Gavin & Stacey, Call the Midwife, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mrs Brown's Boys, reviews

The Tiger Who Came to Tea (Channel 4, Christmas Eve)****

Mrs Brown's Boys (BBC1, Christmas Day)*

Call the Midwife (BBC1 Christmas Day)****

OUTRAGEOUS overeating, effing and jeffing, a rekindling of love, and an emergency operation on a well-scrubbed kitchen table. So much for a quiet Christmas on TV; how was your day?

The big event, besides the birth of baby Jesus many moons ago, was the return of Gavin & Stacey. Ten years on, the Romeo and Juliet of Barry Island have three children, while Smithy and Nessa are taking turns to raise Neil the baby (now 12, but still called Neil the baby).

The Essex mob went to Wales, where Uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon) was cooking dinner for 13. Other than an increase in hungry mouths, nothing had changed, which was a relief. Smithy (James Corden) had not moved to America and made a mint as a late night talk show host, or anything daft like that. Hardly anything was happening on the plot front either, other than Smithy having a new girlfriend and G&S’s romantic life flickering on a low flame. But writers Corden and Ruth Jones managed to pull a cracker of a twist at the end. Tidy, even if we still don’t know what happened on Bryn’s fishing trip.

Rob Brydon turned up again in The Snail and the Whale. Busier than the Queen he was. An animated adventure about a mollusc who hitches a ride on a humpback whale to see the world, Julia Donaldson’s story spoke straight to the Greta Thunberg generation.

It was spectacular, but not half as thrilling as The Tiger Who Came to Tea. The late Judith Kerr’s classic tale was a masterclass in "less is more" storytelling, with an A-list voice cast that stretched from Tamsin Greig to Benedict Cumberbatch as mum and dad, with David Oyelowo as the devilishly handsome big cat.

Kerr, who oversaw every part of the project, ensured the visuals and the verbals matched perfectly. I spy a Christmas classic with the staying power of The Snowman.

Mrs Brown's Boys has become a fixture on festive television, appearing on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. For this year's Christmas Day special, the Glasgow-made sitcom was inspired by/ripped off It’s a Wonderful Life, with the titular Mrs B, family troubles piling up, wishing she had never been born. The angel hoping to get his wings was Curly Watts from Coronation Street (aka Kevin Kennedy).

What a rum do this was. In Mrs Brown’s nightmare vision of the future, she had been replaced by a posh English woman, and her other son, being gay, was naturally dressed in rubber shorts and a vest, and a leather biker's cap. It was like Dick Emery had never left us.

Mrs Brown was not impressed with Curly’s work. "What have you done, you wingless b******?" she asked. Strange, I don't remember that line from Capra's movie. Earlier, Mrs Brown had told Curly to "eff off", and there was much bucking this and bucking that throughout the show. Mrs Brown’s many fans clearly do not mind the language. Neither did I after a while. The real problem was a script that was about as funny as food poisoning.

Those in search of sweetness and light could rely on Call the Midwife. Mother Mildred (Miriam Margolyes) had felt a stirring. God was telling her to open another branch of her midwife/nun combo organisation, but where?

It had to be a place where good nursing and skilled midwives were desperately needed, she explained. Where there was often no doctors for many miles, where climate was the enemy and water and electricity both fickle friends at best.

"Africa?" asked Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter).

"No," said Mother M. "We going to the Outer Hebrides." Of course you are, dear.

When the softie southerners finally got there after a long journey involving train, ferry, minivan and jaywalking sheep, they were frozen to the core. Mercifully, someone had thought to pack an emergency supply of gypsy creams to have with a nice hot cuppa. Such is the selfless nature of these gals, however, they served the biscuits to the locals who trooped into the village hall for consultations. For a small place there was a lot of pregnancies. That's what happens when you don't have telly.

Before you knew it everything was shipshape and Outer Hebrides fashion. Except for the lighthouse keeper’s wife, who had just given birth only to find that she was also suffering from appendicitis. Now that's a tough shift.

An operation on a well-scrubbed kitchen table sorted her out. Kindness and fellow feeling rise from Call the Midwife like steam from a Christmas pudding. Delish.