Sit back and relax with our pick of the best of the big day’s small-screen entertainment, from Gavin & Stacey, Wallace & Gromit and Doctor Who to hilarious opera, little fish and Swan Lake.
Swan Lake from English National Ballet
At lunchtime on Christmas Day, you can catch a recording of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”, performed at the Royal Albert hall in June by the English National Ballet. Choreographed by Derek Deane, the “most memorable element” of this “naturally grand-scale piece of work” is the “corps of 60 swan maidens manoeuvring their melancholy way through some mesmeric – almost militaristic – formations”, said The Times of the original performance.
12.50pm, BBC Two
Tiddler
Starting with “The Gruffalo” in 2009, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler have regularly had their much-loved children’s books turned into animated BBC specials. This Christmas, it’s the turn of “Tiddler” – the tale of a “small grey fish with a big imagination”. It “boasts a star-studded cast”, said Radio Times, with Hannah Waddingham of “Ted Lasso” fame “taking the lead as the narrator”.
2.35pm, BBC One
Doctor Who: Joy to the World
Nicola (“Bridgerton”) Coughlan, as new character Joy, joins lead star Ncuti Gatwa for this seasonal Doctor Who special. It centres on a “hotel chain that gets hold of time travel and capitalises on it to sell stays throughout history”, said Radio Times. Beyond the hotel’s secret doorway, a “deadly plan is unfolding”, said the BBC. With an old enemy “lurking in the wings” and “all of human history” hanging in the balance, “can the Doctor save Christmas, everywhere, all at once?”
5.10pm, BBC One
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
It’s been 16 years since their last adventure, and Wallace and Gromit are making a “joyous return”, said The Guardian. The storyline for the latest stop-motion animated comedy, created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations, “chimes with our current anxieties around technology”. Gromit feels pushed out when Norbot the “smart-gnome” arrives and handles “all of Wallace’s odd jobs effortlessly”. Then villainous penguin Feathers McGraw, last seen in “The Wrong Trousers”, hacks into Norbot from prison and makes him recruit a band of gnomes to build a submarine for Feathers’ jailbreak.
6.10pm, BBC One
The Merry Widow from Glyndebourne
Filmed during this summer’s Glyndebourne Festival, Franz Lehár’s “hilarious opera” has been “sumptuously reimagined” by West End director Cal McCrystal, said the i news site. Australian soprano Danielle de Niese plays Hanna, the wealthy widow looking for a new lover. “Utterly glorious!”, said the news site’s Jessica Duchen of the original performance.
8pm, BBC Four
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale
This final, “hugely anticipated” return of the much-loved sitcom will “pick up from the cliffhanger ending of the 2019 special”, when Nessa (Ruth Jones) asked Smithy (James Corden) to marry her, said The Sun. What’s occurring? There’s only one way to find out…
9pm, BBC One
From Roger Moore with Love
Roger Moore, the “lovable” actor who played James Bond in seven films between 1973 and 1985, gets “the indulgent, affectionate treatment he deserves in this documentary celebration”, said The Guardian. An “enjoyable watch”, this film reveals how Moore “really did invent himself”, in a “lifelong method-acting project” to create an “unvarying dapper persona”, which did not vary on screen or off.
9pm, BBC Two