Join an all-star cast for your feast of festive fun
JANE HAASE PRESENTS OUR PICK OF THE CHRISTMAS TV OFFERINGS
CHRISTMAS EVE Shaun The Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas BBC1, 6pm
The sheep raid the farmhouse to hunt for bigger Christmas stockings – but lose little Timmy in the process. Genius.
The Repair Shop at Christmas BBC1, 7pm
The experts restore four beloved festive treasures – a very special mechanical doll, a traditional German decoration, an ageing harmonium and a train set all the way from Kenya.
The Amazing Mr Blunden Sky Max, 7pm
Mark Gatiss and Tamsin Greig play the monstrous Mr and Mrs Wickens in this feature-length family adventure.
The story centres around London teenagers Jamie and Lucy Allen, whose mother is offered the role of caretaker of a seemingly haunted country house by Mr Blunden. Jamie and Lucy have an encounter with what appears to be a pair of ghost children with a connection to the wicked Mr and Mrs Wickens.
A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Mezzotint BBC2, 10.30pm
M.R. James’ spooky tale set in an old English college in 1922 is adapted by Mark Gatiss and stars Rory Kinnear, Robert Bathurst and Frances Barber. Edward Williams receives an engraving of an unknown country house. An imposing facade.
A sweeping lawn. And, just perhaps, something else…?
CHRISTMAS DAY Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special BBC1, 5.10pm
Strutting their stuff in this festive special are The Repair Shop’s Jay Blades, First Dates’ Fred Sirieix, singer Anne-marie, newsreader Moira Stuart, broadcaster Adrian Chiles and presenter Mel Giedroyc.
The Abominable Snow Baby Channel 4, 7.30pm
Terry Pratchett’s magical tale is told in a half-hour animated special with a brave granny (Julie Walters) showing a snowy town that the 14ft-tall creature is not to be feared.
The Great Christmas Bake Off
Channel 4, 8pm
Bake Off has a festive special to tickle our tastebuds. It sees the cast of Channel 4’s award-winning drama It’s A Sin, including Years And Years’ Ollie Alexander and rising star Lydia West, try their hand at Christmasthemed bakes
Call The Midwife BBC1, 8pm
It’s December 1966 and residents of Nonnatus House are preparing for the winter wedding of Lucille and Cyril while the midwives face a busy Christmas Day. It’s lucky that Mother Mildred (Miriam Margolyes) is on hand to help. Or is it?
The Larkins At Christmas ITV, 9pm
Who wouldn’t want to be invited to the Larkins’ for Christmas? “A Larkin Christmas dinner is laden with every piece of food you can imagine!” reveals Bradley Walsh, who plays Pop in the reboot of the comedy. Festivities are derailed this year by a power cut and burglaries, but cheer is restored when Charley and Mariette make a surprise return from Paris. Ahh…
Mrs Brown’s Boys BBC1, 10.20pm
Christmas sees Agnes recruited to the church choir, but she’s under strict instructions from Father Mcbride that there’s to be no singing and strictly no dancing. Elsewhere, Dermot and Buster hold a murder mystery night.
BOXING DAY Around The World in 80 Days BBC1, 5.50pm
The big spectacle this Christmas comes from this lavish new adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel. David Tennant is Phileas Fogg, a Victorian gentleman who accepts a bet to circumnavigate the globe.
This eight-part adaptation also stars Ibrahim Koma as Passepartout and Leonie Benesch as Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue.
Death In Paradise BBC1, 7.30pm
It’s a first festive special for the island crime drama, which sees the return of Danny John-jules as Officer Dwayne Myers.
A shipping magnate is found dead at a Christmas party. Things become stranger when a man in London receives a mysterious Christmas card connected to the victim’s death.
All Star Musicals At Christmas ITV, 8pm
Celebrities including Fern Britton, Catherine Tyldesley and Ben Miller learn how to belt out show tunes.
A Very British Scandal BBC1, 9pm
Three-part drama stars Claire Foy as Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, as she divorces the Duke (Paul Bettany) in the 1960s court case featuring claims of forgery, theft, violence, drugtaking, bribery.. and the infamous Polaroid picture.
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2021 Channel 4, 9pm
The annual quiz, hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr. Guests including Sarah Millican, James Acaster, Jonathan Ross and Judi Love look back on the strange events of 2021, from space travel and celebrities who do not shower, to sea shanties and Tony Blair’s peculiar hair.
NEW YEAR’S DAY Doctor Who BBC1, 7pm
The Daleks are back! The 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) is joined by guest stars including Father Ted’s Pauline Mclynn and Aisling Bea for a New Year’s Day special – the first of Whittaker’s trio of exit episodes.
Sarah (Bea) owns and runs ELF storage, and Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a customer who visits his unit every year on New Year’s Eve. This year, however, their night turns out to be a little different than planned…
The Tourist BBC1, 9pm
Fifty Shades star Jamie Dornan is a man searching for his identity in the Aussie Outback after a truck tries to drive him off the road. Shocking eight-part drama.
Mrs Brown’s Boys BBC1, 10pm
A second festive helping of the Irish matriarch. Agnes and the family are going to be in for a reunion when Grandad’s brother, Micky, comes for a visit after a stint in the clink. After leaving prison, Micky comes by asking for €5,000 (£4,200) to invest cash in a gold mine in South Africa.
IT wouldn’t be Christmas without a TV adaptation of a Julia Donaldsonaxel Scheffler title.
The dynamic duo’s book-toscreen adaptations are a lynchpin of the BBC Christmas schedule – and this year they look set to continue their festive reign with the wonderful Superworm.
For those yet to be acquainted with this unlikely comic hero, the super-long and super-strong Superworm is always saving the day. But who can save him when he gets too full of himself and is captured by the evil Wizard Lizard?
It has a first-rate voice cast, including Olivia Colman as narrator, Matt Smith as Superworm himself, Patricia Allison as (the newly added) Butterfly, and Rob Brydon as the Crow. Here Julia, 73, reveals how she came up with the idea.
Can you sum up Superworm for those who don’t know the story?
The story is really that Superworm is a... super worm. He hasn’t really got particular superpowers, but he’s just very strong and big and helps the other creatures out. He turns himself into a lasso to stop a baby toad being run over; he himself into a fishing line to save a drowning beetle; and he turns himself into a skipping rope to help some bored bees have some activity.
“Then the wicked Wizard Lizard hears about this worm and thinks that maybe he can burrow treasure in the ground and so gets his evil servant Crow to capture Superworm. But there’s a rescue; all the animals that he’s helped club together and work out a clever plan...
Where did the inspiration for this particular tale come from?
Well, Axel Scheffler is very good at drawing bugs – if you look at any of the other books, there are always little butterflies or ants that he’s created, which weren’t in the text at all. For a long time, I thought I’d love to do a book about insects and bugs and garden creatures, but I couldn’t really think of a hook to hang it on. But then, separately from that, I thought I’d never done a superhero book – probably at the stage that one of my grandchildren was really into Batman and Superman them turns selves. So then I just put the two things together: my superhero would be this worm.
You must be thrilled to be a key part of the Christmas schedules year on year?
I suppose it has (become quite the tradition), really. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who watch The Snowman every year still – not all my stories are very Christmassy but, touch wood, up until now they have always been shown on Christmas Day. We always watch the animation, but it’s a bit mind blowing to think that there are all these millions of people in the UK watching at Christmastime too.
How does it feel to then watch your characters come to life on screen?
I suppose it’s an extension of what it’s like when I write a story and it’s illustrated. It’s not a sudden thing; it’s not as if I’m sitting there on Christmas Day like, ‘I wonder what it’s going to be like,’ because I’m involved throughout the whole process.
What’s your biggest tip for aspiring writers?
Well, I think, just the story. The plot needs to be good. And the language. For me those are the two things that are really important because the character is usually quite broad, quite bold, and you can describe it. Like Superworm is strong and helpful. And the Wizard Lizard is greedy and controlling. Then the illustrator will bring out those characters.
Actually, from the writer’s point of view – I’m talking about writing for very young children when you’ve got very few words – it’s much more the storyline with a nice twist in it and a happy ending, but maybe not in the way people could predict.
Superworm is on BBC1, Christmas Day at 2.30pm