This Christmas will be particularly enjoyable for comedy fans, with a wide range of specials designed to tickle every kind of funny bone. Bad Education makes its return after eight years away from our screens, alongside festive versions of panel shows QI and Would I Lie To You. Perhaps the most wholesome – and underrated – show on television, Detectorists, will also return to our screens this month with a feature-length special, as will the heart-warming ensemble comedy Ghosts. For those with a darker sense of humour, even at Christmas time, the twisted anthology series Inside No. 9 is set to release new episode for the season entitled ‘The Bones of St. Nicholas’.
This year’s festive programming brings treats-a-plenty to enjoy whilst in a post-Christmas dinner food coma
Two new animated specials are also set to air, both on BBC One. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse, an adaptation of the book of the same name by Charlie Mackesy which was named as Waterstones’ Book of the Year in 2019, will air on Christmas Day. Following the success of previous adaptations of books by children’s author Julia Donaldson, including The Gruffalo and Stick Man, BBC One will also be airing an animated version of her book The Smeds and The Smoos, featuring the voices of Bill Bailey and Rob Brydon. Both are sure to be fun for all the family (even if there aren’t actually any little ones watching!).
Other festive features worth catching include Mark Gatiss’ adaptation of M.R. James’ short story Count Magnus; the ever-delightful partnership of Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse in a Christmas edition of Gone Fishing; the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, a tradition dating back almost 200 years, lead this year by Professor Dame Sue Black; and Channel Four’s 2022: The Year From Space, a documentary covering many of the year’s major events through satellite images.
