For some of us, if the run-up to Christmas wasn’t already busy enough as it is, there’s often not a moment to breathe on the big day itself between presents being opened, travelling to see people, entertaining guests, slaving over a hot stove for hours, and eating plenty of food.
Sometimes though, you may find yourself twiddling your thumbs with some time to spare, and that’s why the distraction of festive television is so brilliant.
For others, sitting around to watch the TV is an important part of Christmas itself.
No matter what your situation is, there’s some cracking things to watch on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day this year – with classic seasonal films, to festive specials of our favourite shows, and a few family-friendly additions all on the agenda.
Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2023 / Credit: BBC
We’ve all come to expect a Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special at this point, haven’t we?
After the iconic ballroom dance competition programme has been bringing us smaller, festive editions of the show we all know and love since 2004, it’s back once again this Christmas Day, with celebrity contestants such as actor Jamie Borthwick, Sugababes star Keisha Buchanan, newsreader Sally Nugent, and more, all taking to the floor to impress judges the judges and battle it out for the Christmas glitter ball trophy.
The contestants will also be performing a group routine alongside the professional dancers, and there’ll be some merry musical performances from special guests too.
You can catch Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One at 4:40pm on Christmas Day.
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Doctor Who Christmas Special
BBC One
Christmas Day – 5:55pm
Doctor Who Christmas Special / Credit: BBC
What would Christmas be without a Doctor Who special?
Fans absolutely devoured the three 60th anniversary specials last month, and now, the long-running sci-fi series is back where it belongs on Christmas Day with another festive episode.
Aside from new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa confirmed to be making his first appearance in the iconic role, the BBC is keeping plot points about the upcoming episode pretty vague this year, with a synopsis for it online simply reading: “Long ago, on Christmas Eve, a baby was abandoned in the snow. Today, Ruby Sunday meets the Doctor, goblins, stolen babies and, perhaps, the secret of her birth.”
You can catch this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special on BBC One at 5:55pm on Christmas Day, and watch a new chapter begin.
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Not Going Out
BBC One
Christmas Eve – 10pm
Not Going Out / Credit: BBC
Not Going Out is back for yet another Christmas special this year.
Lee Mack’s multi award-winning comedy series – which is now the longest running sitcom on air – is set to return with a new Christmas special this Christmas Eve, and not only that, but it’ll actually be the show’s 100th episode in total.
A synopsis for the festive episode on the BBC website reads: “Brace for yuletide suburban chaos, as Lee throws everything at creating the perfect family Christmas, agreeing to Lucy’s wishes to do something charitable and having “a normal Christmas where nothing goes wrong.” This moment of festive spirit sees the couple invite Wilfred, a lonely pensioner from the nearby care home, to join them for Christmas dinner. The only instruction is that Wilfred is not, under any circumstances, allowed to drink alcohol.”
You can catch the Not Going Out Christmas special on BBC One on Christmas Eve at 10pm.
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Mog’s Christmas
Channel 4
Christmas Eve – 7:45pm
Mog’s Christmas / Credit: Channel 4
A special animated adaptation of Judith Kerr’s much-loved classic children’s book, Mog’s Christmas, is coming to Channel 4 on Christmas Eve.
Created to celebrate Kerr’s 100th birthday, a synopsis for the Christmas special on the Channel 4 website reads: “Mr and Mrs Thomas and their children Debbie and Nicky are busy making preparations for Christmas. With two Aunts and a jolly Uncle staying in the house, Mog, the beloved family cat, is feeling a bit ignored. When Mr Thomas and the two children arrive home with an enormous Christmas tree, Mog takes fright and scrambles onto the roof for safety. Regardless of the Thomas family’s attempts to rescue her, Mog refuses to come down.
“Despite everyone’s fears, Mog has a magical night in the snow with a cat themed Christmas dream, but will Mog arrive back home in time for Christmas Day?”
You can catch Mog’s Christmas on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve at 7:45pm.
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Christmas with the Royle Family
BBC Two
Christmas Day – 9:15pm
Christmas with the Royle Family / Credit: BBC
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas for many Mancs without the Royle Family… and luckily, BBC Two has decided to dedicate a big chunk of its Christmas Day programming schedule to one of the sitcom’s beloved stars – the late Caroline Aherne.
As well as celebrating Aherne’s career, a re-run of The Royle Family’s classic Christmas episode – which is titled ‘Christmas With The Royle Family’, and first hit screens back in December 1999 – will be aired.
You can catch Christmas with the Royle Family on BBC Two on Christmas Day at 9:15pm.
Fancy something extra?
Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy
‘Christmas with the Royle Family’ isn’t the only time you’ll get to see Caroline Aherne on TV this Christmas Day either, as in addition to BBC Two’s run of programming dedicated to the late Manc icon, there’s also set to be a new TV special celebrating her “unique life and talent” too.
Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy will feature unseen photographs and contributions from a cast of her lifelong friends – including Steve Coogan, Jon Thompson, Craig Cash, and producer Andy Harries.
Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy / Credit: BBC
You can catch Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy on BBC Two on Christmas Day at 10:25pm, and find out more about the special programme here.
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Featured Image – BBC
TV & Showbiz
BBC is looking for messy Mancs who need to ‘sort their life out’ to take part in new series
Emily Sergeant
Do you need to sort your life out?
We get that this may sound like a pretty brutal and upfront question to ask, but don’t shoot the messenger, it’s technically the BBC asking it, as producers are currently on the hunt for messy people who could do with ‘sorting their life out’ to take part in the new series of one of its hit TV shows – and they’re encouraging Greater Manchester residents to apply.
While the title of the show may, quite literally, be Sort Your Life Out, we promise it’s not as harsh as it seems, as in reality, it’s just offering you a helping hand to tidy up.
That’s right, if you would you like your home to be totally transformed by none other than Stacey Solomon and her expert team, then through a life-changing declutter, supersize spring clean, and some ingenious carpentry solutions to top things off, you could bring some job back to where you live.
The BBC is looking for messy Mancs who need to ‘sort their life out’ to take part in new series / Credit: BBC | FreerangeStock
Stacey and her expert team of organising fanatics can help you let go of the things you don’t need, and streamline what you do.
Plus they’ll also help to create space-saving storage and put systems in place to save you time and money in the future.
“Whether you have a new baby on the way, want to run a business from home, find it hard to let go of sentimental items or just want to create calm in the chaos, we’d love to hear from you,” producers said in a casting call on the BBC website.
Does this process sounds like something you could benefit from then? Producers of the hit show are looking for families or shared households to take part in a potential future series.
Find out more and apply to Sort Your Life Out on the BBC website here.
Featured Image – BBC
TV & Showbiz
Some Oasis fans are only just discovering who ‘Cast No Shadow’ is dedicated to
Danny Jones
Die-hard Oasis fans typically pride themselves on knowing the most intricate details about the band and its history, from where the first demos were recorded and when, to how Peggy Gallagher takes her tea, but we were surprised to learn that many don’t know who ‘Cast No Shadow’ is dedicated to.
Fans are already queuing up outside Heaton Park ahead of the Manc band’s massive homecoming, but we’d be curious to quiz how many of them know the story behind the track taken from Oasis’ seminal sophomore album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
It seems that until very recently, even some of the most avid Britpop fans were unaware that the song was written with another icon of the genre and local music legend in mind: Richard Ashcroft.
While claiming it was written about him would be too reductive, and Noel Gallagher himself has openly clarified this, he has also regularly made it known that the tune and some of the lyrics, in particular, act as somewhat of an ode to the Wigan wordsmith.
Noel Gallagher dedicated "Cast No Shadow" to Richard Ashcroft.
"He always seemed to me that he was not entirely happy with the things that were happening around him. So the lyrics 'bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say' was cos I always felt that he'd been… pic.twitter.com/a9baqa2ti7
The elder Gallagher brother has long maintained a deep level of admiration for Ashcroft, citing him as one of the best singer-songwriters he’s ever come across, and regularly felt like both he and The Verve were not given the recognition they deserved at the time.
As touched upon briefly in the clip above, Noel dedicated the track to his friend Richard around the time that he split from his bandmates and began writing solo material, much of which has gone on to become beloved by countless Brits, certainly here in the North and Greater Manchester.
The now 58-year-old Oasis songwriter believes the ‘Bittersweet Symphony’, ‘A Song for the Lovers’ and ‘They Don’t Own Me’ writer, just to name a very small but stellar sample size, was overlooked for far too long and, to some degree, still is massively underappreciated.
We tend to agree.
In fact, we think he put it best when he said this in a BBC Radio 1 interview back in 1997: “I don’t write songs about many people – I’ve written songs about him [Liam], I’ve written songs about me mam, I’ve written songs about my wife, I’ve written songs about Richard Ashcroft.”
“That man is a genius, and I tell you what, man, he ain’t doing it for himself: he’s doing it for me. He has got to be a better songwriter than me, and in return, I’ve got to write better songs than him. That’s what it’s about.”
‘Cast No Shadow’ also led to one of the most beautiful but subtle pieces of art you can find anywhere in Manchester – a personal favourite of ours, we’ll confess.
Noel has revealed on multiple occasions that when he first played and revealed that he’d dedicated ‘Cast No Shadow’ to Ashcroft, Richard himself was left nearly ‘in tears’.
Speaking to The Guardian back in 2010, just a year after Oasis parted ways on the painful night in Paris, Ashcroft himself confessed: “I can’t work out if he means I’m a witch, vampire or just incredibly emaciated and thin cos, you know, I haven’t really got enough body mass to cast a shadow?”
You’d have to ask the ‘Champagne Supernova’ creator himself, but he’s said that while written directly about him, it is a tribute to his “genius”, and when his friend and fellow Greater Mancunian artist finally got his number one for ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, he said he was “the happiest man in the world.”
His love for The Verve as a whole still remains, too, insisting that just like Liam’s love for The Stone Roses’ John Squire, he believes lead guitarist Nick McCabe is still “one of the best” he’s ever seen.
The Live ’25 reunion has don’t plenty to reignite and an already firm love affair with one of the biggest bands there’s ever been, and it’s also encouraged a whole new generation and demographic of fans to dig further down into the various facets of being Oasis fans involves. Exhibit B…
Emily Sergeant -
19th December 2023 
