From the much-awaited return to Barry Island with Gavin and Stacey, to the spine-tingling new adaptation of Dracula, viewers won’t be short of choice for TV over the holidays.   

Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special

BBC One

Since James Corden posted a photo of the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special script on Instagram back in May, fans have been counting down the days until the likes of Nessa (Ruth Jones), Smithy (James Corden), Three-Steaks-Pam (Alison Steadman) and Uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon) are back on our screens.

This year, the West’s are hosting a crammed Christmas for thirteen in Barry, including Gavin (Mathew Horne) and Stacey’s (Joanna Page) ten-year-old child and Nessa and Smithy’s twelve-year-old, Neil.

The hour-long special will re-join the central characters in the familiar throes of parenthood, while Pam, Mick (Larry Lamb) and Gwen (Melanie Walters) dutifully fulfil their roles as adoring grandparents.  

Once again, Pete (Adrian Scarborough) and Dawn’s (Julia Davis) marriage is rocked by a shocking discovery, and the Christmas Eve pub trip for the Shipmans and Wests will have some surprising revelations in store.

 

Dracula

BBC One

The creative minds behind Sherlock, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, have teamed up once again for their new thrilling drama, Dracula.

Starring Danish actor Claes Bang (The Square) as the eponymous protagonist, Dracula will follow the vampire as he plots against Victorian London from his Transylvanian castle in 1897.

The series will be comprised of three feature-length episodes, much like the Sherlock format, and will exploit the terrifying Gothic elements of Bram Stoker’s original 1897 novel, refusing to scrimp on the gore.

Watch the trailer below, if you dare...

 

A Christmas Carol

BBC One

It wouldn’t be Christmas without some Dickens. Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) takes on the Victorian writer’s quintessential yuletide tale with a uniquely haunting and hallucinatory adaptation.

Guy Pearce (The Innocents) will play the miserly and self-centred Ebenezer Scrooge who is confronted with his terrible ways by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.  

Joining Pearce will be Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), Stephen Graham (The Virtues), Charlotte Riley (Peaky Blinders) and Joe Alwyn (The Favourite).

 

Hugh Grant: A Life of Screen

BBC Two

In this hour-long documentary, one of Britain’s most prolific and popular actors, Hugh Grant, will be giving an in-depth interview about his life on screen.

Grant will discuss the likes of his star-making role in Four Weddings and a Funeral, through his time as the quintessential romcom male lead, to his more recent foray into television drama with A Very English Scandal.

The documentary special will also feature interviews with Grant’s friends and colleagues, such as his Four Weddings co-star Andie MacDowell, Love Actually creator Richard Curtis and his on-screen nemesis in Bridget Jones’s Diary, Colin Firth.

The Snail and the Whale

BBC One

From the creators of The Gruffalo, the animated adaptation of The Snail and the Whale follows a snail voiced by Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) who hitches a ride on the back of a giant humpback whale, voiced by Rob Brydon (Gavin and Stacey).

What follows is an inspiring and wondrous tale of the unlikely friendship formed between creatures great and small who explore the most beautiful corners of the Earth.

When the whale runs into serious trouble, the snail must overcome the fear of the big wide world to save their new friend.

 

Worzel Gummidge

BBC One

The walking, talking scarecrow Worzel Gummidge is heading to BBC One this Christmas in a modern adaptation of Barbara Euphan Todd’s classic children’s books.

When Susan (India Brown) and John (Thierry Wickens) come across a chaos-creating living scarecrow, they are pulled into an adventure of misbelief and mischief.

Mackenzie Crook, who writes, directs and stars as the titular scarecrow, has recruited a host of British talent for Worzel Gummidge. Michael Palin (Monty Python) will play the scarecrow’s creator The Green Man, with Zoë Wanamaker (Britannia) taking on the role of Lady Bloomsbury Barton.

Alongside them will be Steve Pemberton (Inside No 9) as Mr Braithwaite and Vicki Pepperdine (Sally4Ever) as Aunt Sally.

 

The Christmas Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan

BBC Two

After last year’s Christmas special sent comedian Romesh Ranganathan to the Arctic, this year he’s being sent to the other end of the extreme weather spectrum: the Sahara Desert in peak summer.

Facing some of the planet’s hottest temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius, Romesh will be guided across the vast, inhospitable area by Bobo, a local who was born and raised in the desert.

What follows is an epic, enlightening and amusing look at one of the world’s most barren yet breathtakingly beautiful areas.