BBC announces Christmas TV highlights, from Doctor Who to Dracula

The BBC has announced its TV highlights for Christmas 2019, including a new series of Doctor Who, Dracula, and The Trial of Christine Keeler.

Jodie Whittaker and Bradley Walsh will be back for Doctor Who season 12 “very early in 2020” with what promises to be “an epic and thrilling new series full of scares and surprises”.

From Sherlock creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, Dracula will arrive in three feature-length episodes, starring Claes Bang as the vampiric count.

The Trial of Christine Keeler, meanwhile, will explore the chain of events in the 1960s that came to be known as the Profumo Affair. It will star Sophie Cookson, James Norton, Ellie Bamber, Ben Miles and Emilia Fox.

Another big drama offering will be A Christmas Carol featuring Guy Pearce, Andy Serkis, Stephen Graham and Charlotte Riley, among others. The BBC has teased a “unique and original take” on the Charles Dickens novel and a “haunting, hallucinatory, spine-tingling immersion into Scrooge’s dark night of the soul”.

Other highlights include the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, a round-up of the most spectacular moments on David Attenborough’s Seven Worlds called One Planet, children’s animation The Snail and the Whale and a festive edition of Not Going Out.

See the full list of BBC1 Christmas highlights here.