TV pick: Doctor Who Christmas Special

A scene from the Doctor Who Christmas Special.

After the serious end to the 2015 season of Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi is relieved the Christmas special has a few laughs to it.

In Auckland last month, Capaldi said the one-off, which brings back the character of Doctor Who's onetime missus, River Song (Alex Kingston), is "very light and very funny".

"The character of River Song doesn't really believe I am the Doctor - the last Doctor she saw was Matt Smith. He was rather young and glamorous and hot, and now she has this grey, harried stick insect, which she can't really buy.

"So I have to try and persuade her that I am the Doctor. But there are also monsters and spaceships and flying saucers and the usual goodies we have at Christmas."

The hour-long seasonal show, titled "The Husbands of River Song", finds the Doctor busy avoiding carol singers, comedy antlers and Christmas generally, when there's a knock on his door from a bumbling, bobble-hatted messenger (Matt Lucas in a delightfully daft turn).

After a case of mistaken identity, the Doctor is soon reunited with River Song and the duo, rapid-fire dialogue fizzing with flirtatious chemistry, are hurled into a frantic chase across the galaxy, with a furious King Hydroflax (comedian Greg Davies, with a removable head) and his giant red robot bodyguard hot on their heels.

Much mirth results from the fact that River doesn't recognise the Doctor in his new incarnation - her showing him around the Tardis is hilarious.

There's plenty for younger viewers to enjoy: pratfalls, fart gags and a gleefully gory scene where a henchman rummages squelchily around inside his own skull. The Doctor seems to acknowledge that things have got a tad too dark lately, admitting, "I haven't laughed in a long time."

Where: Prime
When: Boxing Day, 7.35pm
What: The Doctor goes rom-com for his seasonal one-off