The august actor clearly sees his role as Herod in Netflix’s festive offering Mary as an audition for the more tinselly films next Christmas

Something of a catastrophic category error seems to have happened at Netflix. For some reason it seems to be billing its new film Mary as a Christmas film, when it doesn’t appear to be anything of the sort.

We all know what elements a film needs to have to be considered festive. A big-city career girl. A plaid-wearing apple farmer. A local school that needs to be saved. Maybe a naked snowman who comes to life to teach a hot widow how to love again. Almost certainly Lindsay Lohan. And yet Mary has none of these. It’s all deserts and angels and babies being born in mangers and king Herod. It really isn’t very Christmassy at all.