Yahoo News From Cliff to King Charles: 12 TV treats for Christmas
1. Cliff at Christmas (BBC One, 9.35pm, December 17)
Having presumably forgiven the BBC for indecently hovering a helicopter over his house, Sir Cliff brings a splash of mistletoe and wine with this festive special from Abbey Road Studios, in which he chats to Sara Cox and performs a few of his hits.
2. His Dark Materials (BBC One, 7pm, December 18)
The best Sunday-night family drama for a generation comes to an end with a series based on Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass. We’ll miss this world of daemons, witches and alethiometers when it’s gone.
3. I Hate Suzie Too (Sky Atlantic/NOW, 9pm, December 20)
After a majestic first series, Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble bring their jet-black comedy-drama back for a three-part “anti-Christmas special”, with Suzie Pickles (Piper) at rock-bottom, fighting for her life, career and dignity on a merciless reality TV show, Danze Crazee.
4. Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama (Channel 4, 9pm, December 21)
It’s the drama that had us all rapt this year. No, not Netflix v the Royal family - the Wagatha Christie trial, as Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney went head to head in the courts. This verbatim drama brings the whole sordid affair to life, with Michael Sheen as barrister David Sherborne.
5. A Ghost Story for Christmas: Count Magnus (BBC Two, 10pm, December 23)
Mark Gatiss’s latest spine-shivering MR James adaptation demands to be watched with the curtains drawn, the wind howling and a glass of port in hand. Jason Watkins stars as a Victorian traveller, looking into the darkest branches of his family tree in Sweden.
6. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (BBC One, 4.55pm, Christmas Eve)
Charlie Mackesy’s exquisite drawings come to life in this wintery animation, as a young boy befriends the three titular beasts in a snow-draped forest. Even if the story is a little sugary, the hand-drawn animation is a thing of beauty.
7. The Smeds and the Smoos (BBC One, 2.30pm, Christmas Day)
No, they haven’t quite run out of Julia Donaldson/Axel Scheffler books to adapt just yet - and good thing too, as this alien Romeo-and-Juliet is a Christmas Day cocklewarmer. Remember: never, never play with a Smed - they have strange hair upon their heads.
8. The King’s Christmas Broadcast (BBC One/ITV1, 3pm, Christmas Day)
The Royal family have defined 2022 in television - the Queen’s Jubilee and funeral, The Crown, Harry & Meghan - so it is only fitting that the King, for the first time since 1951, gets the final word.
9. Detectorists (BBC Two, 9pm, Boxing Day)
Mackenzie Crook’s delightful, bucolic, quietly political comedy-drama, about a gang of metal detectorists in Essex, bows out with one last special. A true restorative for the soul - and one that will have you reaching for the walking boots in seconds.
10. Mayflies (BBC Scotland/iPlayer, 9pm, December 27)
Nothing says “Christmas” like a childhood friend telling you he’s got terminal cancer. Nonetheless, this adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s novel, starring Martin Compston, Ashley Jensen and a terrific Tony Curran, is excellent (and only two episodes!).
11. Prince Andrew: The Musical (Channel 4, 9pm, December 29)
If The Crown et al wasn’t enough to sour the royal soup this year, then this giddy musical farce from the inventive Kieran Hodgson will probably do it. Hodgson stars as Andrew, with British-Zimbabwean comedian Munya Chawawa playing King Charles.
12. Stonehouse (ITV1, 9pm, January 2)
Matthew Macfadyen further burnishes his reputation with a brilliantly tragi-comic turn as John Stonehouse, the Labour MP who spied for the Czechs and faked his own death, in John Preston’s spry drama. Mrs Matthew Macfadyen - aka Bafta-winner Keeley Hawes - co-stars.
Christmas specials
Aside from that dozen, there are, as ever, endless Christmas specials to contend with. Possibly the best of the bunch is a fiendish Santa-themed Inside No 9, more “no no no!” than “ho ho ho” (BBC Two, December 22). Friday 23 is jam-packed with specials from, All Creatures Great and Small on Channel 5 to the BBC One hattrick of The Cleaner, Motherland and Two Doors Down. On Christmas Eve, Mortimer and Whitehouse Go Fishing on BBC Two, while on Christmas Day there’s Strictly Come Dancing, Ghosts, Call the Midwife and Mrs Brown’s Boys (all BBC One). Those are likely to be overshadowed, however, by the final ever episode of Doc Martin (ITV1). And, last but not least, a very welcome trip to Saint-Marie with Death in Paradise on Boxing Day (BBC One).
