The deluge of film and TV over Christmas can be both overwhelming (in sheer quantity) and underwhelming (in quality), so we have singled out a few of the key highlights on this year’s line-up to make time for.
From the new instalment in the Knives Out mystery franchise to David Attenborough presenting a special one-off, filmed over his centennial year, there’s a lot to get stuck into – and plenty with cross-generational appeal.
Here are 16 picks for what to watch during the festive season…
Wake Up Dead Man
streaming on Netflix
Netflix has form in dominating Christmas with an original movie that absolutely everyone in the country seems to watch, then slightly regret later, from Don’t Look Up in 2021 to that unfortunate Chicken Run sequel in 2023. This year, their hot ticket is an improvement, at least: Wake Up Dead Man, the third instalment in the Knives Out series, isn’t quite up to the standards of the 2019 original, but serves up enough stars and baroque style to go down easy. Daniel Craig’s swishy detective is back, this time to solve the murder of Josh Brolin’s tyrannical priest. Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close and Andrew Scott are among the suspects. AW
Avatar: Fire and Ash
in cinemas
General critical consensus of the Avatar movies seems to have shifted from the “omg wow!” of 2022’s The Way of Water to more of an “OK sure!” for this month’s sequel, but don’t let that put you off. James Cameron’s blue-skinned epics so clearly remain visually dazzling that the occasional whiffs (that dialogue! All that Zoe Saldaña crying!) don’t rankle too much. Fire and Ash introduces Oona Chaplin as a slinky villainess toying with our grief-stricken leads Jake and Neytiri (Sam Worthington and Saldaña), who are still mourning the loss of their son in The Way of Water. Go see it with your grandparents and blow their minds. AW
F1
streaming on Apple TV
Savvy capitalists as they are, Apple TV have smartly dropped their Brad Pitt Formula One film (a $600m-grossing smash in cinemas back in June) onto streaming just in time for Christmas, for all dads and dad-coded non-dads to enjoy. Pitt is the past-it legend brought back into the F1 fold to assist a squad of struggling speedsters, led by British rising star Damson Idris. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski, F1 is a deliberate throwback to the Days of Thunder era of adrenaline-soaked cheese, with Pitt in his element. AW
Christmas Karma
available to rent and buy
This is Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha’s flamboyant musical take on A Christmas Carol, which features songs by Gary Barlow (boo!) and All Saints’s Shaznay Lewis (yay!). The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar plays a miserable London businessman visited by three ghosts (Billy Porter, Eva Longoria and Boy George), who attempt to get him to change his ways. Does the casting here seem as if somebody threw a dart at a board of random headshots? With Pixie Lott, Hugh Bonneville and Danny Dyer also in the credits – yes, yes it does. But this is British and moreish in a way that’ll satisfy you during a turkey coma, so we can forgive. AW
Tinsel Town
streaming on Sky Cinema and Now
Kiefer Sutherland and Rebel Wilson lead this festive British comedy about an American movie star who unexpectedly journeys to small-town Yorkshire to appear in a panto. This is, of course, absolute guff, but sails by on the charms of Sutherland and a supporting cast of recognisable faces, among them Danny Dyer (again!) and Meera Syal. AW
Goodbye June
from Christmas Eve, Netflix
Fans of nepotism and crying will likely devour Kate Winslet’s directorial debut, which arrives on Netflix on Christmas Eve to transform us into mush before a day of feasting. Winslet’s son Joe Anders scripted this cosy heartwarmer, in which Winslet, Andrea Riseborough, Johnny Flynn and Toni Collette play harried siblings brought back together as their dying mother (Helen Mirren) prepares for the great beyond. Think of it as The Holiday with more terminal illness or The Family Stone but not evil. AW
Finding Father Christmas
Christmas Eve, 7.30pm, Channel 4
Lenny Rush, the 16-year-old Bafta winner so precociously brilliant in BBC comedy Am I Being Unreasonable?, will likely steal the show in this one-off festive film for Channel 4. He plays a teenager who still believes in Father Christmas, while James Buckley is his perturbed dad, who decides it’s finally time to break the news to his son. (Yes, Jay “knee-deep-in-clunge” Cartwright from The Inbetweeners is at parent-playing age now.) The film has a winning ensemble cast, from Greg Davies and Asim Chaudhry to Stephen Fry, and looks set to be a hearty, Christmassy adventure. Ellie Harrison
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Amandaland
Christmas Day, 9.15pm, BBC One
The adored Motherland spin-off is back this Christmas, with a very special guest in tow. Jennifer Saunders will be appearing as Aunt Joan, quaffer of “drinky-poos” and sister of Joanna Lumley’s Felicity, marking the first scripted on-screen reunion for the champers-loving duo since Ab Fab. In the middle of all this, of course, is Lucy Punch’s haughty Amanda, who’s striving for perfection (as always) and trying to keep the peace. It all sounds pretty relatable and, well, absolutely fabulous. EH
The Great Peep Show Christmas Bake Off
Christmas Day, 8pm, Channel 4
Super Hans is swapping pills for pudding this Christmas, as the cast of cringe comedy classic Peep Show make their way into the Bake Off tent. Matt King (who played everyone’s favourite aforementioned drug-addled maniac) will be joined by Olivia Colman, David Mitchell, Isy Suttie and Sophie Winkleman. Robert Webb is sadly absent from the lineup, which is a shame, as I’d have liked to see what sort of fresh hell of a dessert the man behind Jez would cobble together. But it will be a joyous occasion – the first time that the rest of the cast is on screen together since Peep Show wrapped 10 years ago. EH
Anaconda
in cinemas from 26 December
OK, let’s call a spade a spade: this comedy pseudo-reboot of the cult 1997 Ice Cube/Jennifer Lopez monster movie (remember Jon Voight being regurgitated from the mouth of a giant snake and winking at the camera?) looks dismal. But Christmas is also the time when you check your good taste at the door (related: The Housemaid is also in cinemas), so perhaps it’ll scratch an itch? Paul Rudd and Jack Black play bored Americans who fly to the Amazon jungle to shoot an amateur remake of their favourite movie Anaconda, only to stumble upon an actual anaconda. See what I mean? Dismal. But, yes, I’ll be there on opening day. AW
Marty Supreme
in cinemas from 26 December
If Anaconda is a box of slightly pale gone-off Maltesers, Marty Supreme is a glass of prosecco and a tower of Ferrero Rocher. Or something. It’s Christmas and I’m tired, leave me alone. Josh Safdie (one half of the brothers behind Uncut Gems) directs this riotous sports movie, in which Timothée Chalamet plays an absolute prat who is convinced he is destined for greatness as a master ping-pong player. This is funny, thrilling, and quite breathtaking work, with Safdie never allowing the action to let up and Chalamet at his very best. More importantly, the film also marks the grand acting return of Goop queen Gwyneth Paltrow, who’s taken a break from flogging expensive knick-knacks to play a once-famous movie star entangled with Chalamet. She’s marvellous in it, too. AW
Stranger Things
Season 5 vol 2: Boxing Day, Netflix
Finale: New Year’s Day, Netflix
Just as we’re all entering the Upside Down bit between Christmas and New Year, the next batch of Stranger Things episodes arrives on Boxing Day, ahead of the grand finale on 1 January. The Independent’s critic Nick Hilton thought the first volume of this final chapter, which came out in November, was still “admirably immersive” and lots of fun, but had succumbed to what he called “Marvelisation” – “a feeling that the drama needs to be set against an interminable fight between humans and extraterrestrials”. What the rest of the season will be like remains to be seen – surely the Duffer brothers will finally kill off a major character? Could Hopper get the chop at last? – but either way, this supernatural epic bowing out certainly marks the end of a televisual era. EH
Here We Go
New Year’s Eve, 8pm, BBC One
This diamond of a family sitcom from The Ballad of Wallis Island’s Tom Basden is back for a festive special, and it’s chaos as usual for the Jessop family. Man-child Paul (Jim Howick) has dragged the clan, including wife Rachel (Katherine Parkinson) and mum Sue (Alison Steadman) off to a holiday cottage to ring in the new year. One of the many, many problems is that the place he’s booked essentially looks just like their suburban semi in Bedford. The trouble doesn’t end there though, and as always with this brilliant, underwatched show, hilarity ensues. EH
Wild London
New Year’s Day, 6.30pm, BBC One
David Attenborough has enchanted us with his globe-trotting adventures over the decades, whether bonding with gorillas in Rwanda or nestled among millions of red crabs on the coast of Christmas Island. But his new project sees the naturalist turn his attention much closer to home. In this one-off, filmed over Attenborough’s centennial year, he explores the city he has lived in for 75 years: London. The BBC says it will be “poignant” and “personal”, while lifting the lid on how wildlife from peregrines to foxes adapt to live in a sprawling cityscape. EH
The Traitors
New Year’s Day, 8pm, BBC One
I’ve barely recovered from The Celebrity Traitors back in October, and now it’s time for the classic edition of the show to return. Will this cast of normies be able to compete with the likes of ultimate dishevelled Traitor Alan Carr and a farting Celia Imrie? Let’s hope so. What’s for certain is this game of deception has now well and truly turned into a reality TV juggernaut, and will likely break more viewing records this time, especially with a knackered New Year’s Day audience who are 100 per cent faithful to their sofas. EH
The Night Manager
New Year’s Day, 9.05pm, BBC One
After a mere decade’s wait, the BBC’s glossy Le Carre drama is back for a second season. The action picks up as Tom Hiddleston’s MI6 officer Jonathan Pine’s relatively uneventful life of night-time surveillance is interrupted by a violent encounter with Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva). The first series was properly sexy and thrilling – and was many British viewers’ introduction to the mesmerising Elizabeth Debicki. Can this follow-up, made without any more of Le Carre’s source material to follow and without any Debicki, live up to its predecessor? EH
