However adventurous we may be in the kitchen, many of us return to the old certainties of Delia, Mary and co when it comes to Christmas food. Similarly, while a little bit of invention never goes amiss on television, at Christmas a bit of what you know is often welcome and, if Gareth Malone seldom surprises, he usually delivers.

His gift this year, Blackburn Sings Christmas (BBC Two), was a cheering confection of good people doing good things at a time of year which promises, once again, to be gloomier than many of us would have hoped.

The premise was loose – Malone had six weeks to rustle up a live musical tribute to the NHS staff and wider community of one of the UK’s Covid epicentres. Within half an hour of stepping off the train, he had already found a piano and a local woman game enough to belt out White Christmas; lockdown had clearly not robbed him of his popular touch.

From there, he toured hospitals and care homes, as well as pubs and youth clubs, rounding up potential performers from the lapsed crooners (hospital porter Stephen, ambulance driver Justin) to the young sibling of a baby who only survived, along with her Covid-afflicted mother, thanks to the professionalism and pastoral care of the team at Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Malone’s thrill as it all started to come together was palpable, with performers discovering talents they had dismissed, forgotten or never realised; Malone remains a master at teasing out these dormant Bing Crosbys and Bonnie Tylers. The final performance had all the rough edges, tugs at heartstrings and occasional moments of transcendence (hospital porter Stephen’s remote duet with the elderly care-home residents was an absolute marvel) you could have hoped for, as well as a dog and a brass band playing Mariah Carey.

Blackburn Sings Christmas was a sumptuous feast of spirit and sentimentality – like Christmas dinner, not something you’d want to sit down to every day, but which, once a year, feels enormously satisfying.