Christmas

Lark Rise To Candleford
Sun 21, 7.45-9.00pm, BBC1
More late-1800s family drama, albeit with a festive Christmas ghost twist for this one-off special.

Crooked House
Mon 22-Wed 24, 10.30-11.00pm, BBC4
Troika of Christmas ghost stories linked by an evil-attracting manor house from 'League Of Gentleman' co-creator Mark Gattiss.

Comedy Songs: The Pop Years; Timeshift: Comic Songbook
Mon 22, 9.00-10.30pm, BBC4; 11.00pm-12.00am, BBC4
From music hall to ‘Flight Of The Conchords’ via Benny Hill, Monty Python and Joe Dolce, the history of a love-it-or-loathe-it art form. Feature continues

Gavin And Stacey Christmas Special
Christmas Eve, 10.00-11.00pm, BBC1
The ubiquitous Corden and Jones take their plans of world domination into Christmas with a typically heartwarming one-off. Read preview.

Top Of The Pops Christmas 2008
Christmas Day, 2.00-3.00pm, BBC1
Popular pressure instigated this Xmas resurrection so hopefully this will get some viewers for once.

Doctor Who
Christmas Day, 6.00-7.00pm, BBC1
Will Davids Tennant and Morrissey prove a match for Miss Hartigan and the Cybermen? Hey, it’s Christmas, 1851: anything could happen…

Wallace And Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death
Christmas Day, 8.30-9.00pm, BBC1
Aardman’s favourite progenies make a pun-tastic return as a pair of bakers attempting to avoid the attentions of a ‘cereal killer’. Expect a (ahem) bun fight. Read preview.

King Lear
Christmas Day, 9.00pm-12.00am, More4
Grab the best seat in the house for Trevor Nunn’s acclaimed RSC production, retaining its original cast and filmed specially for More4.

The Royle Family Xmas Special
Christmas Day, 9.30-10.30pm, BBC1
A bit of Beeb cross-promotion here as the domestic banter centres around Denise cooking Xmas dinner by Nigella. Let’s hope she doesn’t imitate the faux-sexual moaning.

Affinity
Sun 28, 9.00-11.00pm, ITV1
Anna Madeley and Zoe Tapper star in Andrew Davies’s surprisingly restrained adaptation of Sarah Waters’s Victorian pastiche.

The Eternity Man
Mon 29, 11.10pm-12.30am, C4
The life of a religious obsessive from a land down under, given the musical theatre treatment by Julien Temple. Men At Work not included.

Shooting Stars: The Inside Story; All New Shooting Stars
Tue 30, 9.00-10.00pm, 10.00-10.30pm, BBC2
We really wanna see those fingers on those remotes for the long-awaited return of Vic, Bob, George Dawes, Ulrika-ka-ka-ka and the usual bizarre mix of panellists.

Films
Pan’s Labyrinth
Mon 22, 9.00-11.15pm, Film4
Guillermo Del Toro’s haunting, powerful allegorical fantasy about the Spanish Civil War is a fine hors d’oeuvre for Mark Gatiss’s spookfest.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
Tue 23, 11.55am-2.15pm, C4
Superbly ripe, beautifully wrought tosh, with James Mason and Kirk Douglas starring in one of the great screen family adventures.

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Askaban
Christmas Day, 3.10-5.45pm, ITV1
Put the magic back into Christmas with Coltrane, Oldman and Rickman showing the nippers how it’s done in the third of JK Rowling’s epic series.

Quadrophenia
Boxing Day, 10.00pm-12.05am, Sky Movies Indie
Mods, rockers, romance and Phil Daniels in peak form in Franc Roddam’s alchemical film of The Who’s ludicrous rock opera.

King Kong
Sat 27, 11.30pm-1.10am, BBC4
One of the first and still the best of the creature features which successfully combines thrilling action with deeply felt emotion.