A Ghost Story for Christmas, Vera and Christmas with Katherine Jenkins: TV highlights this week

Christmas with Katherine Jenkins (Saturday 23/12/23, BBC Two, 7.15pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

Katherine Jenkins loves Christmas. So much so, she released a festive single, Home for Christmas, last month, which marked her first new music for more than a year.

“The festive season is always my favourite time of the year and for me it’s all about spending time with the people I love and cherish most,” explains the Welsh wonder, who is the biggest-selling British classical artist of the century. “I hope this song can bring people together and remind us of what makes Christmas the most special time of year.”

If you haven’t heard it, the tune uses new lyrics to the well-known carol Hark the Herald Angels Sing, which was originally written by Charles Wesley in 1739 and has since been covered by a wide range of performers, from Boney M to Bob Dylan.

No doubt Katherine will be singing it during her homecoming concert, which was filmed at the Swansea Arena at the end of November. Incredibly, despite being born in nearby Neath, it was her first performance at the venue – and it’s one she’s unlikely to ever forget.

“There’s no place like home which is why I am thrilled to bits to be performing at the Swansea Arena,” she said at the time. “Being back in Wales always makes me want to pull out all the stops. I can’t wait and I would love for you to be a part of it too.”

And now we can be. The date of the live gig may have been and gone, but it was filmed for the BBC, so now those of us who missed out on a ticket are getting a chance to see it.

Katherine was joined on stage by a variety of very special guests for some surprise duets, enchanting carols and heartwarming moments, including locally born actor Michael Sheen, singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti, opera singer and recent Celebrity MasterChef winner Wynne Evans and pianist Chloe Flower.

They’ll be performing a range of Christmas carols and audience favourites, while Katherine showcases some of her most popular hits, all accompanied by a 31-piece band conducted by Ken Burton.

And if that’s not enough to tempt you to tune in, Katherine will also be seen paying a visit to the Cardiff Royal Marines; she is a staunch supporter of the military, having previously performed concerts for the British Armed Forces stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. On a more personal note, cameras follow her to the Ty Olwen Hospice, where she pays tribute to the staff who cared for her beloved father during his final days.

“Performing in Swansea with some of the most talented and special people I know felt like a real gift,” says Katherine, with a warm smile. “The festive season is always my favourite time of the year and for me it’s all about spending time with the people I love and cherish most. I hope this concert being shown on BBC brings even more people together to remind us of what makes Christmas special.”

A Ghost Story for Christmas: Lot No 249 (Sunday 24/12/23, BBC2, 10pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

Mark Gatiss’s spooky seasonal specials are becoming a (more or less) annual tradition, but in previous years he’s concentrated on adapting the atmospheric works of MR James.

This year though, he’s bringing us a drama based on a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, and starring Kit Harington and Freddie Fox.

In theory, it should still be familiar ground for Gatiss – he was the co-writer of the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring Sherlock, which put a modern-twist on Conan Doyle’s most famous creation – but it seems Lot No 249 may be different from both his previous ghost stories and the detective series.

Gatiss explains: “MR James is very much about a slow accumulation of dread – you often start with quite normal circumstances, usually with a middle-aged bachelor who transgresses some unwritten supernatural law or finds something he shouldn’t have and then is gradually hunted down by a vengeful spirit.

“The Doyle story is much more of a straightforward horror archetype – it’s about reviving the dead, it’s about the mummy as an instrument of revenge. Doyle is a very different writer to James – he’s one of the greatest short story writers we’ve ever produced. He writes the Victorian man and the strange threats they encounter rather brilliantly.”

And the fact that it doesn’t feature a certain sleuth also ended up being a bonus. Gatiss says: “As a fan and a scholar of Doyle sometimes you can read a story which feels almost like a Sherlock Holmes story and there are certain stylistic and linguistic elements where you can tell it’s written by Doyle. As someone who knows Sherlock Holmes stories as well as I do, when you read a story without Holmes it’s like having a missing chapter – there’s a strange pleasure to it.”

The tale is set in 1881 at Old College, Oxford, which is home to three very different academics – Abercrombie Smith (Harington), who seems to be the very model of a modern Victorian gentleman, the delicate and unworldly Monkhouse Lee (Colin Ryan), and the strange Edward Bellingham (Fox) who has been making waves with his research into Ancient Egypt.

Could his experiments even disturb a bag of bones tagged as Lot 249?

It may sound scary, but for the cast it’s been nothing but fun. Harington says: “I have loved Gatiss and his work for a long time and I adore his series of Christmas ghost stories. Freddie is a great, kind, generous and brilliant actor.

“It was rapid and fun and that was what Mark promised me. Let’s get in, shoot something fun and sit around at Christmas with mince pies and watch it. What a joy.”

In fact, it seems to have made the Game of Thrones star eager to take on more 19th-century literature. He says: “Gatiss clearly saw that I’m a closet Victorian man trapped in a millennial body. I loved these costumes, I loved the moustache…I’d definitely do something of this period again”

Call the Midwife (Monday 25/12/23, BBC One, 8.15pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

Check your pulse – we’re back to Poplar for a festive special that’s almost as traditional as tinsel and turkey with all the trimmings.

Fans of Call the Midwife would be devastated if they couldn’t catch up with the staff and patients at Nonnatus House on Christmas Day; it’s now become a part of their annual ritual.

That’s not bad going, considering some critics thought the period drama’s death knell had sounded way back in 2014 when its original star, Jessica Raine, quit her role as Nursing Sister Jenny Lee. The character was at the centre of every story, and it was the real Jenny’s memoirs on which the series was based.

But they needn’t have worried. Like Taggart, which ran for a further 16 years after the death of its star, Mark McManus, Call the Midwife carries on regardless. Next year, the 13th series will air, and we’re promised at least another two after that.

“I’m overjoyed by the news that the doors of Nonnatus House will be open for a few more years!” claimed its writer and creator, Heidi Thomas, when the news was announced back in February.

“Call the Midwife is the pride and joy of all who work on it, but it’s our fantastic, loyal audience that matters most. We are a family behind the scenes, on the screen, and in front of the telly, and I’m thrilled that we’re all heading into the 1970’s together.”

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, added: “Call The Midwife’s enduring popularity is thanks to the extraordinary creative talents and hard work of creator Heidi Thomas, executive producers Pippa Harris and Ann Tricklebank, and the series’ dedicated cast and crew. I know they have many more stories to tell – and that the residents of Nonnatus House have many more babies to deliver – so I’m delighted that Call the Midwife will continue on BBC One and iPlayer for more years to come.”

But for now, it’s December 1968 that concerns us. The episode begins a fortnight before Christmas Day, and as excitement mounts ahead of Apollo 8’s impending orbit of the Moon, somebody at Nonnatus isn’t getting into the festive spirit.

Poor Sister Monica Joan is convinced this will be her final Yuletide but, as you might expect, everyone rallies round in an attempt to lift her out of her gloom, including Trixie and Matthew, who are back from their honeymoon. As they prepare for their first Christmas as a married couple, her brother Geoffrey pays an unexpected visit – and even he feels moved to put a smile back on Sister Monica Joan’s face.

Meanwhile, Nancy and Colette receive good news – Sister Julienne is offering them a room at Nonnatus House for the foreseeable future. Plus, Cyril finds a chap who’s down-on-his-luck and in need of some comfort and joy, while Nurse Crane, who’s been away on a course, makes it home in time for the festivities, despite heavy snow.

So it seems that all the vital sounds are present and correct, and that when the eagerly awaited 13th series begins, the show and its characters will be in very rude health indeed.

Vera (Tuesday 26/12/23, ITV1, 8pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

It’s Boxing Day, a time when we all sit back, take stock after 24 hours of over-indulgence and… solve a major crime.

Well, that’s the case this year if you happen to be a big fan of Ann Cleeves’ dogged detective, DCI Vera Stanhope, who’s about to take centre stage in an adaptation of the author’s 10th Vera novel, The Rising Tide.

Incredibly, considering it’s been running since 2011, this is the programme’s first festive edition.

“I’ve always wanted to have a Vera Christmas special,” claims Brenda Blethyn, who plays her. “This adaptation is set against the backdrop to the run up to Christmas. There are quite a lot of Christmas trees in this film and it was nice to film scenes with all of the festive decorations in the background. There’s always a jolly feeling at Christmas with people in good spirits. But sometimes they had to take a tree out of the background because there was too much going on!

“I think The Rising Tide is one of Ann Cleeves’ best books, and that’s saying something because they’re all fabulous. She just gets better and better. But as is often the case when adapting a novel for TV, there are differences between the book and Sally Abbot’s terrific adaptation.”

So, fans of the original text, you have been warned! The bare bones of the story remain the same, however.

“Vera and her team are gearing up to having a couple days off over Christmas when a call comes in about a television celebrity who has been found dead on Holy Island in Northumberland of all places, where Vera lives, in what is an unexplained death,” explains Blethyn. “So her boss has decided that as Vera knows the area, she can go and deal with it.

“It turns out the dead man is with a group of friends who first visited Holy Island together in 1977 and have been returning for a reunion every five years since 1982. Vera is intrigued by them and finally concludes that the death is a case of murder.”

It’s a fascinating case but, sadly, it’s the last one Blethyn will work on with Kenny Doughty, who’s bowing out of his role as Vera’s sidekick, DS Aiden Healy.

“I was sad when he said he was leaving,” she says. “He’s my mate. We had filmed eight series together. I’ve never laughed so hard as I did with Kenny Doughty.”

As for Blethyn’s own festive plans, they are, thank goodness, a lot less dramatic than what her alter ego is getting up to.

“On Christmas Day we will go out walking first thing with the dog, as we do most days no matter the weather,” reveals the actor. “Christmas Day is just about relaxing, watching some television and then wishing it was over!

“And I will certainly be watching The Rising Tide when it goes out. I like to see it as it is broadcast on TV and my husband also likes to watch it with me. He gets annoyed if I tell him anything about it beforehand, so I’ll not say a word!”

Murder is Easy (Wednesday 27/12/23, BBC One, 9pm)

Words by Sarah Morgan

“Anybody who can believe six impossible things before breakfast wins hands down at this game,” says Luke Fitzwilliam, the central character in Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel Murder is Easy.

It was first published in the UK just months before the start of the Second World War, a time of unrest across Europe. There appears to have been some kind of unrest in the Queen of Crime’s career too. She was already a huge name, and although her readers would have been expecting another tale featuring perhaps Poirot or Miss Marple, she opted for a completely different sleuth, which is where Fitzwilliam comes in.

The story has been adapted for the screen before. In 1982, Bill Bixby and Helen Hayes starred in a US TV version, and Benedict Cumberbatch appeared in a 2008 take on the tale, which added Miss Marple (played by Julia McKenzie) to the list of characters.

As has been the case with other festive Christie adaptations in recent years, a few tweaks have been made to the original, including setting it 15 years later in 1954. So rather than depicting Britain on the eve of war, it focuses on the nation still recovering from its ravages.

“Siân Ejiwunmi-Le Berre’s amazing adaptation of Murder is Easy digs into the divides at the heart of post-war English society, and we feel so lucky that the village of Wychwood is going to be brought to life by a dream cast,” claims executive producer James Gandhi. “With Meenu Gaur at the directing helm and David Jonsson playing the lead, this promises to be a thrilling ride!”

Fitzwilliam is actually on a train to London when he first hears about Wychwood from one of its residents, fellow passenger Miss Pinkerton. She tells him there’s a murderer on the loose in this otherwise sleepy place, and when she’s killed on her way to report the crimes at Scotland Yard, he feels it’s his duty to unmask whodunit before they can strike again.

Unfortunately, for the culprit murder is, as they say, easy, and soon, the bodies begin mounting up…

Penelope Wilton, Morfydd Clark, Mark Bonnar, Mathew Baynton, Douglas Henshall and Tamzin Outhwaite are among the wonderful supporting cast.

“Once again my great-grandmother’s stories have attracted some amazing talent,” smiles James Prichard, executive producer for Agatha Christie Ltd. “It is so exciting to see this group of actors embark on the re-telling of this great story. The concept of evil lurking in the quintessentially English village is a familiar trope, but what exactly it is that makes murder easy remains to be revealed.”

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, agrees: “With an intriguing central mystery and a fantastic creative team behind the camera, it’s no surprise that this new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit has attracted a who’s who of UK acting talent to bring Murder is Easy to the screen. BBC viewers are in for a treat that will keep them guessing to the very end.”

Either that or we, too, will need to believe six impossible things if we’re to solve the mystery ourselves.

1970s Night (Thursday 28/12/23, Channel 5, from 8pm)

Words by Scheenagh Harrington

From flared trousers you could lose small children inside, to interior decor that inspired instant nausea, there was a lot wrong with the 1970s.

Yet, as this evening of programmes will demonstrate, it definitely wasn’t all bad.

It kicks off with Britain’s Favourite 70s Sitcoms (8pm), 60 minutes dedicated to hostile hoteliers and comedy convicts, with inside stories, hilarious moments and secrets from the shows.

Find out how Michael Crawford performed all his own slapstick stunts in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, how the cast of The Good Life bonded over pea pod burgundy, how Fawlty Towers became a huge hit, and why a real-life affair inspired Carla Lane to write the suburban sitcom Butterflies.

Watch out for clips from The Last of The Summer Wine, The Liver Birds, The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, Steptoe and Son, and Dad’s Army.

Next up is The 1970s Dinner Party (9pm), from the makers of breakout nostalgia hit The 1970s Supermarket. Chuck your coat in the spare room, drop the car keys in a bowl and get ready for a very special evening.

A suitably retro suburban house (traumatic decor klaxon to any Gen Z viewers) is the setting for a 1970s-style dinner party. Debbie McGee is the host, while Rustie Lee rustles up retro recipes, including a crazy take on fondue and crepes suzette, for guests TV presenter Johnny Ball, pop star Cheryl Baker, actor Vicki Michelle and musician Leee John.

They reminisce about the decade when more Brits became homeowners, furniture became fashionable and food was flamboyant.

Bringing up the rear of the evening is When 70s TV Goes Horribly Wrong.

It features a slew of less-than-perfect moments from the decade’s biggest shows, including Fawlty Towers, Jukebox Jury and the very first episode of Question Time where an audience member stole the show for all the wrong reasons.

Sherrie Hewson, Doctor in the House star George Layton and presenter Jenny Hanley relive the moments they’d rather forget in this two-hour special narrated by icon Dame Penelope Keith.

Bill Oddie relives a rare outtake from The Goodies where the comedy called for him to smash a Gramophone record, but he ended up making a record of his own – for the most takes.

Meanwhile, Sheila Ferguson recalls when she was guest starring on Supersonic with her group the Three Degrees but was forced to call cut after swallowing some glitter falling from the lighting gantry. Plus, Blue Peter presenter Lesley Judd takes us back to a time before Health and Safety was a thing.

Other highlights include the time a young newscaster Sue Lawley was underwhelmed by a guest on Nationwide, who claimed he could jump on eggs without cracking them.

Meanwhile, veteran American comedian and actor Bob Hope has difficulty with a prop, causing steam to pour from his ears literally and metaphorically, and bad boys of rock The Who have a bizarre encounter with unimpressed chat show host Russell Harty.

Tiswas star Sally James, actress Sally Geeson and singer-songwriter Jona Lewie are also among the talking heads.

Men Up (Friday 29/12/23, BBC1, 9pm)

Words by Rachael Popow

If you saw the documentary Keeping It Up: The Story of Viagra when it aired on BBC2 earlier this month, then you’ll know that the world’s first medical trials for the drug took place in Wales.

That’s also the inspiration for a feature-length new drama, which follows the experience of five (fictional) patients who take part, exploring how the controversial pill changes their lives in ways they weren’t expecting.

Widower Colin (Steffan Rhodri) is nervous about embarking on a new romance, while Peetham ‘Pete’ Shah (Phaldut Sharma) fears he and his wife have lost their spark. Eddie (Mark Lewis Jones) is also keen to please his wife, and Tommy (Paul Rhys) is a gay man who has lied about his sexuality to take part in the trail. He’s encouraged by his friend, clinical nurse Moira Davies (Joanna Page), but can he keep up the pretence?

Meanwhile, Meurig (Iwan Rheon) deeply loves his wife Ffion (Alex Roach) but has been struggling to be intimate with her following a diabetes diagnosis. He’ll do seemingly anything to get their relationship back on track – except talk to her…

As Iwan point out, that’s a key theme in the drama. “A lot of the characters are at some form of a boiling point and their impotence is causing them mental harm. We find Meurig at a desperate point and a lot of this is about masculinity and the inability to talk about problems. As men, we are getting better at it, but in the 90s, it was very much not a thing to talk about.”

And while the drama may be set nearly 30 years ago, it’s a theme that Iwan believes is still important. He says: “Most people will know that through lack of communication and expressing your emotions, people drift apart, and you can become lonely and it’s a really dangerous thing. Suicide is one of the main killers of men, and it’s something that we need to address as men.”

He adds: “I believe Welsh men, in particular, are bad at expressing their feelings as I know quite well being one myself! It’s something I certainly work on, and I think it’s really important. We need to try to just get over the fact that we’re worried that someone’s going to laugh at you for something and you need to deal with these things.”

It’s something that Aneurin Barnard, who plays Dr Dylan Pearce, agrees with, saying: “In this story, we really opened the door to see what it’s like for men who are struggling with being honest about what’s going on behind closed doors.

“It’s so important, especially now, in this day and age to educate young men in particular, boys even, that it’s okay to cry. It’s okay to feel, it’s okay to be shy, it’s okay to be angry. We must make sure that we look after them in the process of learning that and it’s extremely vital for men to be honest about their feelings.”