24 films to watch on TV this Christmas

Each December, we rifle through the packed festive telly schedules and try our best not to pick the same old chestnuts. You know the things we mean. They tend to feature Victorian misers, wonderful wizards, holiday inns, crop-dusting planes, singing nuns, white-vested cops and angels getting their wings.

Of course, they’re all worth revisiting or discovering with younger family members. As are Casablanca (1942) and The Big Sleep (1946), which are back on the Beeb on Boxing Day. But, this year, they merit a special mention, as they mark Humphrey Bogart’s 125th birthday.

You’ll need the luck of the Irish, though, to see Pat Collins’s wonderful John McGahern adaptation, That They May Face the Rising Sun (2023), as it’s only premiering on BBC1 Northern Ireland at 22:30 on 30 December. But there are still plenty of unmissables and curios to keep you amused…

Where’s it on? BBC2, Saturday 21 December, 15:20

Peter Bogdanovich’s tribute to Golden Age screwball is the best romcom produced during the New Hollywood era, in which buttoned-up musicologist Ryan O’Neal proves a fine stooge to prudish fiancée Madeline Kahn and effervescent ditz Barbra Streisand. There’s also a great gag with a large pane of glass, a tall ladder and a steep San Franciscan street.

Where’s it on? Talking Pictures TV, Saturday 21 December, 21:05

Guaranteed to dampen the festive spirit, but keep you gripped for 145 minutes, Robert Aldrich’s Cold War thriller boasts a snarling Burt Lancaster as a USAF general who threatens a nuclear reprisal unless the president reveals dark truths about the Vietnam War. The split-screen gimmick hasn’t worn well, but this feels chillingly relevant.

Where’s it on? BBC4, Saturday 21 December,  21:55

Showing among many tributes to the late, great Maggie Smith, this conflab with Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright is chatty but not gossipy, insightful but never intimidating, as the distinguished foursome revel in their anecdotage while discussing, with wit and self-awareness and not a hint of vanity or sentimentality, Shakespeare, spouses and everything in between.

Where’s it on? Talking Pictures TV, Sunday 22 December, 14:00

Every Christmas needs a good ghost story, although René Clair’s English-language debut provides more chuckles than chills. Robert Donat doubles up as a penurious Scottish laird and his cowardly 18th-century ancestor, who finds himself in Florida after Glourie Castle is sold to Eugene Pallette’s bluff millionaire. The spectral effects look hokey now, but that only augments their charm.

Where’s it on? C4, Sunday 22 December, 15:00

Voiced and animated during lockdown, this droll parable on the perils of technology centres on a misfit and his wonky Bubble B*Bot and offers handy tips on how to cope if you don’t get the present you want this Christmas. The visuals are fun, but Zach Galifianakis and Olivia Colman’s quirky voicework makes this appointment family viewing.  

Where’s it on? BBC3, Monday 23 December, 21:40

If this satirical slasher doesn’t get you in the mood for a house party, nothing will. Dutch director Halina Reijn makes deft use of a creepy location, some zinging dialogue, a willing cast, and a rug-pulling whodunnit, as seven guests bored with drinking, dancing and drug-taking come to regret playing a murder mystery game.

Where’s it on? BBC2, Monday 23 December, 23:20

Director Robert Wise blends supernatural suspense and psychological terror in adapting Shirley Jackson’s novel about a gaggle of stereotypes in an old dark house. The acting just stays the knowing side of theatrical, but Elliot Scott’s unsettling sets and cinematographer Davis Boulton’s use of bright lights, low angles, camera stealth and lens distortion will guarantee sleepless nights.

Where’s it on? BBC1, Wednesday 25 December, 18:10

Good grief, it’s him – again! Spheniscine desperado Feathers McGraw is back to avenge himself on the occupants of 62 West Wallaby Street by hijacking Norbot (the robotic garden gnome invented by Wallace) in order to steal the Blue Diamond that he had nabbed in The Wrong Trousers (1993). Silly sight and sound gags abound in this Christmas’s essential TV treat.

Where’s it on? BBC2, Wednesday 25 December, 21:00

Twelve days after debuting in cinemas, this affectionate profile of the most prolific 007 comes to BBC2. Steve Coogan provides the soundalike narration, as family members and famous friends reflect upon the ups and downs of Roger Moore’s career and his occasional matrimonial missteps. Previously unseen home movies confirm the impression of an underrated self-deprecator who rather enjoyed himself.

Where’s it on? C5, Thursday 26 December, 10:15

What else could we pick at the end of a bumper (Olympic) year for musicals than Vincente Minnelli’s best picture winner? The Gershwin song score ‘S Wonderful indeed. The composer’s eponymous suite accompanies the climactic, impeccably designed dream ballet, which references the work of five French artists and reinforces Gene Kelly’s contention that dancing is a man’s game.

Where’s it on? Great! Action, Thursday 26 December, 15:55

A partnership Hollywood never knew it needed decorates this backwoods saga, as John Wayne and Oliver Hardy don buckskins to help some Napoleonic exiles keep land-grabbers off the Alabama plot that had been gifted them by Congress. Fresh from teaming in a charity stage show, Duke and Babe strike up an irresistible rapport before the shooting starts.

Where’s it on? Sky Arts, Thursday 26 December, 21:00

Dusted down after half a century in the vaults, this record of Paul McCartney and Wings at Abbey Road was given a cinema release in September. It provides a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the band’s third incarnation, while the backyard coda, with just Macca and an acoustic guitar, is a relishable bonus.  

Where’s it on? C4, Friday 27 December, 00:10

With Love Actually in the doghouse, why not try Aml Ameen’s directorial debut, which winkingly riffs on all those Curtisian Christmas tropes? He also plays a novelist returning from LA to let girlfriend Aja Naomi King sample London mother Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s legendary festive shindig. But this is very much an ensemble piece, and glossy good fun it is too.

Where’s it on? Great! Movies, Friday 27 December, 21:00

Somewhere over the rainbow, all action movies are as good as this 1997 corker, in which FBI agent John Travolta and terrorist Nicolas Cage trade faces. It’s never subtle, but they have a ball guying each other’s tics, as John Woo hurtles them through a series of increasingly bonkers set-pieces. All we want for Christmas is the long-overdue sequel.

Where’s it on? Talking Pictures TV, Saturday 28 December, 21:05 

On TV in the UK for the first time this century, Emir Kusturica’s bewildering, beguiling oddity defies explanation. Memorable moments abound, however, as Johnny Depp is coaxed by cousin Vincent Gallo into attending uncle Jerry Lewis’s wedding and stays to build Faye Dunaway a flying machine, much to the fury of her stepdaughter, Lili Taylor.

Where’s it on? ITV1, Saturday 28 December, 20:00

From its opening touch of Orson, Sam Mendes’s second Bond outing feels cannily radical and reassuringly old school. Allusions to precursors abound, as we are treated to origin clues, exotic locations, quipping dialogue, dark twists, hissable villains, combustible action, and a female counterpart who operates on her own terms. Slick and cool, this puts the intelligence back into 007.

Where’s it on? BBC2, Sunday 29 December, 12:55

Few upstaged Charles Laughton, as Marlene Dietrich discovers in Billy Wilder’s mischievous adaptation of Agatha Christie’s sinuous courtroom drama. However, wife Elsa Lanchester could steal scenes from anyone, and she thoroughly deserved her Golden Globe for the exchanges between private nurse Miss Plimsoll and recuperating barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts after he agrees to take on an intriguing murder case.

Where’s it on? BBC2, Sunday 29 December, 22:00

If you watched Downton Abbey: A New Era on Christmas night, you’ll want to catch writer Julian Fellowes on Oscar-winning form in this stately whodunit. Robert Altman’s direction is masterly, while the stellar ensemble is faultless. But don’t underestimate the screenplay’s satirical trenchancy or insights into the resentful cruelty of an established order approaching its day of reckoning.

Where’s it on? BBC2, Monday 30 December, 00:15

The macabre and Christmas go together, and Nicolas Roeg’s take on Daphne du Maurier’s short story has lost none of its power to disconcert. Chronicling the efforts of church restorer Donald Sutherland and wife Julie Christie to get over the accidental drowning of their young daughter, this mesmerising mosaic makes Venice seem both mystical and menacing.

Where’s it on? ITV1, Monday 30 December, 13:15

There’s a pantomime feel to this family adventure based on a story by Steven Spielberg. The young stars are all in their fifties now (one even has an Oscar), but they shall forever be Goon Dock buddies Mikey, Data, Chunk and Mouth, seeking to beat the Fratellis to 17th-century pirate One-Eyed Willy’s fabled treasure.

Where’s it on? C4, Monday 30 December, 17:10

Three Oscar nominations were bestowed upon Theodore Melfi’s adaptation of Margot Lee Shetterly’s book about Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), the female Black American mathematicians who helped the US win the Space Race. It isn’t always nuanced in reapportioning credit. But some messages need to be shouted louder than others.

Where’s it on?  BBC1, Tuesday 31 December, 20:00

The 18th excursion into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a proud and hopeful Afrofuturist statement of existence, excellence and resistance. It was also brilliantly entertaining, with the secondary characters being as compelling as T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), as they battle for supremacy over Wakanda. Don’t miss.

Where’s it on?  BBC2, Wednesday 1 January, 15:10

The BBC isn’t likely to follow the makers of 28 Years Later in creating a trailer for this John Huston classic using Rudyard Kipling’s 1903 poem, ‘Boots’. But its sense of impending doom would certainly suit the harrowing tale of soldiers Daniel Dravot (Sean Connery) and Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine), as they embark upon an ill-judged escapade in Kafiristan.

Where’s it on? C4, Thursday 2 January, 00:30

This re-edit of the film formerly known as The Godfather Part III doesn’t alter screen history, as it remains inferior to its predecessors. But Francis Ford Coppola has recontexualised the Vatican connection and refocused the tensions between Michael (Al Pacino) and daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola). The results are sufficiently satisfying to demand a revisitation for all Corleone aficionados.