At Jennifer Saunders’ Festive Burberry Party, ‘Twas the Knight Before…’

Jennifer Saunders is hosting a festive house party and the guestlist is positively sparkling with stars like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Ncuti Gatwa, Naomi Campbell and Son Heung-min in attendance, among others.

The 90-second Christmas film – ‘Twas the Knight Before…’ – was produced by Magna Studios and directed by John Madden, who also worked on the last Burberry campaign, ‘It’s Always Burberry Weather: Postcards from London’, and has a number of feature films under his belt including ‘Shakespeare in Love’. The overall festive campaign of the same title was shaped by the brand’s chief creative officer, Daniel Lee.

In the film, loud glitz and luxury are left aside in favour of a quieter affair inside a London townhouse where the inimitable ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ star Jennifer Saunders is throwing a soirée. The sentiment is positively cosy with the film switching to camcorder visuals intermittently, evoking a tinge of ‘90s nostalgia. Inside the home, the party is in full swing with the host of characters, including a Burberry knight, mingling, iterating and pitching in at every step.

Jennifer Saunders is of course the hostess with the mostest, flitting between carrying party snacks and putting the finishing touches on the Christmas pudding, to answering the door to her fabulous guests. Naturally, everyone is dressed in their Burberry best including the brand’s iconic trench coats and checked cashmere scarves.

Elsewhere, the film deftly balances party atmosphere and scenes – making paper snowflake garlands, a dozing grandad, last minute gift-wrapping, and carolling – with product placement: a bauble on the tree, a handbag on a chair, and the knight (on logos and literally) peppered throughout. It all works harmoniously against the backdrop of the cosy set, maximalist and enveloping, which the myriad Burberry check iterations appear a natural part of.

The film and campaign are part of wider Burberry retail activation this Christmas. In London, the brand has partnered with the luxury hotel Claridge’s, where Daniel Lee is set to design and unveil the 2025 Christmas tree using fabrics and hardware from the Burberry archive. Around 600 bows hand-made from surplus Burberry fabrics will decorate the 16-foot tree. The collaboration will be further marked with a limited bauble featuring Claridge’s Bell Boy Teddy Bear in Burberry Check, and the hotel’s doormen will wear Burberry scarves.