TV
The Grand Tour (new episodes every Friday)
What Clarkson did next. The troublesome trio’s big-money banter-fuelled trip around the world continues at a petrol-guzzling pace. Are they still firing on all cylinders? And can they keep up their apparent attack on the BBC? Find out every Friday at midnight.
Mozart in the Jungle (available 9 December)
A comedy about the highs and lows of a New York symphony orchestra doesn’t sound like a surefire hit, but as it enters its third series Mozart in the Jungle is an increasing delight – thanks mainly to Gael García Bernal’s turn as eccentric conductor Rodrigo de Souza. The neurotic musicians who bed-hop and pill-pop around the city help too.
The Man in the High Castle (available 12 December)
AKA the show that started out as an alternative history fantasy, but increasingly looks like a disturbing vision of our future. Set in a world in which Germany and Japan won the second world war and now rule over the United States, this is a paranoid dream of a show in which no one can be trusted and only the mysterious Man in the High Castle – a collector of propaganda films showing the Allied forces in victory – offers a sliver of hope. And in series two, we will finally meet the man himself.
Christmas catchup TV
Transparent
The drama about the Pfefferman family is now on its third series, and it’s as exquisite, funny and painful as ever. Plus: this season comes with an added Caitlyn Jenner cameo.
The Path
This eye-popping show about a green smoothie-drinking, “truth and light”-seeking Meyerist cult follows Moonie member Eddie (Aaron Paul) as he goes through a crisis of faith. Drink the strange smoothie and get on board.
Halt and Catch Fire
The cracking 80s tech drama – a gripping, geeky world of punks, gamers and ham-radio operators – had such a phenomenal third series that its network, AMC, just had to give it the green light for a fourth and final run. I urge you to watch this.
Good Girls Revolt
It’s 1969 in New York, and inside News of the Week magazine, the women aren’t allowed to write, or take any credit for all their work – so they rise up against the all-male editorial team. Based on Nora Ephron’s real-life rebellion, Good Girls Revolt is certain to rile you up. And it’s a reminder that the war still ain’t over.
Ripper Street
Charming, gripping and daft, the final series of the remarkable Victorian crime thriller is available to view here way before it’ll air on the BBC.
Mr Robot
You can now watch both seasons of the drama about the f.soc hacking collective and the impending demise of US capitalist society – which, let’s face it, feels more timely than ever.
Festive film guide
The Wizard of Oz (available now)
Have your kids not yet followed the yellow brick road? Then they must meet Dorothy, Toto, Glinda and the munchkin gang – and this Christmas is surely the time to start. Always a magical experience.
Meet Me in St Louis (available now)
“Clang clang clang went the trolley, ding ding ding went the bell” … Vincente Minnelli’s much-loved 1944 musical is still as wonderful as ever. You will never tire of Judy Garland singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
The Polar Express (available now)
In this very sweet animation, a boy doubts Santa’s existence on Christmas Eve, so he gets swept away on a train to the North Pole to meet the big guy.
Happy Feet 2 (available 3 December)
More fun with the all-singing, all-dancing emperor penguin colony.
Gone with the Wind (available 8 December)
The 1939 classic about Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler is as powerful, mad, dreamlike (and politically grotesque) as ever.
Westworld (available 8 December)
Been binge-watching the brilliantly twisting show about the wild west theme park in the future? Obsessed with Maeve and the Man in Black? Then see how it matches up to the original Michael Crichton/Yul Brynner outing from 1973.
Dheepan (available 8 December)
A powerful, masterful Palme d’Or-winner from Jacques Audiard about a trio of Tamil refugees living in Paris.
Argo (available 20 December)
Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning comedy about a fake film shoot sponsored by the CIA to rescue American office-workers taken hostage in Tehran.
