Raffiella Chapman: The star of the new John Lewis Christmas advert

Seasonal video told the story of a boy who encounters a space alien

Over the past decade, the annual advertisements for homeware retailer John Lewis have become a fixture of the Christmas season.

This year’s advert was released earlier this morning (4 November) and featured a fantastical sci-fi storyline in which a boy (Jordan A Nash) encounters an alien, whose spaceship has crash-landed in a forest at Christmastime.

In the advert, the part of the space-travelling alien Skye is played by Raffiella Chapman.

Viewers may recognise her from The Theory of Everything, in which she played Lucy Hawking alongside Eddie Redmayne.

Chapman also featured in the 2016 Tim Burton fantasy film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Her other roles include His Dark Materials and Law and Order: UK, and she is set to play the lead in the forthcoming sci-fi film Vesper Seeds.

A popular fixture of John Lewis’s festive adverts are the songs underscoring them – typically slowed-down acoustic covers of well-known pop hits.

Raffiella Chapman in the John Lewis advert (John Lewis)

This year’s advert featured a cover of “Together in Electric Dreams” by Lola Young.

In a two-star review of the track for The Independent, Annabel Nugent wrote: “Young’s voice is a treasure. Here, the 20-year-old lends the song depth and warmth. A quick Spotify search, though, shows a musician capable of much more.

“The John Lewis Christmas ad launched the career of Gabrielle Aplin; with any luck it will likewise open the door for Young, who is well-deserving of a big break beyond singing Eighties covers.”