TV Shows To Watch At Christmas If You’re Not Feeling Festive

For those who’ve switched on the TV these days, it may’t have escaped your consideration that the schedules are beginning to get just about dominated by Christmas specials and previous seasonal favourites.

Sure, should you’re searching for one thing festive to feast your eyes on as December attracts to a detailed, you’re very nicely catered for. However what about the remainder of us?

Nicely, worry not. We’ve scoured the listings and located there are nonetheless a great deal of nice new reveals and movies – plus some previous favourites being repeated on TV – that you would be able to take pleasure in even should you’re attempting to swerve the standard festivities.

Listed here are simply 17 of our high picks…

Simply in time for many of us having fun with a protracted break from work, Netflix is releasing a brand new season of its most mindlessly binge-able original series.

It’s been an entire yr since we final checked in with Emily, so we’re anticipating extra romantic entanglements, daring trend and, who is aware of, perhaps even some French when issues decide up?

After the success of Knives Out in 2019, it was introduced that Netflix had purchased the rights to supply a string of sequels centred round Daniel Craig’s detective character Benoit Blanc – the long-awaited first of which, Glass Onion, is lastly right here.

Like its predecessor, Glass Onion is a star-studded outing together with Edward Norton, Kate Hudson and Janelle Monáe, with the chart-topping singer actually stealing the present together with her spectacular flip.

And should you’re in want of some escapism from the December blues, it’d curiosity you to listen to that this time across the motion all takes place on a blissful desert island. Take pleasure in!

Disney had some success with Encanto when it hit cinemas in December 2021, but it surely was solely when the movie started streaming on Disney+ just a few weeks later that its reputation actually exploded and it grew to become the phenomenon we now realize it as.

The corporate will little question be hoping to duplicate this sample with its newest movie Unusual World, which handed by just about unnoticed when it was first launched in November, however is coming to Disney+ simply in time for Christmas.

In a break from the normal Disney films most of us know and love, Unusual World shouldn’t be a musical or a fairytale retelling, however as an alternative an all-new household journey. It’s additionally the primary movie from Walt Disney Animation Studios to incorporate an explicitly LGBTQ+ lead character, voiced by comic Jaboukie Younger-White.

In fact, simply since you’re not feeling festive doesn’t imply it’s important to be an all-out Grinch, and should you’re within the temper for some healthful and emotional viewing, one of many BBC’s new originals for Christmas 2022 would possibly simply be for you.

An animated adaptation of the e book by Charles Mackesy, we reckon this story a couple of younger boy and his animal friends may thaw the guts of even probably the most cynical of viewers.

Hear out for the likes of Idris Elba and The White Lotus’ Tom Hollander, too.

Christmas Eve at 4.55pm on BBC One

High Of The Pops has been moved from its normal Christmas Day slot, with this yr’s particular airing on Christmas Eve as a retrospective of the music all of us beloved in 2022.

In addition to a tribute to the yr’s Christmas primary (which it’s truthful to imagine will likely be sausage roll-themed…), there’ll even be performances from among the largest artists of the previous 12 months, together with Harry Styles and Stormzy.

Christmas Eve at 10.40pm on BBC Two

However there’s additionally one thing for individuals who desire a extra nostalgic strategy with their music selections.

On Christmas Day, Channel 5 is airing a glance again at among the UK’s hottest tracks of the 80s. And when you’re completed with that, an identical particular celebrating hits of the 90s will likely be proven afterward within the night.

Christmas Day at 1.10pm and 6.25pm on Channel 5

Contemporary from her critically-lauded (and, dare we are saying it, doubtlessly Oscar-winning) efficiency in Every little thing, In every single place All At As soon as, Michelle Yeoh takes the lead on this new prequel to the hit Netflix present The Witcher.

Set over a millennium earlier than the occasions of season one, this four-part miniseries explores how the very first Witcher got here to be, and can present viewers what life was like within the Elven civilisation earlier than its final demise.

Nothing cheers us up fairly like a go to to our favorite Gogglebox households – and, as ever, the bumper Christmas Day episode serves as a retrospective of 2022.

Not solely will the two-hour particular be celebrating the yr’s finest telly, it’ll additionally revisit a few of Gogglebox’s most ridiculous and entertaining moments of the previous 12 years, serving as a reminder of why it’s turn out to be one of the unlikely runaway TV hits of current years.

Christmas Day at 9.05pm on Channel 4

In fact, should you’re actually attempting to swerve the standard Christmas programming, it’d come as a aid to listen to that on Boxing Day, BBC Two is taking us about as removed from festive as will be with an airing of Goodfellas.

The Oscar-nominated gangster movie by Martin Scorsese was first launched in 1990, and stars Robert DeNiro and Ray Liotta, the latter of whom died earlier this year at the age of 67.

Boxing Day at 10.15pm on BBC Two

The probabilities are, if Miriam Margolyes is concerned, we’re in all probability going to be watching it, and her newest enterprise is certainly no exception.

Count on all the standard enjoyable, frolics and all manner of other F-words because the Bafta-winning actor – who grew to become an Australian citizen in 2013 – explores the tradition Down Beneath in her personal distinctive model.

27 December at 9pm on BBC Two

One of many BBC’s new big-budget dramas to maintain us all entertained between Christmas and New Yr is Mayflies, a drama primarily based on Andrew O’Hagan’s much-loved e book.

The 2-part sequence sees Line Of Responsibility’s Martin Compston and Marvel star Tony Curran (themselves good buddies in actual life) as a pair of finest buddies, with the story starting in 1986 and following the pair to the current day by way of journey, marriages and a devastating announcement. Count on tears.

28 and 29 December at 9pm on BBC One

On the full different finish of the dimensions is what Two Doorways Down star Kieran Hodgson has cooked up over on Channel 4.

Regardless of solely being an hour lengthy, the actor and comic’s particular crams in seven distinct musical numbers chronicling the rise and fall of Prince Andrew, from his marriage to Sarah Ferguson proper by way of to his notorious Newsnight interview.

Becoming a member of Kieran within the forged are Munya Chawawa as King Charles and Emma Sidi as Emily Maitlis, whereas Harry Enfield and Baga Chipz will painting prime ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, respectively.

29 December at 9pm on Channel 4

In what we’re certain will likely be a unique and separate mission from the Sophia Coppola film of the same name, the brand new BBC drama Marie Antoinette will chart the true story of the enduring French queen.

Episode one begins with Marie Antoinette attending to grips with life in Versailles after being married off at simply 14 years previous.

The present was penned by Deborah Davis, whose most notable credit score is the historic drama The Favorite.

29 December at 9pm BBC Two

From one iconic queen to a different, we’re joyful to see that BBC Two is devoting one night time within the lull earlier than New Yr to one of the game-changing and influential artists of her era, Madonna.

The enjoyable kicks off with Madonna At The BBC, which can look again at among the pop icon’s most memorable on reveals like High Of The Pops and headlining performances at Radio 1′s Huge Weekend competition.

From there, it’s straight onto Desperately Looking for Susan (considered one of Madge’s few movies we don’t discover ourselves merely pretending doesn’t exist), after which In Mattress With Madonna, the documentary that received the entire world speaking.

29 December from 9.55pm on BBC Two

Sure, probably the most weird and wonderful reality show in British telly is lastly again for its fourth sequence.

This time round, viewers will likely be launched to a number of untamed characters together with a musical recycling bin, a literal pile of knitting and the present’s first ever duo in Cat & Mouse, because the nation tries to work out the celebs behind the disguises – with solely the celebrities’ voices and probably the most cryptic of clues to go off.

Who’s that behind the masks? We are able to’t wait to search out out.

New Yr’s Day at 6.30pm on ITV1

The curtain lastly got here down on Daniel Craig’s time as James Bond in 2021 – however what a technique to go, eh?

No Time To Die noticed 007 reunited together with his previous buddies and colleagues as he battles a brand new adversary performed by Rami Malek, with an ending that actually none of us noticed coming.

Whether or not you missed it within the cinema first time round or simply really feel like reliving the motion yet again, New Yr’s Day will see the twenty fifth instalment within the Bond saga getting its UK tv debut.

New Yr’s Day at 8pm on ITV

It’s been a lengthy time coming, however Sarah Lancashire is lastly again in motion as Sgt Catherine Cawood after a seven-year break.

The arrival of the Bafta-winning crime drama’s third and last sequence means 2023 is getting off to a gripping begin – and whereas over half a decade might need handed, the recently-released trailer suggests Blissful Valley’s final hurrah may be very a lot enterprise as normal. Carry it on, we are saying!

New Yr’s Day at 9pm on BBC One