Christmas Eve
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (7.30pm, Channel 4)
Michael Rosen’s bedtime story becomes a sad and sumptuous animation starring Olivia Colman, Mark Williams and Rosen himself as the bear. Made by the team who did The Snowman.
Gogglesprogs Christmas Special (8pm, Channel 4)
Our kid critics return for what is fast becoming a festive telly favourite (old-before-their-time Jacob and Connor are the 21st-century Eric and Ernie). Surely, they will be shown the baby iguana v racer snake scene from Planet Earth II?
Alan Bennett’s Diaries (8pm, BBC2)
The playwright, now easing splendidly into his 80s, pores over old family photographs, reads from his diaries, gets incensed about politics today – and reveals a desire to own a donkey. Fans wanting to make a night of it should stick around for the TV premiere of The Lady in the Van, starring Maggie Smith as Mary Shepherd, the formidable old woman who lived for 15 years in a dilapidated van on Bennett’s driveway.
Grantchester (9pm, ITV1)
Grantchester’s hunky holy sleuth Sidney Chambers (the ever-excellent James Norton) returns for more murder-solving in the parish. And Christmas 1954 in Cambridge comes over all noir with a murdered banker, a platinum blonde and a drunk detective.
Christmas Day
The Great Christmas Bake Off (4.45pm, BBC1)
It’s the end of Bake Off as we know it. Watch the Beeb’s fairy godmother – and panto-villain deserter Paul Hollywood – make their last hurrah, while trying not to weep into the soggy-bottomed mince pies.
Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio (5.45pm, BBC1)
Peter Capaldi is back as the Doctor after a year-long hiatus with a superhero tale set in New York. Matt Lucas’s Nardole is back, too – despite his beheading last year.
Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special (6.45pm, BBC1)
Head judge Len Goodman is waltzing off to do important things with his retirement, which makes this your last chance to witness a Ten from Len (and maybe even a SEVERRRRRN). Denise Lewis, Ainsley Harriott and Pamela Stephenson Connolly are among the celebs trying to quickstep their way to the Silver Star trophy.
Emmerdale, Coronation Street and EastEnders (5.45pm and 8pm on ITV1, 9.30pm on BBC1)
It’s cheery as ever in soapland: in Albert Square, Phil Mitchell’s liver may finally fail him; in Emmerdale, Ashley’s struggle with early-onset dementia continues; and over in Weatherfield, wild-child Bethany takes a load of diet pills and collapses.
Travel Man: 48 Hours in Florence (8pm, Channel 4)
Richard Ayoade and Rebel Wilson go potty in Firenze, seeking out Michelangelo’s David and feasting on tripe sandwiches. Because what could be more festive than that?
Call the Midwife (8pm, BBC1)
Your annual Nonnatus House weepathon, only this time the plucky sisterhood are heading to South Africa to help set up a polio vaccination programme in the under-resourced Hope Clinic. Hankies at the ready.
Boxing Day
West Side Stories: The Making of a Classic (5.20pm, BBC2)
Next year marks the 60th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s Jets v Sharks musical. The BBC celebrates by asking surviving cast and crew (as well as Bernstein’s daughter Jamie, Stephen Sondheim, plus, er, Strictly’s Bruno Tonioli) to relive the tale of Tony, Maria and Officer Krupke. A joyful hour; you’ll feel pretty, oh so pretty.
Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (6.30pm, BBC1)
The three little pigs are greedy bankers, and Red Riding Hood and Snow White may be having a relationship … Roald Dahl’s twisted fairytales get a funny 21st-century update with help from Dominic West (as the Big Bad Wolf), Gemma Chan (as Red Riding Hood) and David Walliams and Rob Brydon (as the Ugly Sisters).
The Witness for the Prosecution (9pm, BBC1)
Last Christmas, writer Sarah Phelps brought us her decidedly uncosy Agatha Christie adaptation And Then There Were None, which was all killings, cocaine and Aidan Turner towel scenes. She’s back on sparkling form with this tale of high-society bludgeoning starring Kim Cattrall, Toby Jones and Andrea Riseborough. Continues tomorrow.
The Entire Universe (9.30pm, BBC2)
A 60-minute musical about the story of creation starring Brian Cox, Eric Idle, Noel Fielding, Warwick Davis, Stephen Hawking and Tim Peake..
Tuesday 27 December
Inside No 9 – The Devil at Christmas (10pm, BBC2)
A demon threatens to ruin Christmas at an alpine lodge in this twisted horror special from The League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.
Wednesday 28 December
Ethel & Ernest (7.30pm, BBC1)
Raymond Briggs’s graphic-novel ode to his parents has been turned into a poignant feature-length animation. Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent voice the long-married couple facing the bleakest of times together.
James May: The Christmas Reassembler (9pm, BBC4)
He may have been on a Grand Tour of the world, demolished Jeremy Clarkson’s house and hosted the world’s first Burning Van festival, but May seems happier pootling about in a shed and tinkering with electronics. Here, he must rebuild a Hornby train set from scratch.
Jonathan Creek (9pm, BBC1)
In this one-off mystery special, Warwick Davis plays a priest who helps Alan Davies’ scruffy sleuth exorcise a demon from Daemons’ Roost, the haunted former home of a legendary 19th-century sorcerer.
Thursday 29 December
To Walk Invisible (9pm, BBC1)
Punch-ups, opium addiction and sibling rivalry in the parsonage as Sally Wainwright tackles the Brontës. A period journey to Yorkshire this time – but will her take on the literary greats be more Happy Valley or Last Tango in Halifax?
2016 Wipe (9pm, BBC2)
Charlie Brooker’s annual dismantling of the horrors of the year. He won’t be short of material.
Cunk on Christmas (10pm, BBC2)
The brilliant dimwit interviewer meets experts to answer all the essential Christmas questions: how a chicken morphs into a turkey, how Jesus came up with the sarnie chain Pret a Manger – and how Santa rose through the ranks to become the world’s most popular home intruder.
New Year’s Eve
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore: The Missing Sketches (8pm, Channel 4)
Lost for decades, nine sketches from the series Not Only, But Also were recently found in a basement in Australia. Rob Brydon asks fans including Barry Humphries, Josie Lawrence and Richard Ayoade what they make of them.
Jools’ Annual Hootenanny (11.20pm, BBC2)
Joining Jools to see in the new year will be Chaka Khan, Christine and the Queens, UB40 and Wizzard’s Roy “Christmas every day” Wood.
New Year’s Day
Sherlock (9pm, BBC1)
More death and deduction as Holmes takes on three new cases. He is also getting to grips with childcare, now that partner-in-crime-solving Watson has a new baby girl.
Your Christmas binge-watching guide
All 4
Search Party
A brilliantly drawn send-up of New York millennial hipster life that has been all over the US best-TV-of-the-year lists. But at its heart, Search Party is a thrilling detective drama. Alia Shawkat (Maeby Fünke, to Arrested Development fans) plays Dory, a sane, sweet, aimless woman in a sea of narcissists, who becomes obsessed with solving the case of her missing college friend Chantal – then takes her drippy boyfriend Drew and her infectiously awful friends Elliott and Portia (and their kombucha) along for the ride. Available from Boxing Day.
Netflix
The OA
Netflix’s surprise drop of the Christmas period, but will it prove as popular as last year’s Making a Murderer? Brit Marling’s paranormal mumblecore mystery is about a blind woman who has been missing for years – and then returns home, able to see. But beyond that, it’s about existentialism, near-death experiences and the Russian oligarchy.
The Crown
Forget the Queen’s speech and get to know Claire Foy’s Her Maj instead. Over 10 solid hours, you’re guaranteed more intrigue, more of Prince Philip’s gaffes – and more sex (both horse and human).
Trollhunters
From 23 December, you can watch Guillermo del Toro’s animated series about a gang of friends who discover their suburban town’s secret troll underworld. When a boy named Jim accidentally finds the Amulet of Daylight, it turns him into a champion trollhunter. If he fails, trolls will destroy the whole human world.
Captive
Made by the Oscar-winning producers of Man on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man, Captive is a slick, compelling documentary series about hostage situations, from US prison riots to the retired couple held for over a year by Somali pirates.
Last Chance U
A great American football documentary that requires absolutely no prior knowledge of the game. If you have yet to meet Ronald Ollie and Miss Wagner and Coach Buddy Stephens, head straight to Scooba, Mississippi and join them for a thrilling season at East Mississippi Community College. One for the Friday Night Lights fans.
Amazon Prime
The Grand Tour
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May head to Lapland for this festive edition – but will they outspeed Santa in the first right-hand-drive Ford Mustang? Expect an alternative car-based gift guide, more PC-baiting jokes, and icicles glinting on their giant tent.
Mr Robot
Brought to you by the world’s least reliable narrator, Elliot Alderson. What could be more Christmassy than hacking and the downfall of American capitalism?
Halt and Catch Fire
Sex, drugs and Silicon Valley … AMC’s sensational and sadly underrated 80s tech drama had been gathering pace in the first two series, but this year it went into overdrive, with each episode more staggering than the last.
