A slice of festive whimsy

'Finding Father Christmas' is an unusual blend of detective thriller, grief memoir and science lesson

- Patrick Smith

What's the most awkward conversation a father can have with his teenage son at Christmas? Well, it isn't the one you're thinking of. It's this: telling a 16-year-old that Santa Claus doesn't exist. In Finding Father Christmas, Channel 4's peculiar cocktail of conspiracy thriller and grief memoir wrapped in festive Cellophane, that revelation doesn't quite go to plan.

When Chris (Lenny Rush) learns that his widowed father (James Buckley) has been behind the presents, the fake snow on the roof and the soot in the grate, his response is blunt. “You?” he asks, incredulously. “You bring joy and happiness to billions of children all over the world?” His father tries to explain that there’s no Father Christmas full stop, but Chris isn’t having any of it. He’s going to prove Santa exists, and you can feel the film click into place like a music box winding up for its inevitable melody.