The Madame Blanc Mysteries Christmas Special 2024: release date, plot, cast, interview and everything we know

Sally: "It's very Christmassy! I think it's got a cracking mystery in it, which is great, but there's also lots of romance and relationship stuff between Dom and Jean, and Judith and Jeremy, so there's a bit of everything for everyone, really."

Sally: "It's basically the French equivalent of a Punch and Judy show, and the father-and-son team are both quite inebriated. Frederick goes off to drink some more booze, and when he puts his puppet back on, unfortunately there's something in the puppet that ends his life — I'll leave it at that! It's quite an unusual thing to be killed by a puppet, but I had the idea years ago thinking 'that would be good, wouldn't it?', and I wanted to work a Punch and Judy show into it because I think they're quite mystical and magic. It's just stuck in my head, and we managed to work it out. Sometimes I have these ideas years ago, and they don't come together until series four! [laughs]"

Steve: "Well, it's a Christmas of firsts, isn't it? Their first Christmas morning together, their first night together, first presents together — there are a lot of 'firsts' to get through, and they're cautiously working their way through them because it is still a new relationship and they're older and wiser than they were when they were doing these things for the first time in their early 20s."

Sally: "Dom and Jean decide, as a mutual thing, to keep it a secret. Only Dom, Jean and the audience are in on it, so they're sort of running around like teenagers, like they're having an affair — and they're not! It's all very secretive and exciting, and I think they do that because they're in no rush — they don't want kids, they're not moving in together yet, they're just seeing how this goes."

Steve: "It's romantic as well, isn't it? There's something nice about a romantic secret."

Sally: "It's a bit weird really — I've known Steve longer than my actual husband! I've known him since Phoenix Nights like 25 years ago, so it is a bit odd, having a romantic relationship with one of your best mates. But it's brilliant as well, because we do get on so well as mates, so it tricks the audience into thinking that there's something really explosive going on there. I think that's why it works."

Steve: "I think there was always a closeness between them, even before they got together. They were always drawn towards each other — they make each other laugh, and they want the same sort of things out of a relationship."

Sally: "I'm not going to tell you the storyline because it's quite a zinger, but something happens that shakes them to the core, and we see how they get over that. Sometimes we see the frippery and the campness of Judith and Jeremy, but they do some serious soul-searching in this and I do like that — like in the last series when we found out about the twins that they lost. They're such brilliant actors, it would be a shame not to do that. We can't do it every episode, because people want Jeremy and Judith being camp and nonsense! But it's good to show behind the curtains sometimes, and I hope that this is a Christmas story that people won't see coming."

Steve: "The scene where we saw the Christmas tree outside in the square, that was a bit later and less hot, I think."

Sally: "Yeah, we filmed that in September, didn't we? But we filmed the Christmas market in August..."

Steve: "Oh, the Christmas market was hot!"

Sally: "It was 37º or 38º — it was awful!"

Steve: "We were hiding in the glühwein stall just to keep in the shade — but it wasn't a real one, sadly!"

Sally: "It was so hot, we kept running back inside to find some air conditioning! But it looks fantastic, and dead Christmassy!"