The beloved Australian comedy-drama Bump has returned for a festive special, plunging its characters into a holiday season of glorious, chaotic misery. After five series following the turbulent journey of teen parents Oly and Santi, the show concluded last December on a cliffhanger, with the couple expecting their second child. Bump: A Christmas Film, a feature-length special now on BBC iPlayer, picks up the story eight weeks after the birth of their son.
A Family Holiday From Hell
Logic would suggest that with a newborn, new parents Oly Chalmers-Davis (Nathalie Morris) and Santi (Carlos Sanson Jr) would enjoy a quiet Christmas at home in Sydney. Instead, they embark on what can only be described as a masochistic adventure. They opt to fly 40 hours to Colombia with their infant, before boarding a 10-day cruise. The reason for this epic journey is as convoluted as the show's famously tangled family tree.
The trip is orchestrated by Santi's sharp-tongued stepmother, Rosa (Paula Garcia), who is desperate to show her moody teenage sons her Colombian homeland. In a series of camp, fourth-wall-breaking monologues, she sells the country's virtues—"the best people, the best food, the best coffee"—while angrily dismissing its stereotypes. Joining them is a significant portion of the extended clan, including Oly's parents, Dom and Angie, her brother Bowie, and Rosa's sons, turning the cruise into a floating pressure cooker of unresolved family drama.
Chaos on the High Seas
The festive cruise swiftly descends into a special kind of hell. Dom is driven mad by a blaring PA system in his cabin and the confiscation of his alcohol. Angie, a cancer survivor, is writing a memoir that Oly agrees to edit, only to discover it's filled with complaints about her own failings as a teenage mother. Santi grows intensely competitive when a charming crew member flirts with Oly, while Rosa is devastated by the loss of a miniature baby Jesus figurine from her grandmother.
Amid the melodrama, the show retains its refreshingly honest core. Oly, exhausted and overwhelmed, fiercely informs Santi that breastfeeding is metabolically equivalent to running 11km a day. It's these gritty, realistic details of early parenthood, set against a backdrop of absurdist family strife, that have always been the show's strength.
Love Blooms in the Gaps
Despite the improbable premise and Rosa's tourist-board-adjacent interludes, Bump: A Christmas Film remains emotionally resonant. The series has always excelled at depicting how families can fracture and reconfigure in unexpected ways, and how love persists through the chaos. The laid-back Australian charm perfectly offsets the labyrinthine interpersonal drama.
The special culminates in a beautifully understated yet powerful conversation between Oly and her mother, Angie. In this moment, the show reflects on the difficult, beautiful, and imperfect lessons of motherhood. True to form, Bump doesn't offer a picture-perfect Christmas, but it does deliver a heartfelt, jocular, and ultimately hopeful conclusion about the messy bonds that hold families together.
Bump: A Christmas Film aired on BBC One and is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
