Hugh Grant pleads with Pret to turn off the Christmas music

Hugh Grant is certainly living up to his Twitter handle – @HackedOffHugh – these days after blasting fast food chain Pret A Manger for playing Christmas music too early.

The Love Actually star’s comments come just weeks after he complained about the volume of his local cinema chain during a recent trip to see Joker.

Posting on Twitter on Tuesday, 5 November, Grant demanded: “Christmas hats and music off please @Pret.

“Try again in four weeks. It doesn’t make us merry or spend more. It makes us GNASH.”

The high street coffee shop responded to the actor with a picture of Grant dancing in Love Actually, saying “We were hoping to see your famous dances moves, Hugh...”

The father of five’s comments couldn’t come on a better day for Pret as today marks the launch of the chain’s Christmas menu, which perhaps explains the “Christmas hats” worn by staff in his local branch.

In a statement to Yahoo, Pret confirmed that the festive playlist was playing early to promote the launch.

“This year our Team Members in Pret shops across the country have chosen the songs on our Christmas playlist,” a spokesperson explained.

“This has been playing in shops this morning to celebrate the launch of our Christmas Menu. From later this afternoon, we’ll resume our normal playlist until 1 December.”

In a funny case of life imitating art, the 59-year-old famously starred in About A Boy playing a man who lived comfortably off the royalties earned by a Christmas song.

Read more: Hugh Grant reveals his best film

The song, written by his deceased father, haunts his character and seems to be playing in every shop and supermarket he visited during the festive period.

While there are no hard and fast rules for when it’s appropriate to start listening to festive music in the run up to 25 December, Grant is clearly of the opinion that Bonfire Night is simply too soon to start playing Slade and Wizzard.

His tweet suggests that he thinks Christmas celebrations should be confined to December, which may be disappointing for Chrimbophiles who associate the actor with perennial festive fave Love Actually.