
At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, there's one heck of a lot of stuff on TV this Christmas.
And really good stuff, too, that's my point. Stuff for which you'd be well advised to jab the little red R' button on your YouView remote, knowing there almost certainly won't be enough hours in the day or days in the week, for that matter to watch everything at the time it goes out. Stuff to savour once the relatives are out of your hair, bless them, and the kids are tucked up, and you've finally got time, as they say, to put your feet up.
Stuff I really need to stop calling stuff , on the basis that it sounds a bit, I don't know, rude maybe. Great TV , that sounds better, doesn't it?
After all, just imagine all the months of creative input that must have gone into delivering Christmas Day's spectacular Doctor Who (BBC1, 7.30pm) an hour-long special where the Doctor is set to undergo one of his rare but radical makeovers.
And likewise into the extended Christmas Day episodes of Downton Abbey (ITV, 8.30pm) two whole hours of it, with the Crawley clan descending on London for flighty Rose's eventful coming-out do and Call The Midwife (BBC1, 6.15pm) where, goodness me, there's an unexploded wartime bomb threatening to do its worst.
Obviously every household's Christmas Day is different, but ours gets kind of chaotic people, pets, prezzies, general pigging out etc. So, yes, the option to watch these shows exactly when it suits us (just by scrolling back through the YouView on-screen guide, if we haven't actually set them to record) is a bit of a godsend.
Actually, I even came up with a great analogy the other day, comparing the YouView box to one of those state-of-the-art fridges, keeping all your Christmas goodies fresh for days until you're ready to enjoy them. Rather clever of me, don't you think? Oh, suit yourself.
Other than Downton, Christmas Day highlights on ITV include a special edition of Paul O'Grady: For The Love Of Dogs (5.15pm) and the colourful documentary River Deep Mountain High: James Nesbitt In New Zealand (2pm).
There's also Bear's Wild Weekend With Stephen Fry on Channel 4 (8.30pm) where the loveable Stephen is seriously put through his paces by adventurer and survival expert Bear Grylls. That's followed on the same side by the Alan Carr Chatty Man Christmas Special (9.30pm) and the Man Down Christmas Special (10.30pm).
We've also got Channel 5's UK terrestrial premiere of Michael Jackson: This Is It (Christmas Day, 9.30pm), the extraordinary documentary filmed shortly before Jackson's death in the summer of 2009, featuring rehearsals for a major set of London gigs that were destined never to be.
Of course, it's not just Christmas Day's programmes we're getting excited about. The entire festive season is bursting with good TV.
BBC1's three-nighter Death Comes To Pemberley, for example, should have millions hooked from Boxing Day (8.15pm) to Saturday. It's adapted from a PD James murder mystery, using characters from Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice, and stars Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Rhys, Matthew Goode and Jenna Coleman.
Also on Boxing Day, Gangsta Granny (BBC1, 6.05pm) is splendid family viewing. Written by David Walliams, who also stars in it, it's about a lad whose gran surprises him by revealing her daring criminal past. Other cast include Miranda Hart, Julia McKenzie, Joanna Lumley, Rob Brydon, and Reece Buttery.
And later on the same side, Still Open All Hours (7.45pm) is a one-off revival of the old Roy Clarke corner store sitcom in which the late Ronnie Barker used to play the magnificently miserly Arkwright. Sir David Jason reprises the role of Arkwright's nephew Granville, now the shop's owner.
Meanwhile, over on ITV on Boxing Day night, I Am Britney Jean: Britney Spears In Las Vegas (10.05pm) follows the star as she finishes off her new album and prepares for a two-year Las Vegas residency.
ITV's other big hitters over the festive fortnight include Gary Barlow: Journey To Afghanistan (Saturday December 23, 9pm), a Christmas-themed Midsomer Murders (Christmas Eve, 8pm, kicking off the new series), a seasonal special of Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi's sitcom Vicious (Friday December 27, 9pm) and the last in the current series of Agatha Christie's Marple (Sunday December 29, 8pm), with guest stars including Joanna Vanderham, Hugh Dennis and Tamzin Outhwaite.
There's also Jason Manford looking back over the past 12 months in 2013: Funny Old Year (ITV, New Year's Eve, 10.15pm).
And it its a feast of ITV gameshows you're after, there are festive specials of The Cube (Saturday December 28, 8pm), All Star Family Fortunes (Saturday December 28, 7pm) and Catchphrase (Sunday December 29, 7pm).
Channel 4 devotes a generous chunk of its Christmas Eve to The IT Crowd Night (from 9pm), including classic episodes and a brilliant documentary, The IT Crowd Manual, with cast interviews, favourite clips etc.
It's also treating us to a special Celebrity Come Dine With Me (Friday December 27, 8pm), featuring the potentially lethal combination of Daniella Westbrook, Louie Spence, Sinitta and Made In Chelsea's Hugo Taylor.
On Saturday December 28, also on Channel 4, chortlesome flashback show 50 Funniest Moments 2013 (9pm) features guest contributors including Charlotte Crosby, Danny Dyer, Helen Flanagan and Russell Kane.
And on Monday December 30, there's Gok Does Panto (Channel 4, 7.05pm), where we follow the TV fashion guru preparing for his role in Snow White at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Channel 5's other top Yuletide treats include The Muppets And Lady Gaga At Christmas (Sunday December 22, 5.25pm), and the arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar (Monday December 30, 11.35
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...