Post houses have been busy creating wintery looks for this year’s summer-shot Christmas specials.

Deluxe 142 colourist Jet Omoshebi graded BBC One’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic Great Expectations.

Omoshebi, who used Nucoda Film Master to work on the three-part series, said: “The main brief was to make the story, which was shot during the summer months, look as wintery as possible whilst also creating an ethereal glow for Gillian Anderson’s Miss Havisham character.

“In every shot during episode one Miss Havisham has her own light effect which involved tracking all of her movements.”

The three-part series was onlined by Deluxe 142’s Adam Eddy, who teamed up with Nick Timms to complete the online effects.  

Visual effects were completed by Bluebolt.

The Farm has completed the grade and online edit for a 120-minute seasonal one-off episode of ITV’s period drama Downton Abbey.

Aidan Farrell graded the special using Nucoda, with Sapphire and Tinder plug-ins used to apply blue and turquoise hues.

A “cool and wintery” exterior was created, with glows and flare effects used for a warmer interior.

Colour was retracted from outdoor foliage, including rosebuds and trees, to enhance the transformation of late-summer shot pictures into the cold and wintery climate of the Christmas period during 1919. Clyde Kellett onlined with DS.

Absolutely Fabulous, which returns to the BBC on Christmas Day after a six year hiatus, was graded at Envy.

Senior colourist Vicki Matich, who graded the three-part series, said it was different from most projects she has worked on because it was shot multi-cam before a live studio audience.

“It was very important not to lose that feel or drift too far from the original series - it wasn’t to look graded but at the same time it was to have a bit of an update,” she said.

Matich concentrated on making the comedy series look “colourful, bright and warm”, whilst also making sure there was consistency between the different cameras.

She said the most difficult part from a grading perspective was making sure all the skin tones looked natural.

“Each character had remarkably different skin tones and so there was a bit of keying and tracking to do.”

  • Absolutely Fabulous Christmas Day, 10pm BBC1
  • Downton Abbey Christmas Day, 9pm ITV1
  • Great Expectations Tuesday 27 December, 9pm, BBC1