Our take
A near-perfect half of Christmas comedy built on one simple, very British problem: not wanting to offend anybody, so eating everything. The escalating lunches are the set piece, and Dawn French plays Geraldine's slow defeat by gravy beautifully. Peter Capaldi's brief return as Tristan adds a wistful note before a warm ending that explains why the BBC keeps bringing it back at Christmas.
What happens
It is Christmas in the village, and Geraldine Granger is working on only her second Christmas sermon there. Alice has already forgotten the first one, so Geraldine hunts for a better opening and finds unlikely inspiration in the Spice Girls biography Alice has given her. Then the lunch invitations arrive. Not wanting to hurt anyone, Geraldine accepts three: with David and Hugo at the manor, with Jim and Frank, and with Alice, her mother and her sister Mary. She works her way politely through each enormous meal, sprouts and all, only for Owen to spring a fourth on her, and she ends the afternoon being carried home in the bucket of his tractor. A knock at the door that evening brings Tristan Campbell, the television producer she once fancied, but their stiff conversation goes nowhere and she is left on her own on Christmas night. Then Alice arrives with the rest of the village, who have come to show how much her work for them means.
Can the kids watch it?
Rated PG on DVD, so fine for most families with children from about eight, with some mild innuendo along the way.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Dawn French
- Gary Waldhorn
- James Fleet
- Emma Chambers
- John Bluthal
- Trevor Peacock
- Roger Lloyd-Pack
Guest stars
- Orla Brady
- Mel Giedroyc
- Peter Capaldi
Writers
- Richard Curtis
- Paul Mayhew-Archer
Director
- Gareth Carrivick