SATURDAY
Blankety Blank
BBC1, 9pm
Who’d have imagined that this cheap and cheerful game show would still be so popular, four decades on from its 1980s heyday? Host Bradley Walsh must take some of the credit, but it also proves that the simplest ideas are often the best. Taking part in tonight’s festive special are actor Brian Blessed, chef Ainsley Harriott, presenter AJ Odudu, media personality Gemma Collins and comedians Katherine Ryan and Rob Beckett.
CHRISTMAS EVE (SUNDAY)
Not Going Out
BBC1,10pm
A milestone for the comedy series which reaches its 100th episode tonight, and fittingly it’s a Christmas special. When Lucy (Sally Bretton) suggests to Lee (Lee Mack) they take in a lonely old man for Christmas he’s not mad about the idea. But relenting, he goes to an old people’s home to collect him. Needless to say, plans go awry, and everything goes horribly wrong – and that’s why we love it.
CHRISTMAS DAY (MONDAY)
Doctor Who
BBC1, 5.55pm
So many reasons to be excited – the show’s back on Christmas Day (hurrah!), we’re meeting a new companion (Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson), Davina McCall has a cameo and, most of all, it’s the first full-length adventure for the new 15th Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa! In a story titled The Church On Ruby Road, the Time Lord meets his new friend, and learns about her past as a foundling. Meanwhile, goblins are stirring…
BOXING DAY (TUESDAY)
Death In Paradise
BBC1, 9pm
It may be sunny in Saint Marie, but dark forces are at work in the show’s latest festive caper. When businessman Gerry Stableforth is found at the bottom of a ravine, one of the witnesses goes missing before DI Neville Parker can question her – and adding to the mystery are the dying man’s final words, ‘It’s behind you.’ Neville also has to contend with a visit from his mum (Doon Mackichan), who’s on a serious mission to have fun.
WEDNESDAY
Murder Is Easy
BBC1, 9pm
Nothing says Christmas telly like a good old-fashioned whodunnit, and they don’t get better than this Agatha Christie mystery. It’s 1954 and Luke Fitzwilliam (David Jonsson) is on his way to London to take up a diplomatic post in Whitehall. On the train he befriends Miss Pinkerton (Penelope Wilton), who’s off to Scotland Yard to tell them about a serial killer in her village. But when she’s bumped off too, it prompts Luke to turn sleuth…
THURSDAY
MasterChef: Battle Of The Critics
BBC1, 8pm
Well, here’s fun. After countless episodes sharpening the knives on other peoples’ cooking, five of the show’s restaurant critics are challenged to prove their own merit in the kitchen. Donning the aprons for two fierce challenges: William Sitwell, Grace Dent, Jay Rayner, Leyla Kazim and Jimi Famurewa. While John and Gregg preside as ever, former show champs will also be returning to pass judgement on the quintet’s efforts. Let’s flambé.
FRIDAY
Men Up
BBC1, 9pm
Inspired by a true story, this poignant and occasionally humorous drama centres around a group of Welshmen, united in shame and inadequacy over their impotency. That is until they’re handed a lifeline in one of the first clinical trials, in Swansea’s Morriston Hospital in 1994, for an unknown drug which later became Viagra. It stars Paul Rhys, Iwan Rheon, Mark Lewis Jones, Phaldut Sharma and Steffan Rhodri.