Original subtitles

Hardy, why do you miss when my baby kisses me?

In Aidensfield, they've been celebrating Christmas in the swinging fixes for

more than a decade now.

And over 15 series, there have been 12 turkeys.

Eight snowstorms. As soon as you start to go for your line, one of these fake

snowflakes straight down your throat.

Seven Christmas kisses.

A nervous rash just appeared all over my neck.

Six geese are laying.

No.

To have a live goose running around, the sound men go mad.

Don't you dare touch it. It's a recipe for chaos.

Four Santas. If you've not got two, but we can't sit on Santa's knee, get off.

Three babies.

Two canine reindeer.

I don't believe they did that to a dog.

One shooting star, one megastar.

Charlotte Church taught everyone how to burp the alphabet.

And more stolen Christmas trees than you can shake a stick at.

The Christmas episodes are different. We get really excited and we're up there

filming for 11 months of the year. So anything that's an occasion, anything

lets the girl dress up.

and tinsel and decorations.

We're all like kids. We get really excited about it.

And Christmas.

It's all that sort of warmth about the Christmas period that you, I think, you

gathered probably when you were a kid, and it stays with you. What would you

like for Christmas?

A bike.

I've told you, you're not having a bike.

You tell Mummy that Santa knows where he can get one at cost.

Of course, Christmas has never been just for kids, and at this time of year in

Havensfield, you can usually expect something a bit more grown -up.

Romance is often in the air.

But sometimes it's not quite as much fun as it looks.

Whether it is that you're kissing or having a romantic scene with, it's

going to be awkward, whether you get on with them well or not.

It's the crew, especially the male crew, who all get a bit immature about it.

John, if you don't want to kiss, well, I'll do it, you know.

My first Christmas in Heartbeat was the first kiss between my character, Trisha,

my baby doctor, and Mike Bradley, the police officer, played by Jason Derr.

And it was also my first screen kiss ever, I think. I don't think I'd done

before. So I was really nervous.

Well, you've certainly had a busy day, Constable.

I guess so have you, Doctor.

I'm glad you found Emma's dog for her.

Do you talk about it beforehand, do you think? You know, you can go that way,

I'll go that way.

Are you allowed to use tongues?

Merry Christmas, anyway.

Merry Christmas.

I don't know these things. I don't know.

I'd like you for Christmas.

It took several takes.

I did milk it a bit.

If you have to kiss anyone, then Jason does.

We're not a bad person to kiss.

Yeah.

You'd have thought Christmas kissing would be a lot easier if the person you

to snuggle up to was one of your best mates.

But for this couple, it was quite the opposite.

First prize, a kiss from the landlady.

Phil Bellamy and Gina Ward have been flirting for months in 2000 and finally

their first kiss when Phil rigged a raffle.

Hold on a sec. Og, it's me!

It's just a weird thing that if you've got a good friend like Trish and I are,

don't turn up and then be feeling like you're going to really neck someone.

It's the most bizarre sensation.

I'm sure lots of people love it, but we got really scared about it.

What sort of Santa are you?

Streetwise and chimney -shy.

Well, he's just daft, really daft, because, you know, I know his wife and

knows my husband and we do go out.

Happy Christmas.

I think even my wife had sent me some breath freshener, which I'm not sure

that says, so that I wouldn't embarrass myself with Trish.

And I just got this rash.

And he got it as well.

It's just like this nervous rash just appeared all over my neck, and he was

like, you all right? I said, yeah, yeah, I'm fine.

It's horrible.

Sadly, not everybody gets just what they want for Christmas.

I have asked the producers year after year, just one Christmas episode that

maybe I could fall in love and know what...

Twelve years on, not one snog in twelve years. What's going wrong?

Ah.

Still, if there's one thing guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, it's the

arrival of a man in red to join the boys in blue.

And quite a few of the cast have worn the red robes over the years.

Who is it?

It's me, Oscar.

Gina, pad him out. Otherwise they'll all think that Father Christmas has been on

a strict diet.

Well, the best Father Christmas that we had was Bill Maynot, Greengrass.

If anyone was born to play Father Christmas, it was Bill.

And, you know, he had the beard and the suit and, dare I say, the figure.

You've got to be joking.

No, it's very you.

Playing Santa.

Had its good points, because when you put on those red robes, it makes you

very ho, ho, ho, if you know what I mean.

Be careful, Mrs. Watkins.

They're high enough, they're high enough. The only problem was I sometimes

to wear a false beard, and I've always hated wearing false beard, because I

couldn't... Bear that glue that you have to stick the beards on. And I hate

anything that you always want to... Like that, you know.

Oh, look what she's found.

What's this?

Santa Claude might have caused a bit of bother over the years.

I want my money back.

But it was nothing compared to the trouble another Santa got into when he

burned down the police station.

Well, do you work again? One episode that we shot here at the police station,

and Bill Simons, who plays Alf, had to play Santa.

And he took his cigarette out, his lit cigarette, and the end fell off the

cigarette and landed on his little costume beard, and it just started to

smolder. We were absolutely killing ourselves, desperate to keep going with

scene, because he was, but only because he was unaware.

And it's there, it's there on site. You can see his little beard just about to

set off onto this horrible moment, really.

Unfortunately, not everyone has had the chance to play Santa.

I never got the chance to dress as Father Christmas, which, obviously, now

maturer man. Maybe I might get the chance. Maybe I'll come back as a guest

Father Christmas.

Christmas in Aidensfield always looks wonderfully festive.

But it can be a testing time for the actors because of the summer filming.

When we film Christmas episodes, the weather is normally boiling.

And then they encase you in yards of duffel coat and ask you to look cold.

Right, whenever you're ready.

Oi!

It's painful to be stood in your trench coat and your itchy woolen police

uniform and sweat rolling down your back.

We're all like this, got fans under the bar, like this, fanning ourselves down.

We have to act like this. It's so cold.

With years of practice and the very latest snow machine technology, the

heartbeat crew have perfected the art of turning Aidensfield into a winter

wonderland. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

But back in the early days, it was a lot more hit and miss.

To start with, I think there was a prop man with a washing -up bowl, you know,

and some washing -up liquid, making a bit of frothy mess.

Then they tried paper and little bits of tissue.

And there was one episode where I think one actor actually got arrested and has

to end up in the snow and came up with what looked like a custard pie on his

face. His sins, because it was just foam.

These days, the heartbeat snow machines are state -of -the -art, but they can

cause problems for the actors.

Try and speak.

When you've got these snow machines going, that's a skill in itself.

As soon as you start to go for your line, one of these fake snowflakes

down your throat, choking all over the place. Can't go again.

Takes another 20 minutes to reset, you know.

By and large, it looks fine.

People don't want it to be entirely real.

It's more important that it looks beautiful and that suddenly, you know,

look out at the night sky and it'll be filled with white flakes.

Preferably at the last minute. Look, it's snowing.

There can be Christmas after all.

After the break, the joy of Christmas continues for those on the right side of

the chopper.

And Heartbeat goes to church, the Aidensfield's biggest carol concert

I hope she can sing.

They say never work with children or animals, but nobody's reported that to

Aidensfield Police.

They're everywhere at Christmas.

I remember the baby deer.

I remember everybody cooing over the baby deer because it was just gorgeous.

Little Bambi.

They might be cute and cuddly, but animals can sometimes get in the way.

Oh, what a day.

When PC Nick Rowan was about to propose to schoolteacher Joe Weston, he thought

it would be just the two of them.

No.

Hang on.

What are you doing?

What, if we do it now, we can cook it in time for a late supper? No.

To have a live goose running around, the sound man go mad.

Better prove stuff. Don't you dare touch it. It all being a lot of fun for the

crew, and us having to try and speak these obviously well -written lies, it

a recipe for chaos.

Give me that! Only if you say you'll marry me.

What?

But I had my big chopper in hand, and how could she refuse me?

Will you marry me?

One animal who for nearly ten years got more fan mail than Santa was Alfred, who

traditionally has been transformed into a baby reindeer at Christmas.

I suggested we should put some antlers on Alfred's head when I was playing

Father Christmas, and he looked so funny, and they put a little red nose on

And everybody accepts it. It's perfectly all right.

That's not a real reindeer.

Of course it's a real reindeer.

It's too small.

Except the little children who don't usually accept it. He's not a reindeer.

It's a dog. Even in Antler, Mr Conlop. Hey, hey, hey!

Last year, Alfred retired, so now Aidensfield has a new star, called Difa,

still carrying on the Christmas tradition.

What a great dog.

She's only about four months old, if that, I think, and she's a bit sort of

and legs.

You know, she's a bit like a child, like a boy.

But she's really good. I mean, she'll sit there in this sort of humiliating

costume.

I think she's the biggest pro of us all, really.

Probably the only thing cuter than dogs wearing antlers are tiny tots all

wrapped up for Christmas.

Hello, Santa.

Ho, ho, ho.

And one member of the cast has good reason to remember a particular child

who appeared in the 2000 Christmas special.

It was the episode where I was dressed up as a heavy and Greengrass and I were

trying to extort some money out of a bank manager.

And of course it went wrong and I was chased out of the bank.

And I ran down the street and...

escaped into a department store.

I hid behind a row of little children queuing up to see Father Christmas.

And what's so special about it is that I managed to pull a few strings and I got

my little girl, Annie, to be one of the children.

She was so thrilled because in those days, I think she still thought that

did for a living was poaching and getting into the most terrible trouble.

We'd better go quietly, David. We don't want to upset the little ones, do we?

The little angel who made perhaps the biggest impact on Heartbeat was

Church, who played Katie, a girl who loses her love of singing because her

parents are splitting up.

I brought you your Christmas presents.

What do you want?

Oh, I can see you're wondering about the gun.

Am I going to shoot my unfaithful wife?

Frank, please, not in front of Katie.

We knew who Charlotte Church was before she came to do the episode.

I'm nearly ready.

She'd sung for Bill Clinton, she'd sung for the Pope.

Well, hello, Katie.

And it was the voice of an angel.

You've got a lovely voice.

My dad doesn't like me to sing.

I think everybody was maybe expecting that she was going to be a horror.

I wish I'd never come here.

Darling, they don't all hate you.

And when she turned up, and she was absolutely lovely, we had just the best

couple of weeks.

We were having water fights outside between scenes. She was playing football

with the crew.

She taught everyone how to burp the alphabet, which was quite mad.

But it certainly broke the ice.

David somehow manages to make her get her confidence back.

And there was a strange hush when we got to film those scenes.

I was a kid.

I hope she can sing.

When she was 13, she had this brilliant, clear, wonderful, classical voice which

just, you know, knocked us all for six, really.

It was lovely just to sit there and listen to her.

My character is a big softie, and he will cry at the slightest thing, which

isn't always easy for me as an actor to do.

But on that day, that was no problem whatsoever.

The tears just came.

It was an extraordinary moment, a lovely moment on the screen as well.

I've got a picture of me nearby a Christmas tree, and we do look quite

And people used to say that I could be her mother.

How good is that?

Well, not good.

I was like, what?

Charlotte Church made that year's Carol concert extra special, but she isn't the

only singing star to have appeared in Aidensfield at Christmas.

Last year, former animal Alan Price dropped in to play travelling musician

Frankie Rio.

Frankie!

I only did the show to impress my youngest daughter, who didn't believe

was once famous.

And so I know that all the teachers and the people at her school watch

Heartbeat. So I thought it's a way of proving to her that I once had my name

capital letters. Don't mention our name, Vernon. You'd better hush until we're

in the clear. My lips are sealed.

Alan hadn't acted for over 30 years, but still managed to steal the show.

You wouldn't mind doing us a favour, would you?

I'll be off with all your fans here.

I think I know what you want, Gina.

The piano's through there.

It wasn't until he sat in the pub and it was just him and the piano playing

House of the Rising Sun, just him alone, no backing or anything, that suddenly

everybody's eyes locked onto him.

Now there is a house in New Orleans

It was quite magical to hear that, not on a record, but live, and he hit every

note perfectly.

I was quite relieved to be able to entertain

them because I'd been such a pain in the filming because I wasn't really a good

actor.

So I'd sung a few of the hits that I had, sweated away, and they appreciated

and gave me a round of applause.

It was my way of paying them back.

Aidan Fields has played host to some impressive singing stars at Christmas.

And some less than impressive ones.

Howard, why don't we do everyone a favour and knock them in until after the

concert?

Don't tempt me.

We had an episode where Bill Thames and I had to do a little bit of carol

singing. It was great fun. I love working with Bill.

In fields where they...

And I chose, for a Mickey thing, to do a sort of Hilda Ogden moment.

Yeah,

didn't go down well with the boys in the pub later when I went out.

Sometimes it's amazing any crime actually gets solved by the heartbeat

at Christmas, because when they're not singing, they're dancing.

And in 1998, there was a ballroom battle royale when Sergeant Craddock came face

to face with his rival, former Sergeant Blaketon.

I partnered Auntie Mary and Craddock was partnering his wife.

And Craddock fancied himself as a ballroom dancer, but he didn't know that

Blaketon could dance as well.

Although they were both supposed to be accomplished dancers, this was only half

true.

I'm not a very good dancer and I'm supposed to be fantastically good.

So there I am with Philippa Wilson and we're brilliant from the waist up.

You know, all of that, very good in the face and everything, but hopeless.

Left feet going left, right and centre.

And we were picked on by a couple of supporting artists who were, I think,

championship ballroom dancers in their own right.

They'd give us these withering looks and mutter implications under their breath.

Are you really supposed to win?

As they swept off, and we felt terribly demoralised by them.

I'd like you all to give a big round of applause to the runners -up, Penny and

Sergeant... Penny and Raymond Craddock.

But I used to ballroom dance, you know, when I was... This is Derek, not Blake.

When I was 17, which is a long time ago, I won a bronze and silver medal. And

the winners are Oscar Blaketon and Mary Clark.

And I was very pleased to see that it was Aunty Mary and Oscar that won, not

Craddock. And action.

This year's Christmas heartbeat promises to be another cracker.

I can't give away too much about the episode, but there's...

There's a bit of a scam going on, as ever, with Peggy.

There's room for only one Santa, Oscar. We end up with two Father Christmases.

Oscar, Blaketon, who's decided he's going to do it for charity.

And a Merry Christmas.

And I get coerced into trying to do it for profit in Bernie's garage.

And Santa Claus isn't the only mysterious man in a flash suit to visit

Aidensfield this Christmas.

The film on this year's Christmas special was great.

My character, Ray Hallam, is a bit of a mystery.

He comes into Aidensfield, you think, uh -oh, we're going to have trouble here,

but as he might say to one of the coppers, never judge a book by the

So book your seat for this year's party at the Aidensfield Arms.

They've got all the usual trimmings and everything you'd expect from a good old

-fashioned heartbeat Christmas.

I'd just like to wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

Hello Santa.

Happy New Year to you.

Paper trains?

They're for children.

Be very careful. Don't drink and drive.

Merry Christmas.

And a Happy New Year.

My office.

Be good.

You what?

Not too good.

Merry Christmas everybody.

And a Happy New Year.

Don't you just love this time of year?