Stephanie Cole and Una Stubbs guest-star in this seasonal special of the cosy rural drama set in 1950s Lancashire.
Is Santa behind a spate of robberies?
(A new series will be shown in the new year.)

[Photo caption] It's Christmas in Born and Bred, in an episode with its hearth in the right place

Rural Drama: Born and Bred 8.00pm BBC1
Even when it isn't Christmas, Born and Bred has never been shy about ladling on the sentiment with a cement mixer and a JCB. But come the festive season, its determination to warm even the chilliest cockle of the hardest heart with the finesse of a blowtorch on an ice cube is even more apparent. Resistance is futile, you might as well submit.
So we have Christmas in the cute northern village of Ormston in the 1950s. It's a lovely place, where everyone knows everybody else, no one bears anyone any ill will - well, not for long - and endings are always happy. In this case, they are also covered in snow, because naturally it snows on Christmas Day in Ormston.
It's the kind of idealised, bucolic world we would all presumably like to live in, the place where the local doctors (played by James Bolam and Michael French) are always on call. In this episode they fear for the sanity of the postmistress (Una Stubbs) after a robbery. And the local bobby is hot on the trail of the alleged culprit, a nasty bit of work who does his evil deeds dressed in a Santa Claus costume and aided by an elf. Even crime is picturesque here.
Cue a broad comic plot that calls for the portly bobby and the local stationmaster to dress as Les Dawsonesque women in a bid to catch the short-sighted baddie.
It's all cheery nonsense that demands to be watched with the feet up and a mince pie in each hand. (Alison Graham)