Our take
The most traditionally festive of the early specials, with a Sunday School concert, a homemade Father Christmas and children dressed as snowflakes, framed by an older narrator looking back on her life. Beneath the tinsel is one of the show's angriest stories, about how unmarried mothers were treated, and it lands hard. Vanessa Redgrave stepping in front of the camera makes it a quietly special one for long-term viewers.
What happens
The special opens in 2005, with the elderly Jennifer Worth at home with her husband Philip, preparing for Christmas and remembering her friends at Nonnatus House, before cutting back to the end of 1959. Rehearsals are under way for the Sunday School Christmas concert: Chummy tries to choreograph a troupe of dancing snowflakes, and Trixie designs a Father Christmas outfit for Fred. Chummy and Patsy take two pregnant teenagers, the confident Avril and the nervous Denise, to a home for unmarried mothers, which is badly run by the cold and drunken Sister Maltby; when Denise is refused treatment, Chummy and Patsy are asked to take the home over and bring some Christmas joy to its residents, and Avril's baby arrives on Christmas Eve. Cynthia is drawn into the case of two former patients of a Victorian mental hospital who have been left to fend for themselves, and it leads her to a life-changing decision. As the year closes, everyone wonders what 1960 will bring.
Can the kids watch it?
No BBFC rating found. It was a Christmas Day family-time drama, but it includes births, illness and some sad stories, so best for older children watching with a grown-up.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Jenny Agutter as Sister Julienne
- Pam Ferris as Sister Evangelina
- Miranda Hart as Chummy Noakes
- Judy Parfitt as Sister Monica Joan
- Helen George as Trixie Franklin
- Bryony Hannah as Cynthia Miller
- Laura Main as Shelagh Turner
- Emerald Fennell as Patsy Mount
Guest stars
- Victoria Yeates as Sister Winifred
- Ben Caplan as PC Peter Noakes
- Stephen McGann as Dr Patrick Turner
- Cliff Parisi as Fred Buckle
- Vanessa Redgrave as Mature Jennifer Worth
- Ronald Pickup as Philip Worth
- Jack Ashton as Tom Hereward
- Louisa Connolly-Burnham as Avril Fox
- Daniel Cerqueira as Victor
- Kacey Ainsworth as Nancy
- Ruth Sheen as Sister Maltby
- Tim Faraday as Len Warren
- Lorraine Stanley as Pearl Winston
- David Annen as Registrar
- Sarah Ridgeway as Muriel
- Jessica Raine as Jenny Lee
- Hayley Squires as Maureen Warren
Writer
- Heidi Thomas
Director
- Thaddeus O'Sullivan