Christmas TV show musts: Great British Bake Off, Call the Midwife, The Witness for the Prosecution and Delicious
From a southern hemisphere-set ‘Call the Midwife’ to a noir take on Agatha Christie, Sally Newall picks the telly she’s most relishing this festive season
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Your support makes all the difference.Call The Midwife: BBC1, 8pm, Christmas Day
What could be more festive than hot, dry South Africa, eh? That’s where the Nonnatus House lot get seconded this year to help out at a short-staffed mission hospital in this feature-length instalment. All the regulars find excuses to be in the party, minus Miranda Hart’s Chummy, due to filming clashes. Sinead Cusack also joins the fray playing overworked Dr Maya Fitzsimmons. The obvious culture clashes lend themselves well to the familiar mix of playful humour, a bit of a history lesson – and that usual epiphany that human kindness and decency can transcend social difference. The midwives are aghast at the fact there’s no electricity, babies and mothers are starving and that colour can determine a life path. They have to swap slum housing for helping a mother give birth under a tree. Predictably, they soon get over the heat, roll their sleeves up and are performing post-Christmas miracles all over the shop to help save the mission. And Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the potential for romance in the mix, too.
The Great Christmas Bake Off: BBC1, 4.45pm, Christmas Day and Boxing Day
Bake Off’s departure to Channel 4 was one of the telly stories of the year, and I’m still not over it if truth be told. So I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of mentioning the Christmas specials. You get the Awesome Foursome – Mary Berry, Paul “He Went With the Dough” Hollywood, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins – in some natty Christmas jumpers, and the hosts punning on all the Christmas songs they can think of (it would be wrong if Mel and Sue didn’t get a “deep and crisp and even” in there). The format sees previous contestants pitting it out against each other in the tent. There are some gems. Remember Mary-Anne, runner up in 2011, who spelled her own daughter’s name wrong in an unfortunate piping incident? And 2014’s dour “bread and pie” man Norman, who still thinks nutmeg is exotic? Series Five’s spice queen Chetna seems intent on blowing Bezza’s head off in the Boxing Day episode. Then she gets (mock) firey in the technical when James from Series Three copies her bake. It’s almost dough balls at dawn. Everyone’s after a Hollywood Handshake – spoiler: there are more to go round at Christmas, I wonder if they will be so coveted on Channel 4? The one-offs lack the intensity of the full-length series, but this is the last time this joyful, delicious silliness will appear on the BBC, so savour it.
The Witness for the Prosecution: BBC1, 9pm, Boxing Day and Tuesday 27 December
Writer Sarah Phelps set the tone with last year with her chilling, pacy adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Not for her doddery Miss Marple vicarage murders or Hercule Poirot turning his “little grey cells” to crimes committed by posh people in country houses or on swanky trains. For 2016, she has written a noir-inspired version of Christie’s 1925 short story set in smoky, seedy 1920s London. The cast is stellar. Kim Cattrall plays glamorous, dissatisfied Emily French, whose murder is pinned on Leonard Vole (Billy Howle), a married waiter she lured home after a club – and became the main benefactor in her will. Andrea Riseborough is Vole’s betrayed wife, chorus girl Romaine, whose alibi can save her husband – if she'll give it. Toby Jones is masterful as sympathetic solicitor Mayhew tasked with clearing Vole’s name and saving him from the noose. The plot twists its way to a crescendo in the courtroom. Unlike gloss and melodrama of Christie adaptations past, this is dark and raw. A warning: the image of the bloodied white paws of French’s (equally glamorous) white cat will stick with you. It’s a dark, unsettling Christmas treat to watch slumped in front of the log fire.
Delicious: Sky One, 9pm, Friday 30 December
There is room for more than one heartthrob in Cornwall beyond Poldark, people. Yes, in Sky One’s new slick four-parter, chef and hotel owner Leo Vincent (Iain Glenn, Game of Thrones) is involved with two women: his glamorous younger wife, Sam (Emilia Fox) and ex-wife and fellow foodie who taught him all he knows, Gina (Dawn French). This opener is a scene-setter for the ensuing drama – if you’re watching with the family, the banquet porn sex scenes involving Leo and Gina might put you off your turkey curry. Add some troubled teenage children into the mix, plus Leo’s mother, formidable matriarch Mimi (Sheila Hancock), and a family tragedy that throws everyone into turmoil. The result is a gripping, stylish, if occasionally ludicrous, drama that, if nothing else, will make you want to book a new year holiday to the West Country.
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