8 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times1
The Girl Before
Banish the mince pies and kick
things off with a twisted psycho-
logical thriller taking in duplicity,
death and deception. There are
going to be a lot of gaudy Christmas spe-
cials in the fortnight ahead, so take the
chance while you can. This is a stylish pot-
boiler that instantly has you hooked (think
The Nest, Behind Her Eyes or The Replace-
ment). It involves a young couple (Gugu
Mbatha-Raw and Ben Hardy) tempted to
take a tenancy at an ultra-minimalist
London house despite some absurdly
exacting stipulations from the landlord, a
suspiciously inscrutable architect played
by David Oyelowo. But what happened to
the previous tenant? Sun-Wed, BBC1, 9pm2
All Creatures Great
and Small
Snow is falling, a dog
lies asleep in front of
the Christmas tree
in Skeldale House and James
Herriot is awakened by an
emergency call from up on
the moors. It is Christmas
Eve. Of course it is, as this sea-
sonal special of the winningly
old-fashioned series takes its
rightful place in the schedules
on, indeed, Christmas Eve. James
and Helen are navigating their first
Christmas as an engaged couple, but
trouble looms when Mrs Pumphrey’s
beloved Tricki Woo (played by the magnif-
icent Derek) is taken gravely ill. Not Tricki
Woo! Essential seasonal viewing. Christ-
mas Eve, Channel 5, 9pm3
The Mezzotint
There’s nothing like a good ghost
story on Christmas Eve scare the
living daylights out of you. Back
after a year’s break is the BBC’s
pleasingly eerie tradition, which, as usual,
has been overseen by the MR James cura-
tor Mark Gatiss. The Mezzotint is one
of James’s best. It is 1922 and Rory Kinnear
is a respected university gentleman who
receives an engraving of an unknown
manor house. Gradually, he becomes
understandably troubled because the pic-
ture seems to have changed each time he
looks at it. There’s something wrong.
Something... ghastly. Christmas Eve,
BBC2, 10.30pm4
Spitting Image
Christmas
Special
Those seeking a
contrast to Carols
from King’s on Christmas Eve
could spend half an hour with
the grotesquely obscene latex
puppets of Spitting Image. Put it
this way, the episode will include
a shocking surprise for Prince
Andrew, a sketch in which Phoebe
Waller-Bridge writes the Queen’s
annual festive message, and Rishi Sunak
being visited by terrifying visions includ-
ing the Ghost of Tory Glory Past. All very
amusing, but if The Mezzotint (see above)christmas crisis Laura
Main, Helen George and
Leonie Elliott in Call the
Midwife. Below: Paul
Bettany and Claire
Foy in A Very
British Scandal8
A Very British Scandal
No Agatha Christie reimagin-
ings this year, but there is this
elegantly upholstered three-
parter from the same writer,
Sarah Phelps. It focuses on the divorce
of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll (Paul
Bettany and Claire Foy), and the media
frenzy around photographs of her with
another man. Against a backdrop of deca-
dent high society, their marriage is intri-
cately portrayed, starting with this meet-
cute. “You descended the stairs,” Bettany
says rakishly, “and I said, ‘There’s a girl I’m
going to marry.’” Foy replies coldly: “Who
did you say that to?” To which he drawls:
“My wife. I rather think that’s why she di-
vorced me.” Boxing Day-Dec 28, BBC1, 9pm9
The Book of Boba Fett
Star Wars fans assemble! Round
the small screen, that is — next
week appears the latest interga-
lactic milking of the sci-fi fran-
chise by Disney. And this one looks good.television
12 treats of Christmas 2021 —
From the classic adventure Around the World in 80 Days, to
kids’ favourite Superworm, to special editions of All Creatures
and Call the Midwife, James Jackson picks the ones to watch
7
Around the World
in 80 Days
Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg is
revived as an old-fashioned tea-
time yarn, but with the requisite
wit to make it a pleasure for all audi-
ences. David Tennant plays Fogg
as a bored Victorian gent in the
Reform Club taking an ill-
advised £20,000 wager that
he can balloon around the
globe in record-breaking
time. So the adventure
begins, with Fogg ac-
companied by a French
valet Passepartout (Ibra-
him Koma) and a head-
strong journalist (Leonie
Benesch). She shows her
colours early on when she admon-
ishes her newspaper-editor father
(Jason Watkins) about a woman not
being allowed a byline. “But it’s 1872!”
she cries in outrage. Boxing Day,
BBC1, 5.50pmis designed to send you to bed for disquiet-
ing dreams, Spitting Image might prove just
as effective. On Britbox and Christmas Eve,
ITV, 10pm5
Superworm/The
Abominable Snow Baby
Superworm, as any toddler’s
parent can tell you, is super-long.
Superworm is superstrong. And
you can watch him wiggle — see him
squirm! — on Christmas Day (BBC1,
2.30pm) because he’s the latest quirky
hero to be adapted from the Julia Donald-
son kids’ books. The voice cast includes
Olivia Colman and Matt Smith, as Super-
worm falls foul of the evil plan of the mean
Wizard Lizard. Magic Light does these
animated comedies so well. Mean-
while, Channel 4 has its own child-
ren’s charmer on Christmas Day
with the funny and moving
The Abominable Snow Baby
(7.30pm), based on Terry
Pratchett’s book and with
Julie Walters leading the
voice cast.6
Call the
Midwife
Yes, you might roll
your eyes at the
predictability of it
— a Christmas midwife crisis to
remember — but yes, come Christ-
mas Day evening you’ll watch this and,
with heartstrings pulled, conclude that it’s
the best thing on all day. This time it is
December 1966, Miriam Margolyes’s
Mother Mildred is back, and Lucille and
Cyril are preparing for their winter wed-
ding. Yet there will be medical emergen-
cies too as expectant mothers face
breech births and so on. Call the
Midwife always finds that elusive
touch of Christmas magic.
Christmas Day, BBC1, 8pm