The Heist Before Christmas is a heartwarming festive comedy drama on Sky Max. Previously called Joy To The World, it stars. Timothy Spall and James Nesbitt who play Santas with very different agendas.
Set in Northern Ireland, 12-year-old Mikey Collins witnesses a bank robbery by a man dressed as Santa Claus, so he decides to follow the criminal, only to meet a man claiming to be the real Father Christmas. But Mikey becomes determined to get his hands on the bank robber's cash, so he can give his family the Christmas they all crave. However, as Mikey risks everything for the loot, will the spirit of Christmas hit him?
Here's everything you need to know about The Heist Before Christmas...
The Heist Before Christmas release date
The Heist Before Christmas will be shown on Sky Max on Christmas Eve, aka Sunday December 24, at 8pm. We'll update with an international or US release date and which streaming channel it may go to.
Is there a trailer for The Heist Before Christmas?
Yes there's a trailer and it's worth the wait to see both James Nesbitt and Timothy Spall in their Santa getup. This is going to be magical as you can see below...
The Heist Before Christmas plot
The Heist Before Christmas is set in Northern Ireland and follows Mikey Collins (Bamber Todd), a poor, disillusioned 12-year-old who’s had more than his fill of jingle bells.
One day he runs into two Santas in the woods, one who has just pulled off a bank heist (James Nesbitt) and the other (Timothy Spall) who claims he has fallen out of his sleigh. Mikey has no time for this second guy – he’s well past believing any of the jingle bells, spirit-of-the-season rubbish, even if his little brother Sean (Joshua McLees) insists on treating the old man like a superstar.
But Mikey becomes determined to get his hands on the bank robber’s cash so he can give his family the Christmas they deserve. As he risks everything for the loot, Mikey soon realizes that the spirit of Christmas may be alive after all. And which Santa will come out on top?
The Heist Before Christmas cast — James Nesbitt on playing the bank robber
In The Heist Before Christmas, James Nesbitt plays a thief dressed as Santa. Here he reveals much more about his dodgy Father Christmas...
How would you describe your character in The Heist Before Christmas?
James Nesbitt says: "My character is the bank robber. It’s hopefully a feel-good movie, which captures the spirit of Christmas, but also is holding a bit of a mirror up to what are very challenging times, with the cost-of-living crisis in the UK and Ireland and further afield. It tells a story of two brothers, Mikey and Sean, brought up by their single Mum, and the struggles they face. Mikey is very lovable, very mischievous, gets in a lot of trouble, doesn’t believe in Christmas, or anything, and really is this sort of angry young boy who is trying to hold his family together. He’s desperate, and has come up with what he thinks is an ingenious plan to rob a bank, dressed as Santa Claus. Although he’s got real menace, and his intentions are bad, he’s also a bit of a klutz and very accident-prone."
How do young Mikey and Sean get tangled up with your bank-robbing Santa?
James says: "Mikey sees me run off with lots of money, and decides he wants it, as it’s about time his family was given something fair at Christmas. His little brother Sean wants a bike, and Mikey’s determined to get that for him. Great mayhem, drama and comedy ensue!"
Do you remember getting a particularly memorable Christmas present when you were a kid?
James says: "My first bike, which was called Nippy. I remember coming downstairs and seeing it in the living room, and just not being able to believe it, and feeling so overjoyed."
Did you enjoy playing such a larger-than-life, villainous character?
James says: "They always say: ‘Dying is easy, comedy is hard’. It was fun to do comedy again, and this has a lovely, quirky, slapstick feel to it."
How was it reuniting with Timothy Spall after all these years?
James says: "Timothy is a grown-up actor, and I feel very in awe of him. He’s also very funny, and was brilliant with the kids, so warm. He’s exactly what you would want Father Christmas to be like."
What would you put on your own Christmas list?
James says: "I'd like a photo of me with Erik ten Hag, the Manchester United football manager. I would also like to be 25 years younger, and for my daughters to stop telling me to stop sucking my thumb."
What do you hope audiences take away from this festive drama?
James says: "I hope they laugh, love the characters and think about what Christmas means – being generous and kind to others. But mostly I hope they’re entertained."
Does this drama have a strong Christmas message?
James says: "It’s a film in which the spirit of Christmas may not be dead, even to Mikey. And between these different Santa Clauses, and amidst this crime and these difficulties, maybe there really is Santa out there, and his message, and the spirit of Christmas, are alive."
What was it like filming near where you grew up in Northern Ireland?
James says: "I still live there most of the time, by the sea in Portrush. It’s become a hotspot location for so many other films and TV shows, including that little-known series, Games of Thrones."
What makes Northern Ireland a good setting for this Christmas story?
James says: "When I was growing up, Northern Ireland was in a really difficult situation, and Christmas was a time for people to almost forget about the Troubles, and think about the message of Christmas and bringing people together. Also, it’s just such a beautiful place."
Centring on a cash-strapped family, does this Christmas story seem very topical to you?
James says: "It really does open a window onto the cost-of-living crisis, which is terrible, and people are really struggling. Christmas can be a very difficult time of year, and I think a lot of it will resonate with viewers."
Since you’re playing a bad Santa, is there anything you dislike about Christmas?
James says: "How early everything starts. I hate the cynical marketing that happens from October."
* James Nesbitt shot to fame playing Adam Williams in the series Cold Feet and went on to star in Lucky Man, The Missing, Murphy’s Law and Playing the Field. James has also starred in Bloodlands, Suspect, Stay Close, Line of Duty and The Hobbit movies.
Interview: Timothy Spall on playing Santa
Timothy Spall plays a man who claims to be the real Santa Claus. Here he tells us more abiut his part in The Heist Before Christmas....
Can you give us a brief synopsis of The Heist Before Christmas?
Timothy Spall says: "It’s set in a small town in Northern Ireland. A young boy Mikey, who is a bit of a challenging youth, is determined to get his brother a bike for Christmas. He lives with his Mum and his little brother Sean, and they are financially challenged, they haven’t got much. His Mum works hard, she’s a single parent, she tries to look after her kids. Mikey’s a very bright but quite difficult kid, and always in trouble. He witnesses, amid a Santa Dash, a bank robbery. And he pursues one of the Santa’s who is the robber. The police are struggling to find him because there’s about 50 Santas running around the town. Mikey follows him into the woods after seeing him take the bag of money. He’s determined, after having a terrible row with his mum, to go and find this Santa and get what he hopes is a cut of the deal. When he goes out into the woods… he hears this moaning and he comes across this old man, who he assumes is the bank robber.
"Now, this old man, Santa, is a man seemingly from a Nordic country who says he’s actually Santa, and he’s fallen out of his sleigh. Mikey’s little brother Sean follows him into the woods and is spellbound by this figure of Father Christmas, but then the bank robber turns up and takes them all hostage, and then we’re into an intrigue and a battle for Mikey’s soul, between the bank robber who recognises Mikey as a novice version of himself wanting the cash, and Santa, who sees this good kid who is actually struggling with trying to find out what is right and wrong.
"A big adventure ensues. It’s a bit of a caper with a bit of a commentary about ‘kids with’ and ‘kids without’ at Christmas – and it’s also very funny we hope!"
What grabbed you about Ronan’s script?
Timothy Spall says: "It’s got the classic element of kids, Father Christmas, you know, but it’s so different, it’s such an unusual angle. You’ve got a lot of comedy, and a very deep, profound message in it, without wearing it on its sleeve, and it’s also a bit of social commentary… what I loved about it is, it’s a battle for a kid’s soul, really, a bright kid who through his circumstances, his life situation, has gone astray, and he’s going bad, because he’s angry, because life is unjust, and he’s clever enough to know that. He’s electing to take the alternative route… he’s worked out that he’s from an area and a background, he’s not going to have any opportunities, he’s too young to work out that opportunities are going to come his way, so he’s going down the wrong route. He’s struggling with growing up at the same time as working out what it’s all about. He’s got his kid brother who he cares about, and he’s got his Mum, who is struggling. So, you’ve got that whole serious side of the story, about people who are living a life that’s quite difficult."
It will be cool for the grandkids to see you as Santa...
Timothy says: "Oh yeah! I’ve shown them some of the pictures, and I made them a little film as Santa, of me in the woods, but I re-watched it the other day and it’s actually a bit sinister [laughs]… I showed it to somebody, and they were like, “That’s scaring me!”
What was the shoot like? It must have been rather chilly…
Timothy says: "It was cold, but I could get a lot of thermals on, which I did. There were a couple of nights where it was five or six below [freezing], but you know, you’ve got a lovely [production team] – they kept you warm, and you’re looked after, people coddling you."
* Of course Timothy first hit fame when playing loveable Barry in the 1980s series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, which was later rebooted. In 2023, he starred as murder victim Peter Farquhar in The Sixth Commandment. Timothy is Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies and played notorious hangman Albert Pierrepoint in the movie Pierrepoint. Timothy has also been in The Syndicate, The Pale Blue Eye, Hatton Garden, This Is Christmas and Fungus the Bogeyman.
Who else is starring in The Heist Before Christmas?
The role of 12-year-old Mikey Collins in The Heist Before Christmas is played by Bamber Todd while Joshua McLees plays his little brother Sean Collins. , Laura Donnelly (The Nevers) plays Patricia while Bronagh Waugh (The Fall) andLloyd Hutchinson (Bad Sisters) are also starring.
Bamber Todd says: "I would describe it simply as a new way of looking at what Christmas is like for other people, because some people don’t have a great Christmas. The whole film is centred around Josh’s character Sean wanting something for Christmas that his brother, my character, Mikey, knows he’s not going to get. So, the whole film is Mikey trying to get Sean a bike for Christmas, basically. Everything around the film is… as I was saying, kids would ask for a bike and it would be there, but some children don’t get that."
Joshua McLees says: "Last Christmas, I don’t know how it happened, because I’d already done the audition, I knew the story, and it was Christmas time, and then I got a bike. I didn’t even ask for it. Basically, the whole story is about how other children – I have an amazing Christmas, Bamber does too – but there’s other kids who are less fortunate… you must always appreciate what you get.
Laura Donnelly loves here chracter: "She’s an incredibly easy character to empathise with. She’s fundamentally good and yet she’s not perfect. She’s just doing her very best. I think there are so many people in the UK and in Ireland who are in a very similar position to her. It seemed like a really timely story, and to me, she felt like the beating heart of it. A person who is doing her very best in a world that’s letting her down."
Behind the scenes and more on The Heist Before Christmas
Written by Ronan Blaney and directed by Edward Hall, The Heist Before Christmas is from SHUK and Calico Pictures for Sky.
Writer Ronan Blaney says: "I wrote the first draft, it must be, 15 years ago. But it was always about that pressure, financial pressure that Christmas puts people under. The template for the movie was always It’s a Wonderful Life, that idea of a story which is funny, which is uplifting, but at the same time, it’s very dark, it’s about a man who [dies by] suicide or attempts to [die by] suicide. The idea for this was, we want an uplifting, funny, slapstick story, but if you want to have light, you have to have darkness as well. The darkness was the social background of the characters and why they wanted the money so desperately, why the mother cheats in the raffle to get the bike [for example] and stuff like that. It’s very serious themes, but we made, I hope, a very funny film as well."
