Is Banksy the new Charles Dickens? The anonymous street artist’s Christmas creation combines jolly sentiment with genuine compassion in a way that would make the Victorian author of A Christmas Carol tingle all over. What’s more, his latest artwork is both imaginative and thumpingly true – a Christmas cracker with a bang of reality inside.

Banksy’s team of reindeer painted on a wall in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, pulling a bench that homeless people use as a bed, is rightly popular. In a video that underlines his message, Banksy shows a man called Ryan having a drink before positioning a bag as a pillow and lying on the bench – to be, in dreams, lifted in the air by those magic reindeer while the soundtrack plays I’ll Be Home for Christmas. It has so far had nearly three million views on Instagram... [+]