Christmas At

The first of three programmes providing behind-the-scenes access as England's grandest stately homes celebrate the festive season. First up is Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, where creative director Charlotte Lloyd-Webber and her team are decorating the interior on a Narnia theme, while owner Nicholas Howard is hands on with photographing the annual Christmas card. However, when the tree arrives late and proves too big too fit, it requires emergency surgery with a chainsaw.

The aftermath of the pandemic finds the estate of Chatsworth House keen to win back visitors, while also marking the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire's 20th anniversary. The year's festive theme brings together the best installations of Christmases past. However, before the installation can get started, painstaking care has to be taken to move and protect the Duke's contemporary ceramic art collection. The season gets off to a poor start when massive bonfire celebrations have to be cancelled due to high winds. A bird invasion in the state rooms provides an additional challenge.

A visit to the East Anglian Palladian pile, situated on the north Norfolk coast, as creative director Lady Polly Leicester leads a team of friends, staff and volunteers to transform the state dining rooms and galleries into a candlelight experience, while the marble hallway entrance becomes a workshop full of decorations and artefacts pilfered from cellars and barns. It's all about teamwork and improvisation, as Lady L's team rushes to transform this great hall with sweet-scented pine trees, greenery, sparkling decorations and twinkling lights.