Christmas Doctor Who takes on many forms: we've had Doctor Who as 'caper movie' (Runaway Bride); 'ghost story' (Chimes); panto (One Doctor); and disaster movie (Voyage); and here it is time for the traditional Christmas Day Eastenders misery-fest.

Death in Blackpool is Doctor Who as soap opera; Lucie even refers to Holby City at Christmas. And I by no means suggest this as a criticism. This is a lovely piece of work by Alan Barnes. Unlike Chimes and One Doctor, this is definitely not a standalone Christmas tale. It is the conclusion of the unofficial 'Auntie Pat' trilogy and follows directly on from events in The Zygon Who Fell to Earth.

It's always great to have Zygons and this does some work on expanding their race. What's interesting though is the information about what happens to Zygons when they stay in human form for too long. Clearly not a problem by the time of The Zygon Invasion!

Paul McGann, Sheridan Smith and Helen Lederer are all great in their roles and the scenes where the truth about Auntie Pat is revealed to Lucie are emotionally charged.

This isn't a happy story at all but sort of fits the other side of Christmas so often exemplified by Eastenders. I encourage you to seek it out, but only after listening to all the Lucie Miller stories up to this point.