Another quality episode but Christmas specials do tend to fall short.
Here, a scattering of snow appears in certain scenes but not others slightly blighting the usual breath-taking views.
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A scattering of snow and a robin on the opening titles puts the viewer in festive mood
A good storyline with mixed news for Tristan and, as usual, there are animals in distress.
Unlike regular episodes, this one does seem more blatantly contrived with concerns over where people will be for Christmas lunch and then, at the end, Mrs. Hall sees dark skies from the window possibly lining up a darker series 3.
Despite this being set in rural, traditional, pre-war country, it seems no-one goes to church at Christmas; throw in a couple of unlikely ethnic minority characters in the British countryside these days never mind 80 years ago and the PC brigade has taken over our Christmas entertainment schedules.
The usual 45 minutes would have been sufficient. The extra 7 minutes just prolonged a show that was pretty good in the first place.
When a show is as good as this usually is, lengthening it can detract from the magic and, for me, this happened here.
No doubt series 3 will bring evacuees of all creed and colour to the show and all in the name of inclusiveness and TV ratings.