Ed Sheeran writes song for Richard Curtis's Netflix film That Christmas

Titled Under the Tree, the singer revealed that Curtis approached him two years ago with rough sketches and voices of That Christmas, and it "blew" him away.

"So emotional, yet so heartwarmingly funny, like all Richard Curtis movies," Sheeran said in a statement.

"I find since having kids, there's a real lack of great animated children's Christmas movies, so I thought this was such an amazing thing to make and put into the world.

"The scene that we wrote this song for is so heartbreaking, but so real for many people at Christmas spending it without the ones they love, for so many reasons.

"I got to work with my older brother on this which is such a rarity and a gift, to work so closely with my only sibling, it felt so good to create something my children would watch, with their uncle, based in the country they live in."

That Christmas stars Brian Cox as Santa, Fiona Shaw as Ms Trapper, Jodie Whittaker as Mrs Williams and Bill Nighy has Bill - the residents of a charming seaside town where things turn upside down one Christmas.

Further cast members include Lolly Adefope, Alex Macqueen, Katherine Parkinson, Sindhu Vee, India Brown, Zazie Hayhurst, Sienna Sayer, Jack Wisniewski, Rosie Cavaliero, Paul Kaye, Guz Khan, Andy Nyman, Kuhu Agarwal, Bronte Smith, Freddie Spry, Ava Talbot and Rhys Darby.

Co-writer and executive producer Richard Curtis said: "I'm so thrilled to have Ed's beautiful song in our movie. It's a film set in Suffolk... Ed lives in and loves Suffolk, and completely understood the pitch and tone of what we were trying to do.

"We've been friends for many years, and - especially now that he's a husband and a father - it’s really lovely to have him play such a key part in this film about love, children and family.

"And, of course, even if he wasn't a friend and didn't love Suffolk, how marvellous to have a wonderful new song by one of the greatest British songwriters ever."

That Christmas will debut on Netflix later this year. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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