Christmas is a time for slipping into familiar patterns. Strictly judge and person once charged with choreographing Bananarama, Bruno Tonioli, is Kirsty Young’s guest on Desert Island Discs (Christmas Eve, 11.15am, Radio 4). Later the same day, the traditional Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols comes from King’s College, Cambridge (Christmas Eve, 3pm, Radio 4). The opening solo on Once in Royal David’s City is still the most dramatic radio moment of the year.
For those tethered to a kitchen on the day itself, Classic FM offers three hours of Christmas Day Requests With Anne-Marie Minhall (Christmas Day, 10am, Classic FM). Adventures of a Young Naturalist (Christmas Day, 9.45am, Radio 4) has David Attenborough recounting notable incidents from his early career.
Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! has a special (Christmas Day, 1.15pm, Radio 4) in the course of which our befuddled hero gets the opportunity to audition for a seasonal production of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. In The Infinite Monkey Cage Christmas Special: The Science of Magic (Christmas Day, 4pm, Radio 4) Brian Cox and Robin Ince look at how a knowledge of basic psychology and maths lies at the heart of the deceptions we celebrate as magic tricks. Anansi Boys (Christmas Day, 11.30pm, Radio 4) may not be the most obvious way to finish Christmas Day, but Dirk Maggs’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s story of Fat Charlie’s strange bequest from a recently deceased father is genuinely absorbing, with Lenny Henry heading an all-star cast.
Across the festive period, Wise Women (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, 6pm, 6 Music) has Jodie Whittaker, Beth Ditto and Sharon Horgan fronting marathon shows on successive nights. Pen Pals (Weekdays, 1.45pm, Radio 4) has network regulars relating their year-long experiences of corresponding with people throughout 2017 by means of pen, paper and the post. Fi Glover starts on Christmas Day with a Trump-voting forensic scientist; Lemn Sissay follows on Boxing Day with a schoolboy in Northern Ireland; on Wednesday Lyse Doucet is paired with an Afghan diplomat; and scientist Jim Al-Khalili follows on Thursday with somebody living off the grid on a remote island.
Your favourite podcast may well be reviewing the year just passed. The Guardian’s Politics Weekly has already done that, with Heather Stewart and Anushka Asthana talking about the turbulent year with a number of guests in front of a live audience.
Popular solo podcaster Scroobius Pip eschews the collegiate approach, presenting his 12 favourite movies of the year in his Distraction Pieces podcast. His choices avoid the often blase consensus of the preview circuit, sounding as if they’re the kind of films the man has bunked off in the middle of the week to see and, what’s more, paid for his ticket himself.
