Compass: A Lobethal Kind of Christmas

ABC, 6pm

Yes, it's only November. But as it's the final episode of Compass for the year I guess we can give them a pass on delivering a Christmas special. In the village of Lobethal, in the Adelaide Hills, they've been staging a nativity play in the town square for the last 27 years. Not with kids dressed up as camels and wise men. But with actual camels. Actual men playing the Wise Men. Actual babies playing Baby Jesus. And these days they can expect a quarter of a million visitors over the event's run. It's a wonderfully quirky story full of terrific characters, but it's also more than that. The nativity was established to give some competition to the thing Lobethal was already famous for: it's display of Christmas lights. These days the two events happily co-exist and draw visitors of all nationalities and creeds. It's a brilliant encapsulation of the best of Christmas in Australia. I hope it gets an encore on Christmas Eve. MH

Victoria

ABC, 7.30pm

Talk about juggling work-life balance. Season two finds the young queen struggling to balance being a monarch, a wife, and a mother – with the latter role proving especially troublesome, given that it virtually precludes her from being the other two. But in tonight's instalment she's gradually finding her way through, not least thanks to the wonderful Rufus Sewell as Victoria's favourite confidant, Lord Melbourne. MH