• Product/Brand - Freeview Play
• Spot - Set Yourself Free
• Music Title - I Dreamed A Dream
• Artist - Sarah Kingsmill
• Composer - Natel, Kretzmer, Boubil, Schonberg
• Publisher - Warner Chappell
• Master Rights - Jeff Wayne Music Group
• Music Supervisor - Jeff Wayne Music Group
• Ad Agency - Leo Burnett
• Creatives - Philip Meyler, Darren Keff, Wayne Robinson, Matt Collier
• Film Company - Rogue Films
• Film Director - Sam Brown
• Post Production - The Line @ Electric Theatre Collective
• Air Date - 2/10/15

I Dreamed A Dream has brought the house down from Broadway to Britain’s Got Talent and been covered by some of the biggest names in popular music.

Now a new version of the showstopper from record-breaking French musical Les Miserables has been commissioned by set-top box specialists Freeview for one of the most arresting TV ads of the year.

This gripping CGI drama depicts an Orwellian vision of a totalitarian society where the inhabitants are brainwashed by an army of goose-stepping TV sets screening messages like ‘conform’, ‘upgrade’ and ‘subscribe’.

The spot was created by ad agency Leo Burnett in conjunction with Rogue Films’ multi award-winning director Sam Brown and Electric Theatre Collective’s digital animators The Line.

It also marks the professional debut of Sarah Kingsmill, a Psychology student at Sussex University, who was invited to audition for the ‘role’ on the strength of Soundcloud covers of songs by artists ranging from Sam Smith to Radiohead.

“She was the last in and the room fell silent as soon as she began to sing,” says Leo Burnett Creative Wayne Robinson. “We knew immediately that we’d found the voice for our main character.”

I Dreamed A Dream launched the career of Susan Boyle and helped movie actress Anne Hathaway to an Oscar.

But, says Jeff Wayne Music Group’s John Altman, who produced Kingsmill’s more fragile rendition, “the way the song is normally performed didn’t really fit the brief for the commercial.

“We had to adapt the standard arrangement to reflect the film’s more upbeat ending.”