Nativity!

Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman) is a miserable, jaded teacher at St. Bernadette's, a local state-funded Catholic primary school in Coventry. He once had ambitions of being successful as an actor, producer or director in musical theatre, but gave it up after negative reviews in the press. Mr. Maddens grew to hate Christmas after his girlfriend at drama school, Jennifer Lore (Ashley Jensen), broke up with him at Christmas time.

Every year, St Bernadette's competes with Oakmoor, the local posh Protestant private school, to see who can produce the best nativity play. The headteacher at St Bernadette's, Patricia Bevan (Pam Ferris), tasks Mr. Maddens with running their nativity this year and assigns him a new classroom assistant named Desmond Poppy (Marc Wootton), who is actually Mrs. Bevan's extremely childish, immature nephew searching for work.

While out shopping with Mr. Poppy for a new school Christmas tree, Mr. Maddens bumps into his old rival from drama school, Gordon Shakespeare (Jason Watkins), who runs the nativity plays at Oakmoor. Desperate not to be seen as a failure, Mr. Maddens lies to Mr. Shakespeare about how a supposed Hollywood producer, Jennifer, will be turning his production into a Hollywood film (although in reality, he hasn't spoken to her in five years). Mr. Poppy overhears this and gets so excited that he spreads the story to the press. Mr. Maddens finds his lie spiralling out of control, and all he can do is go along with it as media attention mounts and the children get very excited.

The children at St Bernadette's are nowhere near as talented as the Oakmoor students, and Mr. Maddens has little confidence in their abilities. The enthusiastic Mr. Poppy helps him and the class to create an energetic, interesting nativity which showcases all of the children's unique (and often strange) talents.

Mr. Maddens tries to contact Jennifer to make the lie come true, even getting on a flight to America to persuade her to visit in-person. It turns out she is only the secretary to a film producer, and he returns home disappointed.

Amid continuing media attention and the Mayor (Ricky Tomlinson)'s kind offer to allow the play to be performed in the historical ruins of Coventry Cathedral, Mrs. Bevan discovers that the Hollywood story was a lie and cancels the play, advising Mr. Maddens to start looking for another job and firing Mr. Poppy in the process. This causes Mr. Maddens to snap at Mr. Poppy about everything going wrong, but when facing his disappointed class, he decides that the show must go on.

The play is performed at the cathedral to an audience of the children's parents and family friends. The children, initially anxious but motivated and encouraged by Mr. Poppy's childlike spirit and optimism, actually put on a decent performance, to the surprise of everyone involved. Halfway through, Mr. Shakespeare climbs on stage to tell everybody that there is nobody from Hollywood there and the entire story was a lie. Luckily, a helicopter flies over and Mr. Poppy declares that it's Hollywood arriving; the show continues, and Jennifer and her boss, Mr. Parker (Clarke Peters) indeed appear at the back to watch. Mr. Maddens joins them and, still in love, kisses Jennifer. The play ends with everyone, including Mr. Shakespeare and Mrs. Bevan, who have a change of heart after seeing the children's talents, united onstage to celebrate the children's success.

As the film closes, Mr. Maddens and Jennifer are shown decorating his house together for Christmas, reunited at last.

• Martin Freeman as Paul Maddens, a primary school teacher trying to produce and direct a nativity play that will for once outdo a rival school[1]
• Marc Wootton as Desmond Poppy, the immature nephew of Mrs. Bevan, whom she appoints as a classroom assistant
• Jason Watkins as Gordon Shakespeare, a private primary school teacher and long-time rival of Paul[1]
• Ashley Jensen as Jennifer Lore, formerly a Hollywood secretary and Mr. Maddens' girlfriend at the end of the film[1]
• Alan Carr as Patrick Burns, critic[5]
• Ricky Tomlinson as The Mayor
• John Sessions as Mr. Lore
• Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Lore
• Pam Ferris as Patricia Bevan, the headmistress of St. Bernadette's Primary School
• Clarke Peters as Mr. Parker, a Hollywood director, Jennifer's boss during her time at Hollywood
• Geoffrey Hutchings as Father Tom
• Rosie Cavaliero as Miss Rye
• Selina Cadell as Oakmoor Headmistress
• Ashley Blake as himself

The film was first announced in August 2008, when it was announced Martin Freeman would star.[6] Principal photography began in the same month.

When released in the United Kingdom, the movie opened at #5, taking £794,315 at the box office in the United Kingdom. In its third week, the movie rose to #4, and in the end, made £5,187,402.[7]

• Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger
• Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?
• Nativity 4: Nativity Rocks!

A stage musical adaptation of the film written and directed by Debbie Isitt and composed by Nicky Ager opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in October 2017. Since its world premiere the musical has toured the UK over the Christmas seasons, including runs at London's Hammersmith Apollo which have featured guest star celebrities such as Louis Walsh, Danny Dyer, Dani Dyer, Jo Brand, Rylan Clark-Neal and Sharon Osbourne.

• List of Christmas films

• Nativity! at IMDb
• Nativity! at British Comedy Guide
• Official website