Village Books stars in Visa's 2019 Christmas ad championing the high street

Village Books has bagged itself a starring role in this year's newly released Visa UK Christmas advert, which includes one of its booksellers singing a solo passage from Queen's "Somebody to Love".

The feel-good advert for 2019, intended to support high street retailers, was released on Visa UK's YouTube account at 8am and will be going out on ITV at 9.15pm tonight (5th November). As was the case last year, a number of high street retailers were involved in the making of Visa UK's Christmas advert, extending outside of the book trade also; however the Dulwich-based indie bookshop not only made the final edit but one of its staff, Ella Bucknall, was chosen to close the production by singing the last lines of "Somebody To Love" that runs throughout the advert.

Bucknell said it had been "nerve wracking" to be sing on camera with no formal training "apart from singing in the shower". However she said it was hugely exciting to be included.

Village Books first got involved when the shop was approached "out of the blue" a couple of weeks ahead of filming. The shop's owner Hazel Broadfoot said of filming the ad it was "a completely different world" and great fun, with the shoot taking just shy of five hours in total. She added: "Ella's singing was superb."

The shop's Christmas window – put together specially for filming more than a month ago – is also shown in the advert, dressed with titles including Robert Harris' Second Sleep (Hutchinson), Margaret Atwood's runaway bestseller The Testaments (Vintage), Mindcraft titles published by Egmont and JoJo Moyes' forthcoming novel The Giver of Stars (Penguin).

Off the back of its appearance in the ad, the shop has already received an uptick in sales. On the date of filming (30th September), the shop's takings were up 40% compared with the same day last year after customers were alerted via email the shop would be closing early to accomodate Visa UK's roughly 30-strong film crew. In addition to a flurry of "lovely comments" from customers, Broadfoot said they were "rushed off [their] feet" the day of filming due to patrons' interest and enthusiasm.

Visa UK made its debut Christmas advert promoting independent UK retail last year. While 2019's advert also included scenes shot at a picture framers, hairdressers, cafe and florist, the 2018 advert featured West End Lane Books in London’s West Hampstead alongside a butcher, baker and a florist, inviting the nation to visit their high street over the festive period.