the grandma but she couldn’t go in the house.
Mark added: "So far people have loved our new video which is a huge relief as the pressure gets to me whilst making these videos.
"We never have a big budget and this year we spent just £23 - which included a £13 Santa cloak from a local charity shop along with £10 of decorations.
"These past two years have been really difficult.
"We have been low on stock most of the time and have seen our container shipment costs go up 1,000 per cent compared with 2020.
"But we've focussed on trying to make our staff feel valued and putting our customers' needs first.
"And we think that has helped keep us afloat, 2022 looks set to be equally challenging.
"But we are ready for anything and feel lucky to do a job that we love."
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