PICK OF DIGITAL & ON DEMAND TV

THE NINE KITTENS OF CHRISTMAS, PARAMOUNT+

THIS sweet romance, a sequel to The Nine Lives Of Christmas, is the most eyecatching of a raft of festive films that are arriving every day this week on Paramount+. It’s notable for the presence of Brandon Routh, who once played the Man of Steel in Superman Returns, and has a real matinee idol charm that elevates it above the ordinary. He plays a firefighter who has split from his vet partner (Kimberley Sustad, pictured with Routh) but may just reconnect over a shared mission to find homes for abandoned kittens named after Santa’s reindeers. If that sounds formulaic and sentimental, well, yes it is. That’s what Hallmark movies are all about, and no one does it better than they do. Also newly arrived on Paramount+ are A Royal Christmas Match — starring Jordana Largy as a European Princess on a college exchange programme — and My Favourite Christmas Melody, with Mya Marie Harrison as a singer-songwriter hoping to find inspiration as she heads back to her home town for Christmas.