Radio Times 18-31st December 2021

WE LIVE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES, but perhaps that’s why Christmas is so important. It’s a glimpse of normality in an abnormal world; a glorious distraction from the sense that life is fragile, real and earnest. No one ever used to talk about saving Christmas, but now that’s seen as a pressing priority. No wonder. We all need a chance to escape. In the case of television and radio, Christmas has already been saved. As you’ll see in the pages of this magazine, the broadcasters have been hard at work creating rich and varied opportunities for you to escape reality over the holidays (and maybe, occasionally, family). Whether in drama, with a rip-roaring retelling of the infamous 60s sex scandal involving the Duchess of Argyll, entertainment with Strictly Come Dancing, comedy with Billy…

The TV section starts on p107 ▸ 1 Strictly Come Dancing: the Final Saturday 18 December 7.00pm BBC1 After 12 weeks of “FAB-U-LOUS” entertainment, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman (right) welcome the last three couples back to the dancefloor. See feature, page 16 2 Ghosts Thursday 23 Dec 8.30pm BBC1 Mike and Alison (Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Charlotte Ritchie, right) and the ghostly inhabitants of Button House confront a mysterious newcomer wearing a red hat and a white beard… 3 Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard Thursday 8.00pm 30 Dec BBC1 Bone up on your paleontology in the company of Sir David Attenborough, above. He explores a profusion of remarkable finds revealing how Neanderthals once hunted mammoths just outside Swindon. 4 A Very British Scandal Boxing Day to Tuesday 28 December 9.00pm BBC1 Claire Foy (right) sparkles as the duchess who defied convention, while Paul…

Your guide to streaming p88 ▸ 1 A Boy Called Christmas Available now, Sky Cinema/Now Henry Lawfull (right) stars in this warming festive fantasy that tells the tale of the future Father Christmas as he goes on a thrilling boyhood adventure. See feature, page 88 2 Spy City From 23 December, BritBox With hints of Mad Men and James Bond, this spy thriller series created by William Boyd is set in 1961 against the backdrop of the Cold War. Dominic Cooper (above) stars as Fielding Scott — a member of MI6 who travels to Berlin in a bid to unearth a double agent. 3 Spitting Image: Available now, BritBox; 10pm, Christmas Eve ITV Boris Johnson faces the full force of the satirical comedy in this festive special, while Keir Starmer has a crisis over Christmas lunch and Rishi Sunak is…

‘I leave it all to my wife…’ GREGG WALLACE Christmas in my house is huge. My wife Anna is Christmas-crazy. We had seven trees up last year, and two of them projected snowflakes onto the ceiling. My Italian in-laws live with me – we’ve got panettones as far as the eye can see – and we go big on everything: two or three joints of meat, bowls of every vegetable and four or five puddings. Yule logs are brilliant, but my wife’s coffee panna cottas are a thing to behold. We have our first drink when opening presents at about 6.30am – I may have a whisky in my coffee, and it’s the only time of year I do that – and after lunch we play Trivial Pursuit. It’s a big competition between…

Around the World in 80 Days Boxing Day 5.50pm, 6.40pm BBC1 WHAT MAKES FOR great family viewing at Christmas? David Tennant says it’s the new production of Around the World in 80 Days, in which he plays Phileas Fogg, Victorian, gentleman traveller and stickler for punctuality. “You want to entrance across generations,” he says. “That’s what it’s made for. It’s a romp, an adventure.” Well, yes and no. In Jules Verne’s 1873 novel, Fogg is unflappably stiff of upper lip – and remains a variation thereof in film versions with David Niven and Steve Coogan. Here, when we first meet Fogg as played by Tennant in the eight-part series, he’s a cowardly has-been, ridiculed by his peers. “Verne chose to make Phileas Fogg a particularly stuffy Englishman,” says Tennant. “We’re showing a different…

Strictly Come Dancing: the Final Saturday 18 December 7.00pm BBC1 ‘We’ve done this for each other, and for the kids we once were’JOHN WHAITE ON A SATURDAY evening in mid-November, two 6ft 2in men, one from the Free State in South Africa, the other from Wigan, and both blessed with size 11 and a half feet, danced a Viennese waltz together on national television, dressed as chimney sweeps. This was a significant moment of TV history, but it wasn’t without its logistical challenges, as Strictly pro and ace choreographer Johannes Radebe explains: “We’re knocking knees. You know, it’s always nice to have somebody who’s smaller that you can shove into a place.” I’ll take his word for it. I met Johannes and his celebrity dance partner, former Bake Off champion John Whaite, the week…