Your Christmas TV Guide

Welcome to the Worth Watching special!

Hello,

Welcome to Worth Watching.

Right, I’ve gone through the whole of the Radio Times with a yellow highlighter.

I’ve been doing this tradition for more than 20 years, so it is a particular thrill to share my picks for you all this year.

Here are my picks for the Christmas TV season.

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MONDAY 23RD DECEMBER

The Hairy Bikers: You’ll Never Walk Alone (BBC Two, 9pm) - In February, ‘Hairy Biker’ Dave Myers died of cancer at the age of 66. This documentary follows the 46,000 bikers who rode from London to Dave’s hometown of Barrow-in-Furness to celebrate his life. “This will be my final ride as a Hairy Biker,” Si said.

Throughout, co-host Si King also shares his favourite memories of their thirty television series together. It is a touching, heartfelt tribute.

Only Connect (BBC Two, 8 pm.) - As well as festive outings of University Challenge and House of Games, there will be many episodes of Only Connect over the Christmas period. There’s a Royal special, a Christmas special, a Books special, a BBC special, a Transatlantic special, a Singles special, and a Sounds special.

Expect Victoria Coren Mitchell to be in different costumes whilst not making any observations about wearing a costume in almost every episode.

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CHRISTMAS EVE

Doctor Who at the Prom (Christmas Eve, 4:10 p.m.) – Doctor Who (post-2005) would be nothing without its score, so this celebration consists of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performing the soundtrack to some of the show’s most celebrated scenes.

A particular highlight is Catherine Tate (aka Donna Noble) trying to present the whole thing, getting too excited by the proceedings and verging on losing her place with the autocue. And, yes, there are many people in the audience dressed up as aliens. A delight.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing (BBC Two, 8 p.m.) - Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse, and their pooch Ted have a lovely trip to southern France and fish for Mediterranean bass. What makes their show work so well is that a lot of it is improvised, so the material never feels tired.

This is then followed by Mark Gatiss’ A Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone at 10:15 p.m., which is an adaptation of E. Nesbitt’s ‘Man-Size in Marble.’ A great cast on it too, such as Monica Dolan and Mawaan Rizwan.

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The Snowman, Mog’s Christmas, The Snowman and the Snowdog followed by the classic film Home Alone starts on Channel 4 from 4.15pm.

My other Christmas tradition, watching The Muppet Christmas Carol, will have to take place on Disney+ as no public service broadcaster is airing the film again this year (IMHO, nationalise Kermit). I usually watch the film whilst despairing at how I can’t wrap presents, and that tradition will continue as normal.

ALSO… Bake Off Christmas Special (C4) features Natalie Cassidy. Do I need to say anything else? It is on at 8pm.

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CHRISTMAS DAY

Wallace & Gromit (BBC One, 6:10pm) – A complete and utter joy that a British institution is having its first outing since 2008 on BBC on Christmas Day.

If you have forgotten about their adventures (or somehow haven’t seen them yet), all you need to know is that Wallace is a quirky inventor who loves cheese, Gromit is his canine companion who can barely put up with him, and Feathers McGraw is the most terrifying villain of all time (Feathers is a penguin in disguise) and is out for revenge.

The special is packed with zingers. The last thirty minutes is some of the funniest animation I’ve seen on the small screen in a number of years. Astounding that so many years’ work has gone into one Christmas Day special.

Gavin & Stacey: The Finale (BBC One, 9 p.m.) – The BBC is keeping a firm lid on revealing anything that happens in the 90-minute finale, so you’ll have to tune in to see what happened after Smithy (James Corden) receives Nessa’s (Ruth Jones) proposal.

Expect this finale to be the Christmas TV event of the year too. The last special, back in 2019, received more than 18 million viewers. It was up there as being one of the most watched television episodes of the 21st century, outside news and sport.

At an event earlier this week, Ruth Jones and James Corden said they wrote 60 or 70 pages of the finale before they approached the BBC to ask whether they would want to air it. Imagine being Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s Chief Content Officer, and reading that initial email from them.

Also… Doctor Who (BBC One, 5.10p.m) - Wild that because of the other two shows above, a Doctor Who Christmas Day special hasn’t been talked about as much as it usually would. It’s a pretty decent episode as well.

Nicola Coughlan and Ncuti Gatwa work well together onscreen and there are some moments that are certainly going to get the fandom talking. The best bit, however, is a ten-minute sequence in the middle purposely out of step with the rest of the episode.