Sister Boniface Christmas special tinged with sadness after writer's death

“We so loved making last year’s Christmas special," she said. "This Christmas special, it had exactly the same feel to it that it was just a bit magical.

"Definitely, we all felt festive for it. And it was also penned by Jude Tindall, who sadly we lost this summer. So, that was her last episode that she wrote for us.

"So, it was sort of tinged with a lot of sadness. Extra special for that very reason as well.”

At the time of Tindall's death, BBC Studios released a statement which read: "We're sorry to share the news of the sad passing of the much-loved creator of Sister Boniface, co-creator of Shakespeare and Hathaway and master of cosy crime, Jude Tindall.

"Jude was a brilliant writer, scripting countless episodes of Sister Boniface, Father Brown, Casualty, Land Girls and Doctors. Those who had the privilege to work with her will know just how passionate she was about her shows and how generous she was in helping to develop the next generation of writers and producers.

"She'll be deeply missed by the BBC Studios Drama team and our thoughts remain with her family."

The new Sister Boniface Mysteries Christmas special will undoubtedly be a fitting tribute to Tindall's writing and vision for the cosy crime series. Describing a bit more of what's to come in the episode, Watson teased: “So, the amateur dramatics society of Great Slaughter are putting on a panto and the chairman suggests bringing in a guest director.

"It just so happens that this amazing Australian playwright, Jonas Blake, has moved to the area and has just penned Sir Lawrence Olivier’s latest hit in London. He’s offered to tweak the script of Cinderella for them and direct... slightly reluctantly, everyone else decides to go along with it and that’s when things take a turn.”

Max Brown, who plays Sam Gillespie in the series, also revealed: “The rehearsal turns into a murder investigation and then, bodies just keep stacking up. The suspect list gets shorter and shorter as the bodies keep piling up.”

As is often the case in the episodes, we also have a new guest cast to get acquainted with, with some of the new faces under suspicion.

Speaking a bit more about the cast that joins the series regulars for this Christmas episode, Brown said: "The casting was incredible – we had the wonderful Katherine Kingsley and Martyn Ellis, Les Dennis was brilliant and so was Mina Anwar.

"Everyone that came in just brought a different flavour to these wonderful characters on the page. I think the story will really captivate audiences.

"Hopefully we’ve become part of the traditional thing to do at Christmas – sit down and watch the Christmas special of Sister Boniface Mysteries, which I think is a real family-favourite show now, which is great.”

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Sister Boniface Mysteries will return for a Christmas special on Friday 20th December at 8pm and a fourth season in 2025, which will air on UKTV's U&Drama and on BritBox International.

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