Christmas TV Guide: What to Watch This Festive Season
From brand-new Christmas films to special festive episodes of your favourite shows, there's so much to stay inside for this Christmas
EastEnders
BBC One, throughout December
It’s the big one, and we’re time travelling again! Like last year, there will be two 30-minute episodes of EastEnders airing on Christmas Day. The Beale and Branning families team up for Christmas dinner whilst situations escalate for the Slaters. Police arrive in Boxing Day’s episode following an incident, and we’re all looking forward to New Year’s Day’s flash-forward episode to 2027, with Max Branning at the centre of it.
Tinsel Town
Sky Cinema, 5th December
Kiefer Sutherland, Rebel Wilson and Danny Dyer star in Tinsel Town, a new Christmas movie filmed in Yorkshire. An actor in America is coming to the end of his reign of making blockbuster movies and wants to come to the UK to test himself as an actor. He thinks he’s doing Hamlet at The Globe, but when he arrives he finds out he’s playing Buttons in the panto Cinderella. Go behind the scenes of filming here.
The War Between the Land and the Sea
BBC One, 7th December
When an ancient species emerges from the ocean an international crisis is triggered. We’re expecting great things from this Doctor Who spin-off starring Being Human actor Russell Tovey. Doctor Who will return with a Christmas special next year, written by showrunner Russell T Davies. Meanwhile, younger Doctor Who fans can look forward to the upcoming animated series for CBeebies.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix, 12th December
Daniel Craig is back in another Knives Out Mystery. Detective Benoit Blanc teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history. Having released in cinemas in November, it heads to Netflix this December.
A Very British Christmas: Bamburgh Castle
Channel 4, 16th December
Bamburgh Castle will be showcased in a brand-new festive documentary this year following designers Adrian Lillie and Charlotte Lloyd-Webber (of Charlotte Lloyd-Webber Event Design) as they create extraordinary Christmas installations for some of the nation’s most remarkable historic properties. This episode showcases Treasured Tales, Bamburgh Castle’s festive experience which is currently on display until 4th January.
Beyond Paradise & Death in Paradise
BBC One, 21st December & 28th December
Christmas in paradise sounds good to us. Bradford-born Adrian Edmondson is a guest actor for the special Christmas episode of Beyond Paradise where Esther discovers a man on the steps of the Shipton Abbott police station with no memory, holding a photo of Humphrey. Overseas for Death In Paradise, an office Christmas party takes a dark turn when four co-workers wake up to find a stranger dead in the pool of their Caribbean villa, and the team call on the help of a familiar face to crack the case.
Taskmaster Champion of Champions & Taskmaster New Year’s Treat
Channel 4, 22nd December & 2nd–3rd January
Yorkshire’s own Maisie Adam returns to the Taskmaster house for a Champion of Champions battle against Andy Zaltzman, John Robins, Mathew Baynton and Sam Campbell. Then in the new year, it’s time for the New Year’s Treat which is a two-part special starring Sunderland-born former Lioness Jill Scott alongside Big Zuu, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Sam Ryder and Susie Dent.
Stuffed
BBC One, 23rd December
This one-off Christmas comedy stars Guz Khan, Sue Johnston, and Morgana Robinson and follows a family visiting Lapland using on a work bonus that was paid by mistake. We’re sure it’ll be a good laugh!
All Creatures Great And Small
5, Christmas Eve
All Creatures Great and Small’s Christmas special will take you back to Christmas 1945, the first peacetime Christmas after the war. Helen feels under the weather so it’s up to James to take on the Darrowby Nativity play.
A Ghost Story For Christmas: The Room in the Tower
BBC Two, Christmas Eve
You can always rely on Sedgefield-born Mark Gatiss for ghastly festive tales. This year he’s adapted the E.F. Benson story, The Room in the Tower, starring Joanna Lumley. Tune in if you dare.
Two Doors Down
BBC One, Christmas Eve
When Eric and Beth put their tree up earlier than usual, they unwittingly kick off Christmas in Latimer Crescent. We’re so looking forward to the return of multi-award winning Scottish sitcom Two Doors Down this Christmas.
Dear Father Christmas
Channel 4, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day
Lenny Rush, James Buckley, Greg Davies, Asim Chaudhry and Stephen Fry star in this new festive comedy drama where Chris is on a hunt to find the real Father Christmas to prove his dad wrong.
Strictly Come Dancing
BBC One, Christmas Day
While this year’s series continues until 20th December, Strictly returns for a Christmas special on Christmas Day. This year’s festive lineup includes TV personality Scarlett Moffatt from County Durham who’ll be dancing with Vito Coppola, and Gladiator Fury (Jodie Ounsley) from Dewsbury who’ll be dancing with Neil Jones.
Amandaland
BBC One, Christmas Day
Motherland fans loved this spin-off so much it’s returning for a Christmas Special – bringing a cheeky Ab Fab reunion as Jennifer Saunders joins as Joanna Lumley’s on-screen sister. Amanda and the family head to Aunt Joan’s country house, but Mal and Anne tag along and she struggles to recreate the magic of her childhood Christmases.
The Great Peep Show Christmas Bake Off
Channel 4, Christmas Day
We never expected a GBBO/Peep Show cross over. David Mitchell, Olivia Colman, Isy Suttie, Matt King and Sophie Winkleman will reunite for the first time since Peep Show wrapped in 2015, in the iconic Bake Off tent. But who will be named star baker?
The Scarecrows’ Wedding
BBC One, Christmas Day
A perfect family film for the festivities, Betty O’Barley and Harry O’Hay are scarecrows planning a wedding to remember in this tale about the importance of being together. This is an adaptation of a book by the duo behind The Gruffalo and Stick Man.
Call the Midwife
BBC One, Christmas Day & Boxing Day
Senior members of Nonnatus House travel to Hong Kong to tackle a crisis at the order’s branch house, and Dr Turner and Shelagh search for May’s birth mother in this year’s Call the Midwife Christmas special. Don’t forget there’s an extra festive episode to follow on Boxing Day.
Mrs Brown’s Boys
BBC One, Christmas Day & New Year’s Day
Agnes and her family face Christmas present buying, and a storm, in two brand-new episodes for Christmas. This comedy is always popular during the festivities.
Stranger Things
Netflix, Boxing Day & New Year's Day
If you haven’t binge-watched the first lot of episodes of the final season of Stranger Things (perhaps more than once), what have you been doing? Get your viewing done early to avoid spoilers of the next instalment – three more episodes will drop on Boxing Day with the finale on New Year’s Day.
Would I Lie to You? At Christmas
BBC One, Boxing Day
Rob Brydon will host this festive edition of the award-winning comedy panel show with David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains, of course. David will be joined by Jools Holland and Swarzy Shire, while Lee Mack will be joined by Helen George and David Walliams.
The Masked Singer Christmas Special
ITV1, Boxing Day
In this special Christmas edition of the show, all four famous faces will be unmasked in one episode, but will you guess who they are solely from the sound of their voice? Work with the panel of detectives, Mo Gilligan, Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall and Maya Jama, to try. Then get ready for the brand-new series which will head to screens in the new year.
Shakespeare, My Family And Me
Channel 4, 27th December
Yorkshire icon Dame Judi Dench is perhaps our greatest Shakespearean actor, and she’ll explore her Shakespearean lineage in this personal history documentary. She’ll find out if her eight times great-grandfather may have met Shakespeare in 1606, and share what effect his words have had on her career on stage and screen.
The Celebrity Apprentice
BBC One, 29th December
Lord Sugar is ticking 12 celebrities off his naughty or nice list for Children in Need. This two-part special marks the show’s 20th anniversary and the candidates are off to Lapland. The contestants include Angela Scanlon, Sarah Hadland, JB Gill, Jake Wood and Rob Rinder.
Jools’ Annual Hootenanny
BBC Two, New Year’s Eve
A New Year’s Eve tradition for many, Jools’ Annual Hootenanny will play on TVs across the region and beyond. Joining Jools and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra this year are Olivia Dean, Lulu, Jessie J, Craig David, Heather Small and The Kooks among many more.
Here We Go: Our New Year's Fireworks Fantasaganza
BBC One, New Year’s Eve
With series three of this comedy starring Alison Steadman and Katherine Parkinson proving so popular, we’re not surprised there’s a Christmas special. Rachel’s keen to throw a New Year’s Eve party but Paul’s not. There’ll be another chaotic Jessop family holiday featuring a large crate of unlicensed fireworks.
The Traitors
BBC One, New Year’s Day
If you’re feeling something’s missing since Alan Carr was crowned king deceiver in the UK’s first celebrity edition of The Traitors, a brand-news series of The Traitors returns on New Year’s Day!
Harlan Coben’s Run Away
Netflix, New Year’s Day
Harlan Coben is back with a new mystery starring James Nesbitt, Ruth Jones, Minnie Driver, and Alfred Enoch. Simon’s perfect life starts to crumble after his daughter Paige runs away in this eight-part thriller inspired by Harlan Coben’s 2019 novel of the same name.
Corriedale
ITV, early January 2026
ITV's daring soap event of the century has been talked about for months, and it will change the future of two of our favourite soaps forever – Emmerdale and Coronation Street. Corriedale, an epic crossover episode, will see the two soap universes collide for the first time ever. A multi-vehicle pile-up leave lives in danger and as fire spreads just outside Hotten, panic spreads in Weatherfield and Emmerdale. There’ll also be an interactive element to the episode, with viewers deciding which scene will make it to the final cut.
