CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Christmas TV: Holy Sister J infected with Traitors’ spirit? Certainly not!
Call the midwife
Valuation: ***
Doctor Martin
Valuation: *****
Ban bikes! For the good of all nuns and nurses, these two-wheeled menaces must be banned from the streets of the East End.
Sister Frances (Ella Bruccoleri) exited Call The Midwife (BBC1) in grimly traditional fashion when she fell off her velocipede on a snowy road.
Thankfully, this kicking angel of mercy wasn’t hurt too badly — just a crushed collarbone and a fractured humerus, in the show’s unflinching medical terminology.
But having her sent to Chichester was bad enough… the fate that awaits so many nuns when they leave Nonnatus House. Sister Hilda (Fenella Woolgar) had already gone there and was dispatched without warning at the beginning of the episode.
Ban bikes! For the good of all nuns and nurses, these two-wheeled menaces must be banned from the streets of the East End
Regular viewers (and that means most of us, because we haven’t exactly been spoiled for choice this past Christmas) will remember poor Sister Mary Cynthia (Bryony Hannah) enjoying a dawn bike ride at the docks, when a madman attacked you.
She was sent to Chichester to recover. And in 2017, sister Delia (Kate Lamb) was hit by a car while riding her bike, causing her to forget everything…including her friend sister Patsy.
Snow globe of the weekend
Nish Kumar introduced the second half of Celebrity Lego Masters At Christmas (C4) made out of a snowflake filled plastic dome. Instead of being festive, it just looked like he was trapped inside a giant jellyfish.
Sister Trixie (Helen George) avoided such disasters by making sure she was chauffeured wherever she went in her smitten beau’s Jaguar. To cement their affection, the super-rich Matthew (Olly Rix) bought dolls’ houses for Poplar’s poorest children before buying Trixie a colossal diamond engagement ring – and then throwing it in the Thames to prove he loved her more than money.
The Christmas Carol revolved around a homeless woman trying to have her baby in Fred Buckle’s flower shed. Luckily, Nurse Crane (Linda Bassett) and her spinster pal Miss Higgins (Geordie Glen) spotted her, or we might all sing, “Way in the allotment, with Fred’s wheelbarrow for a bed.”
All of this wasn’t any more of a midwife-by-numbers sort of thing than we’d expect, and the community talent show — hilariously dubbed Poplartunity Knocks — didn’t deliver any surprises either.
One moment of intrigue came when Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) seemed to sabotage Trixie’s romance by alluding to dark secrets from Matthew’s past. Holy Sister J infected by the spirit of the traitors? Certainly not! And of course she wasn’t being spiteful – she just wanted to let Lover Boy know that his bride-to-be might prefer to choose her own jewellery.
This was to be the climax of Doc Martin’s last series and Clunes enhanced his performance by allowing the grumpy Cornwall GP to show a wider range of emotions
All in all, it was hardly a memorable edition of a show that’s been going for a decade. But Doc Martin (ITV) has been running much longer since 2004, and the Christmas special was full of shocks and twists. The Ghost of Christmas Past visited Dr. Ellingham (Martin Clunes) – the appearance of his embittered mother as he froze to death after crashing his car into a snowstorm. Completely rational and unsentimental, he refused to believe in their existence. But that didn’t stop her from saying some pretty mean things.
This was to be the climax of Doc Martin’s last series and Clunes enhanced his performance by allowing the grumpy Cornwall GP to show a wider range of emotions.
He may not understand what he’s feeling, but he knows he feels it — and he was even able to tell Ms. Louisa he loves her by the end, with enough conviction that she knew he meant it.
This was billed as the very last Doc Martin – but that’s what they said about the previous episode too. The doctor didn’t die of hypothermia or move from Portwenn. He hasn’t even retired.
Everything is ready for the return of the show. This is the gift I want for next Christmas.