BBC First announces festive line-up

BBC First announces festive line-up – Festive season is upon us with BBC First fast tracking all your favourite Christmas Specials including Beyond Paradise, Call the Midwife and Death in Paradise all premiering on our premium drama channel this December.

Beyond Paradise will premiere on Christmas Day at 7.30pm, Call the Midwife will premiere on Tuesday, 26 December at 7.30pm and Death in Paradise will air on Wednesday, December 27 at 7.30pm. All three specials will be available to stream on Binge and On Demand.

In Beyond Paradise, can Humphrey and the team solve a series of eerie cases – including a mystifying haunting – in time for Christmas? When a man is haunted by the ghost of his dead wife, Humphrey and the team investigate. Esther assumes there must be a rational explanation but – when Humphrey also spots the ghost – it’s clear there’s more to the case than meets the eye. Meanwhile, Kelby deals with a missing person case when the Virgin Mary disappears from Shipton Abbott Church, and Martha struggles to communicate with new foster teenager Jaiden. Can the Shipton Abbott police force solve these mysteries and come together in time for the annual Christingle?

Cast for the episode includes Kris Marshall (Sanditon, Death in Paradise), Sally Bretton (Not Going Out, The Office), Zahra Ahmadi (Closed Circuit, Doctor Who), Jade Harrison (Wedding Season, The Stranger) and Dylan Llewellyn (Derry Girls, Big Boys).

Call the Midwife is set on Christmas, 1968. All eyes are heavenwards as astronauts embark on their latest space exploration. But events on Earth continue to unfold at Nonnatus House. With Apollo 8 poised to orbit the moon, Sister Monica Joan believes this will be her last Christmas and decides she will not live to see a man walk on the moon.

The Nonnatus Family rally round to lighten her mood. Nancy recommits to staying on and Sister Julienne offers her and Colette a room for the foreseeable future. Fresh from their honeymoon, Trixie and Matthew prepare their first Christmas as husband and wife when Trixie’s brother Geoffrey pays an unexpected visit. And Nurse Crane, away on her refresher course, gets home in time for Christmas despite treacherously heavy snowfall.

The cast includes Jenny Agutter (The Snow Goose, Logan’s Run), Linda Bassett (Lark Rise to Candleford, Grandma’s House), Judy Parfitt (Hamlet, Dolores Claiborne), Helen George (The Three Musketeers, The Monster), Stephen McGann (The Hanging Gale, Catherine the Great), Laura Main (Murder City, The Mill), Rebecca Gethings (Extras, The Thick of It) and Cliff Parisi (EastEnders, Bramwell).

In Death in Paradise, DI Neville Parker’s mum is in town for Christmas – and a wealthy business owner is found dead at the bottom of a ravine.

It’s Christmas in the Caribbean and Neville’s larger than life mum is in town. But she’s disheartened to see how down on romance Neville is – can she instil some festive cheer in her unlucky-in-love son? Meanwhile, a wealthy business owner is found dead at the bottom of a ravine whilst his house guest Debbie has completely vanished. As Debbie’s hapless fiancé flies in on a rescue mission, the team learn that the victim’s picture-perfect family aren’t all that they seem.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Patsy Kensit (EastEnders), Doon Mackichan (Two Doors Down), Youssef Kerkour (House of Gucci), Geoff Bell (The Curse), Bronagh Waugh (Ridley), Amelia Clarkson (The Last Kingdom), Freddy Carter (Shadow and Bone) and Leila Khan (Heartstopper) are celebrating Christmas on the sunny shores of Saint Marie this year. They join Death in Paradise series regulars Ralf Little, Don Warrington, Shantol Jackson, Tahj Miles, Ginny Holder and Élizabeth Bourgine for the BBC Caribbean crime drama’s festive feature-length special.