Everyday feels like Christmas in the Larkins household – overindulgent feasts, the roar of six children crowded around a table and the constant flow of alcoholic drinks.
“It’s always the more the merrier at the Larkins,” says Bradley Walsh who has reprised the role of Pop, which was made famous by David Jason in the ’90s original The Darling Buds of May. “Ma revels in it. It’s a proper old fashioned 50s farmhouse. Pop gets everyone a drink and Ma cooks everything – then, they sit around the telly, falling asleep and having more cocktails.”
It’s a chaotic household, but one defined by joy and unwavering hospitality.
“Ma and Pop know each other inside out,” he adds. “There’s no walking on eggshells. I don’t imagine they’d ever argue or have a cross word with each other. They teach us about unity and community.”
Joanna Scanlan, who plays Ma, concurs: “They teach us about loyalty and caring about one another. Putting one another first. Thinking about the whole family rather than themselves as individuals. They teach us that to be with one person for your whole life requires a bit of give and take.”
The Christmas episode, which was filmed in October, is as idyllic and wholesome as the rest of the series – so of course, there’s a smattering of snow, which Joanna Scanlan is hoping for here, in the real world.
“It would be lovely to have a white Christmas – that sense of quietness that comes when the snow dampens the sound everywhere, children playing on toboggans, throwing snowballs or building snowmen,” she says.
Walsh was equally as enchanted by the snow machines: “The set felt so Christmassy – with Christmas trees, bunting, snow and tinsel – it was fantastic. I might start celebrating Christmas in October from now on.”
Much like Ma, Scanlan is the head chef of her own family’s Christmas lunch – and is a stickler for festive traditions.
“We’ll be in Wales this year,” says the actor, who grew up in the market town of Ruthin. “I always listen to Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve. I like going to church and I love to do Christmas stockings, even when people are well beyond the age of having one. Like the Larkins, my family often eat goose, but this year, we’re having chicken – which is from Romshed farm [where The Larkins is filmed] and weighs 3.2 kilos! They have very special animal welfare. I like to cook at least ten side dishes – my speciality being stuffing from an Elizabeth David recipe.”
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While cooking her festive feast, Scanlan likes the radio to keep her company: “I am a massive TV addict, but it’s actually radio that I find is the place I desperately want to be over Christmas. Radio One at Christmas is so uplifting and fun. I feel the radio brings us all together. It’s sound that really brings me into the Christmas zone.”
For Walsh, it’s films that get him into the festive spirit.
“I like watching the same old same old every year,” he says. “Miracle on 34th Street, The Wizard of Oz, It’s a Wonderful Life – and any adaptations of Charles Dickens’ work; I love that feeling of a Victorian white Christmas. I’m very old fashioned in that respect.”
Unlike the gregarious Christmas celebrations at the Larkins’ household – Scanlan finds joy in something a little quieter: “There are lots of different kinds of Christmases and they all work – they all have their merits. I had one Christmas completely on my own and I really enjoyed that. I could do absolutely everything I wanted to do. I watched television, I sang carols, I went to Midnight Mass. I went for a lovely long walk and London was completely empty. It was beautiful, unique and extraordinary. I’ve also had much larger Christmases with 20 or so people and thoroughly enjoyed those too.”
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There is a Christmas tradition that Scanlan fears is dying out – and is determined to hold onto: “I’m always scrambling around getting my Christmas cards done. They are a tradition that is so worth having – specially to connect with people you haven’t seen very much of over the year. I really love it if somebody pops in a letter along with the card. I try to do that myself. It’s a reminder that those people still remain in your thoughts. It’s a wonderful way of celebrating our lives really.”
For Walsh and his family, celebrations begin as soon as the tree is put up at the beginning of December.
“The whole house is decorated,” he says. “Christmas tunes are played throughout the house. I’ve already had a Christmas Day and lunch on The Larkins – and the traditions they have are very much still alive in our family. It’s about being unified, loving and being in the moment rather than worrying about what the next year will bring.”
The Larkins at Christmas is available to watch now on the ITV Hub. It also airs tonight at 9pm on ITV. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.