Brits brighten (or darken) our holidays

The British have a TV custom that Americans mostly avoid
Many of their best shows make a special Christmas episode. Even if they aren’t around then – British shows have short seasons – they pop up for one night in December.
Now several of them are coming here. The best, as usual, is PBS’ “Call the Midwife.” It manages to combine crisis, pain, joy and – a surprise for this show – an excellent romance.
Other shows all arrive by streaming. Acorn’s “The Chelsea Detective” and Britbox’s “Beyond Paradise” and “Death in Paradise” each have their usual mystery, with some Christmas flavoring around the edges. The shows are:
— “Chelsea Detective” (Dec. 16, Acorn). Max isn’t suited for the holidays. He’s divorced and lives alone in a small houseboat. His sorta-Christmas-tree, he’s told, looks like a toilet plunger. And he’s working on a tough case.
A former pop star, forever big in social media, has died. Suspects include a nasty manager, a journalist and a wealthy politician. And yes, there’s also time for a tad of Christmas warmth.
— “Beyond Paradise” (Dec, 25, Britbox). Humphrey should worry about the disappearance of the Virgin Mary. (Or, at least, the manikin that represents her in the church pageant.) Or about the guy who saw his wife’s ghost.
At the same time, however, he and his wife fret about meeting a potential foster child. The main mystery here is kind of a stretch, but this is still a likable show, with good-hearted people in a sunny place.
— “Call the Midwife” (8-10 p.m. Dec. 25, PBS). This is the show perfectly suited for any holiday. Nuns, midwives and a doctor combine to bring health care to a hard-scrabble London neighborhood in 1969.
The tragedies are steep. One involves an evicted family, another centers on escaped convicts, a third involves Reggie, a likable young man with Down syndrome, who’s returning home for the holiday.
But there’s also fun here – Christmas celebrations and something this show’s not accustomed to: a really good romance.
— “Death in Paradise” (Dec. 27, Britbox). On a tiny island, this show keeps switching its top cop. There was Ben Miller (now starring in “Professor T”), Kris Marshall (the “Beyond Paradise” star) and Ardal O’Hanlan.
And now Don Gilel plays a visitor who is suddenly assigned to a messy case. Two men have been killed and one was wounded; each was wearing a Santa suit, which doesn’t really feel like a coincidence.
This new cop is difficult to like and the case is overloaded with coincidences. Still, it’s a clever story … and a good way to wrap up a Brit-holiday spree.