Text Santa video special: ‘live from Downton Abbey, it’s Downton’s Got Santa!’

ITV reports that this year’s Text Santa was a record breaker after raising more than £8.5million by the end of Friday evening.

The show saw Richard Branson make his Coronation Street debut, a host of celebs tackling the Ninja Warrior course and the Downton Abbey lot searching for a new Father Christmas, which included auditions from former Corrie star Michelle Keegan, who dazzled Lord Gratham (Hugh Bonneville) with her performance of “Santa Baby”, Gok Wan promising to give Santa a makeover, DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn), who was looking for a murder case - “it’s a Stately Home, there has to be one” - but would have happily settled on being Father Christmas, and Sir Bruce Forsyth, who tried to soft-shoe shuffle his way to the part.

Michelle Keegan would have got the role if Lord Grantham had his way

“Who’s booking these guests?” asks Lord Grantham. “I mean, last year we had George Clooney…”

But the best line came from Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton), when she told footman Andrew (Michael Fox) what she thought of his Santa audition.

You can enjoy the whole sketch below, and see that the best Santa was right under their noses all along.

Plus, there were live performances from Olly Murs, Little Mix and The X Factor winner Louisa Johnson.

You can give hope this Christmas by donating to Text Santa. 100 per cent of your donations will be shared equally amongst Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish® UK and Save the Children, going directly to support vital work both in the UK and abroad.

If you missed the Downton special, you can watch it below. Molesley (Kevin Doyle) the footman was certainly excited!

And there's the last-ever Downton Abbey airing on ITV, Christmas Day, 8.45pm.