Last year, Sky Max gave us the little belter that was Christmas Carole, a reworking of the Dickens classic with Suranne Jones as the Scrooge-a-like entrepreneur anchoring a fabulous, family-friendly show that blended laughter and tears in perfect festive proportions.
This year, we have almost as great a triumph in The Heist Before Christmas, a tale of duelling Saint Nicks and a test of faith in magic. Technically, it stars the big names Timothy Spall (as Santa – or is he?) and James Nesbitt (as Villainous Fake Santa – or is he? Yes, he is, totally). But every scene and, I suspect, heart is stolen by two other, lesser names, which is exactly how it should be, given the season.
The first is Bamber Todd as 12-year-old Mikey, who has had to grow up too fast and too poor to have much love for Christmas. In his debut television role, Todd is a marvel, with fine comic chops and an ability to convey all Mikey’s sadness as he struggles to keep the spirit of the season alive as long as he can for his little brother, Sean (Joshua McLees, superbly unmawkish in a part that could easily threaten it). The second is Laura Donnelly as his mother, Patricia, who makes us feel every ounce of the love she has for her boys, and her despair as the dreams of making anything like a decent fist of Christmas start to crumble around her.
Christmas stories almost always depend on a beleaguered character or family overcoming the odds, but poverty is a tricky obstacle to get over these days. It is too common a reality to be treated whimsically and writer Ronan Blaney does a magnificent job of navigating it. He makes the family’s poverty and the threats to their survival real (with the police required to inform social services as a result of Mikey’s petty thievery to keep the finances afloat, for example) and shows us the background humiliations endured, especially by Patricia (her boss docks her pay at every turn and refuses to pay her for the overtime worked until the next week, when she desperately needs it now).
More than that, he shows their situation to be a systemic failure rather than an individual one. “I have to work,” Patricia tells the police when they pick up the unsupervised Mikey. “What else am I supposed to do?” “I have no answer to that, Mrs Collins,” replies the officer (Bronagh Waugh). “More and more in this job, I see good people with their backs against the wall.” It is lightly done, without destroying the wish-fulfilment fantasy Blaney is building, but the point is made.
When the brothers come across Santa (Spall) lying injured in the snow-covered woods after falling out of his sleigh, Sean is filled with wonder and hope. Mikey, however, assumes Santa is probably a concussed and delusional ordinary man. He is more filled with wonder and hope by the presence elsewhere of Bad Santa and the bag of £80,000 in cash he is carrying after robbing the local bank.
Eventually, all their paths cross in the woods and Mikey offers Bad Santa an escape route in exchange for some of the money. Alas, Bad Santa thwarts him and kidnaps Sean. Mikey and Good Santa are soon on a mission to rescue the young boy. After a chase on quad bikes, a well-timed kick in the goolies and assorted other shenanigans, all is well. Brotherly love has won out over the pursuit of cash; faith, hope and charity have all been given their due; and lessons have been learned about the true nature of Christmas.
The ending, unfortunately, is a bit of a mess, with enough loose ends and unexplained happy outcomes to suggest it needed another five minutes’ runtime or one more draft of the third act. But you will have had a laugh and a cry and maybe even witnessed the beginning of a long and fruitful career for young Bamber Todd. Merry Christmas.
• The Heist Before Christmas is on Sky Max and Now TV.
