It’s that time of the year again! Yes, it’s Hallmark holiday movie time! And of course, I’m watching them. They’re comforting and festive. No one can resist their charms.
Especially me, as you all know.
I don’t know how many of the new movies I’ll be able to review. But I’m going to try, starting with this one set in England.
So, grab an umbrella and avoid SPOILERS!
We are introduced to Claire (Rachel Skarsten) and Wallace (Toussaint Meghie), two agents with MI-6 as they walk through a Christmas festival. They are tracking two suspicious characters, Amanda Young (Barbara Hellemans) and Michael Ford (Marcel Zade), as they exchange a Christmas present at a charity event dedicated to giving presents to children in need. Wallace arrests Ford while Claire chases down Young, losing her thanks to a either a poorly timed or well timed double decker bus. But she did manage to recover the present and she passes it off to her boss, Vance (Richard Wells).
They soon learn there is a Teddy bear inside the gift but it’s not an ordinary Teddy bear. One of his eyes is a disc that contains information regarding Kensington Palace. This puts the royal family in danger, especially as the information could’ve only come from someone intimately acquainted with Kensington. So the head of MI 6, Taylor (Martin Swabey), decides to send Wallace and Claire undercover in the palace. Wallace will join as part of the royal security team while Claire will fill in the vacant nanny position for the royal children. Claire is hesitant to take the position as she has no experience with children but Taylor says it’s their best way to keep the family safe so she will need to do her best.
So Claire is sent to Juliet Lansbury (Greta Scacchi) for nanny-training. Juliet, who is also known as “Scary Poppins,” doesn’t think Claire will make a good nanny but once Claire makes an impassioned speech about how devoted she is to protecting the royal family, Juliet agrees to train her. Claire seems to be a good student and it also seems that Juliet may have been a spy or something earlier in her career because she can make an umbrella a dangerous weapon. But her main lesson is that in the end, only love matters and she believes Claire will succeed.
Mrs. Lansbury introduces Claire to Princess Rose (Katie Sheridan), who in this version of England is first in line to the throne after her unnamed father. Her children, Princess Elle (Isabelle Wilson) and Prince Robert (Phoenix Laroche), insist they don’t need a nanny and it seems they take the Von Trapp children as their inspiration for chasing off nannies. Claire, though, may be the one nanny they can’t annoy off as her training allows her to anticipate and disable all their pranks. She puts them in a tin and hands it back to them so the royal children decide to call in reinforcements.
Reinforcements mean their uncle, Prince Colin (Dan Jeannotte) – who is fourth in line after his niece and nephew. He has a warm and loving relationship with them and clearly is their partner-in-crime when it comes to scaring off nannies. Colin has them set up a bucket of spaghetti over Claire’s door. But when he sees her, he is clearly taken with her. She then also spots his prank and turns it on him before wishing them a good night. Colin agrees with the children that Claire might be more difficult to chase off while Rose thinks she might be the one nanny who lasts.
In the morning, Claire gets a more intimate look at the royal family. Rose and her children are missing Prince Edward (Robbie Nock), who is off on a military deployment that will keep him away until after Christmas. Rose’s assistant, Olivia (Aurora Marion), is struggling with arranging a video call with him. Apparently being royals can’t help with that. Then when Robert says he has an assignment he needs his mother’s help with, Olivia chimes in that it won’t be possible as Princess Rose has a lot of engagements for the rest of the week. Robert dejectedly says he’ll ask the tutor but Rose is determined to make it happen.
Claire gets the children off to school and asks Wallace if he could make a call happen for the royal family. He promises to look into it before escorting them on a rather awkward ride to the school. After the children have been dropped off they head back to their offices to continue their investigation.
She then returns to pick up the children and brings them to their uncle, who lives in Frogmore Cottage (famously home to the Sussexes). He tells her that she is not needed while the children are with him and refuses to let her into his house. Indignant, Claire is forced to wait.
But Claire soon ingratiates herself with the Royal Family. She covers for Princess Rose when she unknowingly sets off an alarm while making lunches for her children late at night. It does force Wallace to tell her that there is a credible threat and so they’ve increased security. She thanks him and asks him to give her security briefs. Rose also thanks Claire, who then earns her trust.
She then earns the respect of the children when she fills their minivan with ornaments. It shows that she has the same sense of humor as them and they appreciate it. Wallace also tolerates it for her sake. And she is also a hero when she is able to get them to video chat with their father, though she does credit Wallace. Olivia, however, is not thrilled and gives off weird vibes. Claire asks Wallace to look into her and he agrees.
Prince Colin proves to be trickier even though he is impressed by her prank, which Rose shows him as she sings Claire’s praises. Evidence shows that the people threating the royal family have infiltrated the royal charity, which Colin runs – and Vance believes he may be involved. He orders Claire to get closer to the prince and so she turns to Mrs. Lansbury for help yet again. “Scary Poppins” comes through and soon Claire is granted permission to enter Frogmore.
Claire soon wins over Colin and he even takes her on some charity work. She helps him convince wealthy businessman James Wilder (Jasper Box) to donate to the fund by sharing her own experience growing up as an orphan in a children’s home. Skarsten really shines in this scene and I encourage everyone to watch it.
Over time, Claire becomes more and more part of the royal family – including arranging for Princess Rose to be able to stay to help Robert with his homework after all. They invite her to a Christmas ball and it becomes clear she and Colin are falling in love.
Despite the security concerns, Colin brings Elle and Robert with him to a charity event. Amanda attacks the royals and Claire is able to get the children to safety while Colin is captured. Claire brings the children home and tells Princess Rose what is happening. Taylor orders her off the case but the princess overrules him, insisting that Claire stay on the case.
Colin’s cell phone is sent over to Claire and she answers, talking with Colin. He takes the fact that she’s a special agent rather well though he has no choice but to trust her since he’s been held hostage. Colin tells her that his kidnappers are sending over their demands and Claire promises to rescue him. They continue to probe that this is an inside job and haul Olivia in after discovering that she had some money problems that had recently been resolved. Olivia reveals that she’s been selling gossip to the tabloids, not state secrets to terrorists. Claire gives her a letter of termination from Princess Rose and leaves Olivia to realize how screwed she is.
Taylor continues to believe Colin is not a victim but a co-conspirator, changing his plans because Claire prevented him from kidnapping the children. Claire, though, insists there’s no evidence and believes that Taylor has something against Colin given how he keeps trying to pin this on the prince. He removes her from the case and suspends her, even after Princess Rose’s admonishment. Angry and upset, she leaves.
Claire meets up with Mrs. Lansbury, who apparently is part of national security as her network of nannies are her eyes and ears on the street. She gets information about the so-called terrorists, revealing they were former MI-6 agents who have had their records scrubbed – essentially turning them into ghost agents. Mrs. Lansbury also reveals some more information that could help Claire before asking her to bring “her boy” home – Mrs. Lansbury was Colin’s nanny and has a soft spot for him.
Teaming up with Vance and Wallace, Claire tracks down Colin and goes in to rescue him. She uses the umbrella given to her by Mrs. Lansbury and takes out Colin’s captors. He is relieved to see her but wonders how much she told him was a lie. Claire tells him that she only lied about her last name and job but never about who she was as a person. He believes her and they are able to stop the rogue former agents.
Vance then goes and has Taylor arrested. It seems this was all his doing – there were plans to reorganize MI-6 and cut their budget. Taylor arranged all of this to prove that they were needed. I’m not sure why he thought the best way to do that would be to frame the king’s son, even if Prince Colin isn’t heir to the throne. Something tells me the king wouldn’t have been too happy about that.
Claire brings Colin home and everyone is happy to see both of them. They also have someone else in tow – Edward, who was immediately removed from his military tour and brought due to security measures that were enacted when Colin was kidnapped. So he gets to spend Christmas with his family after all! And Claire gets an invite from the king to spend Christmas at Sandringham with the royal family. She accepts and Rose hopes that she will become an official member of their family.
Judging by the kiss Claire shares with Colin, it seems very likely that Rose’s wish will come true.
So I guess we can assume they will all live happily ever after.
I did enjoy this movie a lot. I was surprised that they decided to use an actually country rather than a fake one like they usually do when royal families are involved. But it was still sweet and I don’t think the British royal family is going to mind it.
(The creative team must’ve been really surprised when there really was a King of England by the time this aired since I know most Hallmark Christmas movies generally tape in the summer).
Skarsten and Jeannote have good chemistry and really sell the romance between their characters. I also hope we see Sheridan in a leading role of her own in a Hallmark movie – I think she would knock it out of the park herself.
Definitely check this out before the holiday season come to a close!
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