A number of high-profile national companies are currently looking for new staff to fill a wide variety of roles in branches across Greater Manchester and the UK.
Boots, McDonald’s, PwC, and Tesco are among the companies looking to welcome new recruits.
There are currently thousands of jobs on offer within these companies throughout the country, ranging from retail and communications, to roles in logistics and even senior management positions too.
If you’re looking for a change of career, keen on exploring a new direction, or just fancy lending a hand to your wider community at a time when it’s most needed, then there are plenty big-name businesses and retailers looking to expand their teams across the region and we’ve rounded up all the roles with applications that are open to the public.
These are the companies hiring right now, and some of the opportunities they are offering.
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Boots
Boots currently employs 56,000 people and is looking to hire around 700 new members of staff throughout the UK, with hundreds of roles available across the North West region and a number in Greater Manchester, including Pharmacists, Store Managers, and Pre-registration Trainee positions all up for grabs.
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Full-Time, Part-Time, Fixed Term and Permanent positions are all currently open.
You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the Boots Jobs website here.
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Fancy joining the over 43,970+ team members at Next?
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Given the time of year gearing up to the festive period, there’s plenty of temporary Christmas Support Team roles currently open for applications in the Arndale, Trafford Centre, The Lowry Centre, and more, as well in a number of retail parks across the boroughs.
There’s also vacancies for non-seasonal temporary Sales Consultant and Delivery Assistant roles.
You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the Next Careers website here.
Tesco
Tesco currently employs of 450,000 people throughout the UK.
There’s a number of Customer Assistant roles of all levels that are currently open for applications at Tesco branches across Greater Manchester.
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From Failsworth, Burnage, and Bolton, to Oldham, Walkden, Leigh and more, stores right across the region are recruiting new team members with roles in a wide range of areas including Customer Service Assistants, Personal Shoppers, Delivery Drivers, Night Shift Assistants, Maintenance Management, Kitchen / Cafe, and there’s also a few roles suited to more experienced applicants too that offer a competitive salary and great employee benefits.
Full time, part time, Flexi, Temp, Festive Temp, and night time roles are all available.
You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the Tesco Careers website here.
PwC
PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) employs over 21,362 people across the UK and calls the swanky No.1 Spinningfields building its home in Manchester city centre.
There are a number of roles for experienced applicants currently open to the public.
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Roles based in the Manchester city centre hub which are accepting applications at present include External Audit Managers, Senior Manager in Business Restructuring Services – Covenant Advisory, Senior Associate in Digital Audit Advanced Analytics, Senior Salesforce Delivery Manager, and many many more.
Hours can be flexible, and salary rates and employee benefits are competitive.
You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the PwC Experienced Careers website here.
Tesco Careers PLCDeliveroo / Stefan Haehnel
Co-op
If you’re looking for more specialised roles as well as in-store roles, then Co-op is a retailer with its headquarters based right here in Manchester city centre.
Well over 70,000 employees make up Co-op’s team nationwide.
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There are currently a wide range of roles available across Greater Manchester, with vaccines open for several Undergraduate roles including Junior Buyer, Product Developer, Labelling Assistant, Food Policy Coordinator and more, as well as more senior roles such as Head of Design and Business Intelligence Analyst.
Customer Team Member, and Sales and Services Team Manager roles are also currently open for applications across the region too.
You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the Co-op Jobs website here.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s are well-known to be an excellent employer to work for here in the UK.
With plenty branches of the fast food chain spread across the Greater Manchester region, there are vacancies currently available in Hyde, Stretford, Urmston, Wythenshawe, Oldham, Bolton, Walkden, Radcliffe and more, with roles including Crew Members and Stockroom Staff up for grabs.
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Full-Time, Part-Time, temporary and night shift workers are required.
You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the McDonald’s Careers UK website here.
Domino’s
Popular pizza delivery chain Domino’s currently employs over 35,000 people in the UK and Ireland, and announced last month that it’s looking to expand its teams nationwide by creating 5,000 new jobs.
There are a number of vacancies currently open at branches across Greater Manchester.
Roles range from Store Operations, who’s responsibility it is to make, bake and take food to the doors of customers, and of course Delivery Drivers, who are “the face of Domino’s”, so if idea of being out on the road delivering hot, fresh and tasty pizza to hungry customers “gets your wheels spinning”, then this could be a great opportunity for you.
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You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the Domino’s UK & Ireland Recruitment website here.
Deliveroo
Deliveroo is looking to hire 15,000 new riders nationwide by the end of the year.
Riders for the leading food delivery service are self-employed and free to work to their own availability, can make as much as £120 a day, keep 100% of all their tips, get up to £250 for each person they refer, and get to benefit from the Deliveroo rider app whilst on shift, which makes it easy to plan ahead days ahead.
There’s a bunch of added employee perks too, including discounts at Apple, Vue Cinemas, and great restaurants.
To apply to be a Deliveroo rider, you must have:
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A scooter, motorbike or bicycle with the necessary safety equipment.
A smartphone – iPhone (iOS 11 and above) or Android (6.0 and above).
Proof of your right to work in the UK.
It only takes five minutes to register your interest.
You can browse the roles available, read job descriptions and submit your applications via the Deliveroo website here.
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10 of the very best British Christmas specials and episodes to watch on TV this holiday season
Danny Jones
‘Tis the season to sit on your backside and do nothing but gorge on mountains of food and watch TV for hours on end as you make your way through all the Christmas specials and best of British telly you can muster.
Now, there’s nothing worse than when it feels like there’s nothing on you’re stranded in that spot on the sofa that’s too comfy to vacate, so that’s where we come in.
Along with all the usual stuff you’ll find in the TV guide at this time of year, we thought we’d round up some of the very best Christmas specials made here in the UK and Ireland to have ever aired – that way, you’ll have a steady supply of festive viewing and barely need to move an inch.
In no particular order, let’s get stuck into it, shall we?
The best British Christmas TV specials of all time
Where else to start than with the pride of Wales and a series that millions watch from start to finish every year? Gavin & Stacey.
Still revered as one of the most beloved comedies to ever come out of the UK, their two festive specials are also part and parcel (pardon the pun) of many Brits’ Christmas.
It still feels a bit weird going back and watching Corden as Smithy before the days of American fame, that first Nessa entrance; Uncle Bryn being, well, Bryn – even the soundtrack takes us back – but after the huge success of last year’s Gavin & Stacey finale, we’re ready to cry buckets all over again.
9. The Office – ‘Christmas Special’ (Part 1 and 2)
Next up is not only this particular telephile’s ultimate Christmas TV event but possibly one of the very best episodes of British telly in history. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant broke new ground with this genre-defining comedy, and while they fine-tuned cringe throughout the series, this was pure heart.
Rom-com juggernaut Richard Curtis dubbed this two-part Christmas special spread across just 96 minutes as the culmination of what he believed to be “one of the great romantic stories of all time” between Tim and Dawn, and the perfect end to a “masterpiece”.
You’ll hear no arguments from us.
Is it the best Christmas special in British TV history?
8. The Royle Family – Christmas Specials (1999, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012)
Another classic not only British but fundamentally Manc comedy, The Royle Family might just be one of the best things Greater Manchester ever produced – and that’s saying something – and perfectly captures the comfortable monotony of sitting in front of the telly for hours on end.
That goes doubly so for the multiple Christmas specials, of which there are many and while they all do a great job of creating that familiar feeling of a Northern front room that the series was so good at throughout its entire run, the 1999 Christmas with the Royle Family special where the late great Caroline Aherne’s water breaks and that tear-jerking scene with Ricky Tomlinson…
It gets us every time.
Set just down the road in Wythenshawe, it still has us weeping just as much now as it did back in the day.
7. Peep Show – ‘Seasonal Beatings’
Cauliflower may or may not be traditional, but one thing we can agree on is that watching Peep Show‘s hilariously miserable, ill-mannered, tense, ever-awkward and bloody brilliant Christmas episode from 2010 is very much part of our annual holiday ritual.
The fifth episode of the seventh season – which many would rightly champion as peak-era Peep Show – may only last less than half an hour, but it feels like an eternity of familiar festive agony and walking on eggshells before the fantastic crescendo that is Mark pouring gravy into a shredder.
‘Merry Chris-Mark!’
If you don’t think Peep Show’s Christmas special/festive episode is one of the best in British TV history, you’re just wrong, sorry.
6. Ted Lasso – ‘Carol of the Bells’
Approaching the halfway mark, and we’re going to be somewhat controversial and introduce not only a very contemporary pick but one that isn’t technically a UK production, but the show is set entirely in England, and if there’s one thing it has tried to be since the start, it’s almost too cookie-cutter British
Now, we’re going to qualify that we have a weird relationship with Ted Lasso; it’s by no means the funniest thing we’ve ever seen, and the broad-strokes American look at football is frustrating at times, but one thing this show does do well is being deeply sincere, and never more so than in its Xmas special.
Plus, you get to hear Hannah Waddingham sing her pipes off – what’s not to like?
Christmas is about reminding your loved ones how much they mean – regardless of what you make of the show, this episode nails that.
5. Extras – Christmas Special (Part 1 and 2)
Our penultimate pick is also our second Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant creation: the Extras Christmas special, which aired back in 2007 and still has some of the funniest gags in the history of British TV as far as we’re concerned.
Managing to rope in even more big names for this equally cringeworthy and even painful to watch at times conclusion to the show, which also ran for just two series like The Office, the frustrating arc of Gervais’ main character Andy Millman is such a great payoff when all is said and done.
Only an hour and a half in total, well worth sticking on if you’ve never seen it before.
Just look at how many famous faces they managed to rope in for this fantastic two-parter. (Credit: Press Image via BBC)
4. Doctor Who – ‘End of Time’ (Part 1 and 2)
From a David Tennant cameo to him in arguably one of his greatest-ever performances in his final full-time appearance as the space-travelling Time Lord in what we are officially declaring the best Doctor Who Christmas special to date, and some of Russell T. Davies’ very best work.
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 15 whole years since the national treasure said goodbye to the role in the gut-wrenching two-parter, which also saw the return of John Simm as ‘The Master’, but we’re still confident that there hasn’t been a better Xmas/New Year’s Day special pairing than the one below.
Here’s hoping RTD’s recent comeback will see a return to form by the next one in December 2026.
That delivery of ‘I don’t wanna go’ still makes us well up.
As we gradually approach the end of our list, we want to give so much deserved love to what we think isn’t just the underdog of British telly but an unsung hero when it comes to spotlighting friendship, positive male relationships and downright fraternal love.
It’s Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Finishing – the festive editions. We know we’re biased, but we really love the one with Paul Heaton. If you’ve ever sat down to watch an episode of this laid-back, laughter-filled show, you’ll know that these two can often achieve that warm, heartfelt and cosy feeling regardless of whether it’s Christmas or not.
It’s also a great antidote to any latent toxic masculinity left on screen, and with some serious emotion being laid bare in these Christmas special episodes, especially for us, this is what reality TV should be. We’re already looking forward to the next instalment at 9pm on Christmas Eve.
— Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (@MWGoneFishing) December 22, 2025
2. Click & Collect
Ok, we promise this is the last Merchant mention on this list, as we’re intensely aware of some bias on our end, but this straight-to-TV BBC short film really took us by surprise when we first saw it and is well worth setting aside a nice round hour to enjoy.
Not only does the core premise feel like a very relatable scenario for many parents rushing to sort out everyone’s Christmas presents in time, but it’s a touching tale of family, kindness and sparing that extra bit of patience during what can be a tough time of year for lots of people.
Trust us, you’ll love it.
Asim Chaudhry is fantastic.
1. Only Fools & Horses – ‘Heroes and Villains’
And finally, what better place to round off this list than with only the series consistently voted the greatest British comedy of all time, but the episode that is widely considered its best-ever Christmas special? It can only be Del Boy and Rodney dressed up as Batman and Robin in ‘Heroes and Villains’.
Now, there is a whopping total of 18 Only Fools Christmas specials, and we’re sure everyone has their own personal favourite, but surely there isn’t a single one more iconic than the first episode of the legendary 1996 festive trilogy.
It also sets up events for ‘Time on Our Hands’, one of the most moving scripts they ever wrote – but it all starts with the much-loved duo plodding through the mist in capes.
It’s still regarded as the best British comedy ever, but where does it rank on the list of all-time greatest Christmas TV specials?
A very Christmas special mention…
Father Ted – ‘A Christmassy Ted’
Not technically British, we know, but the cult Irish hit remains one of the funniest comedies to ever come out of our corner of the world, and if you’ve never seen Ted, Dougal and a bunch of other clergymen get stuck in a women’s lingerie section like it’s a warzone, you’re seriously missing out.
Mrs Doyle is her typical quick-witted self, and Father Jack can be found making the occasional outburst from his chair as usual and overall, ‘A Christmassy Ted’ is a very funny bit of seasonal telly.
Not strictly British but still one of the best Christmas specials in TV history if you ask us.
Come on, you have to agree – we absolutely smashed that.
Some old, some new, some maybe a little bit out of left field, but all absolutely guaranteed to keep you entertained this festive period.
If you think we’ve made the cardinal sin of missing an all-time TV great, then please feel free to give it to us in the comments and educate us on the best British Christmas specials.
In fact, one of our other writers, Emily, has forced me to add a line about The Vicar of Dibley Christmas Specials too… so here’s the line. You can also find her round-up of all the best new bits coming to the box this holiday season down below.
Greater Manchester bin and recycling collection dates for Christmas and New Year 2025
Danny Jones
We know it’s a somewhat boring bit of life admin, but anyone who’s been caught out missing the refuse collection dates when the various recycling bins inevitably pile up over Christmas and New Year will know it’s worth knowing ahead of time.
Let’s help you avoid any unnecessary trips to the tip or having to find other ways to get rid of extra rubbish this holiday season.
You can thank us later.
Here are all of the relevant bin collection dates for each of the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs this Christmas 2025 and the first few days of the New Year.
When are the bins being collected this Christmas?
Bolton
Grey bins
Wednesday 31 December 2025
Wednesday 14 January 2026
Wednesday 28 January 2026
Wednesday 11 February 2026
Beige bins
Wednesday 7 January 2026
Wednesday 4 February 2026
Burgundy bins
Wednesday 24 December 2025
Wednesday 7 January 2026
Wednesday 21 January 2026
Wednesday 4 February 2026
Green bins
Wednesday 7 January 2026
Wednesday 1 January 2026
Wednesday 4 February 2026
Wednesday 18 February 2026
Bury
Brown bin collections will be paused from Monday, 22 December to Sunday, 4 January, while dates for grey, green and blue bins will also change for most households until January.
Bury Council has advised that bins should be put out at the usual collection point by 7am and all waste must fit inside the bins with the lids fully closed.
A full list of revised collection dates:
Thursday, 25 December, will change to Wednesday, 24 December
Friday, 26 December, will change to Monday, 29 December
Tuesday, 30 December (no change)
Wednesday, 31 December (no change)
Thursday, 1 January 2026, will change to Friday, 2 January
Friday, 2 January, will change to Saturday, 3 January
Manchester (central)
No change to collections on Monday, 22 December and Monday, 29 December
No change to collections on Tuesday, 23 December and Tuesday, 30 December
No change to collections on Wednesday, 24 December and Wednesday, 31 December
Thursday collections move from Thurs, 25 Dec to Sat, 27 Dec, and 1 January to Fri, 2 January 2026
Friday collections move from Fri, 26 Dec to Sun, 28 Dec and from Fri, 2 Jan to Sat, 3 Jan
Oldham
Bins due on Christmas Day (December 25):
Blue bins will be collected on Monday, 29 December
Grey bins will be collected on Tuesday, 30 December
Brown bins will be collected on Wednesday, 31 December
Green bins and food caddies to be collected on Thursday, 18 December and Saturday, 3 January
Bins due on Boxing Day (26 December):
Blue, grey and brown bins will be collected on Saturday, 20 December
Green bins and food caddies to be collected as normal on (Fri, 19 December and 2 Jan 2026)
Bins due Monday, 29 December to Wednesday, 31 December:
Blue, grey, and brown bins will be collected as normal
Green bin and food caddy a week earlier from 22-24 December and one week later from Jan 5-7.
Bins due on New Year’s Day (Thursday, January 1):
All bins will be collected on Saturday, January 3.
Rochdale
Thursday, 25 December 2025 (Christmas Day) – your bin collection will move to Sat, 27 Dec
Friday, 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day) – your bin collection will move to Mon, 29 Dec
Thursday, 1 January 2026 – your bin collection will move to Sat, 3 Jan 2026
Salford
NO COLLECTION
REPLACEMENT DATE
Thursday 25 December 2025
Saturday 20 December 2025
Friday 26 December 2025
Saturday 27 December 2025
Thursday 1 January 2026
Saturday 3 January 2026
Stockport
The next black bin collection will be on Monday, 29 December
Blue bins will be collected on Friday, 2 January 2026
Brown and green bins will also be collected on Friday, 2 January
Tameside
Thursday 25 December – No Collections
If you are due a green (general waste) bin collection, it will be collected on Monday, 29 December
If you are due a black (comingled recycling waste) or a blue (paper recycling waste) bin collection, it will be collected on Wednesday, 31 December
Friday 26 December – No Collections
If you are due a green (general waste) bin collection, it will be collected on Tuesday, 30 December
If you are due a black (comingled recycling waste) or a blue (paper recycling waste) bin collection, it will be collected on Friday, 2 January
Thursday 1 January – No Collections
If you are due a green (general waste) bin collection, it will be collected on Monday, 5 January
If you are due a black (comingled recycling waste) or a blue (paper recycling waste) bin collection, it will be collected on Tuesday, 6 January
All other green, black and blue bin collections are due to run as normal over the festive period.
Trafford
NORMAL BIN DAY
NEW COLLECTION DATE
Monday 22 December
No change
Tuesday 23 December
No change
Wednesday 24 December
No change
Thursday 25 December
Saturday 27 December
Friday 26 December
Saturday 27 December
Monday 29 December
No change
Tuesday 30 December
No change
Wednesday 31 January
No change
Thursday 1 January
Friday 2 January
Friday 2 January
Saturday 3 January
Green bins and food waste
There will be no green bin collections during Christmas week. Any green bins presented from Monday, 22 to Friday, 26 December will not be collected; the green bin collection service will resume from Monday, 29 December.
Wigan
Bin collections, which usually take place on Tuesdays, will be done on Monday, 22 December and Tuesday, 30 December.
Those whose rubbish is normally collected on Wednesdays will move to Tuesday, 23 December and Wednesday, 31 December.
Thursday bin dates will move to Wednesday, 24 December and Friday, 2 January 2026.
Bin collections normally scheduled on Fridays will be carried out on Saturday, 27 December and Saturday, 3 January 2026.
Green bin collections will be suspended from Monday, 29 December until 9 January; the normal schedule will then resume starting January 12 or 19 – depending on the area.
We hope you have a wonderful, stress-free Christmas and New Year; as for those of you still looking to buy those last few bits, you might find the list below helpful, too.
Emily Sergeant -
29th October 2020 
