Merry Christmas one and all! Today in TV there are plenty of festive specials to choose from, including an It’s A Sin and Bake Off crossover and a Christmassy Call the Midwife.
Quentin Blake: The Drawing Of My Life
BBC Two, 4.10pm
BBC Two celebrates one of Britain’s most iconic artists, Quentin Blake, in a one-off special that sees the illustrator tell his life story by painting a 30-foot-long canvas.
Blake will fill the canvas with classic characters and key moments from his career, including those from his famously fruitful collaboration with beloved children’s author Roald Dahl.
Dahl’s wife Felicity is among the host of famous faces paying tribute, alongside Michael Rosen, Lauren Child, Chris Riddell, Josie Long, David Walliams, Steven Appleby, Dapo Adeola and Emma Chichester Clark, while Joanna Lumley, Peter Capaldi and Ore Oduba read extracts from some of the 500 books Blake has illustrated.
Call the Midwife
BBC One, 8.00pm
The midwives of Poplar return to deliver some festive cheer plus a baby or three.
Set in December 1966, Lucille (Leonie Elliott) and Cyril (Zephryn Taitte) are busy preparing for their upcoming winter wedding, having decided against returning to the West Indies at the end of series ten. Meanwhile, Nonnatus House faces its busiest Christmas Day ever.
Thankfully, Miriam Margolyes’s Sister Mildred is back on hand as each mum-to-be presents their own challenging case.
The Great Christmas Bake Off
Channel 4, 8.00pm
The first of two festive Bake Off specials sees four of the It’s A Sin cast take to the tent to do battle.
Joining Olly Alexander, who starred as Ritchie Tozer in the drama, are Lydia West (Jill), Nathaniel Curtis (Ash) and Shaun Dooley (Ritchie’s father Clive). Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas will return to hosting duties and their usual mischief, while Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood will judge the cast’s creations.
The Larkins
ITV, 9.00pm
A second series of The Darling Buds adaptation is yet to be commissioned, but in the meantime ITV will air a special which sees The Larkins gearing up for Christmas amid an ongoing spate of burglaries.
PC Harness sets his sights on finding the perpetrator, who counts Miss Pilchester, the Normans and Johnny Delamere among their victims. Meanwhile, Mariette and Charley take their relationship to the next level as Pop and Ma welcome them back for Christmas.
Although when Charley’s parents turn up to meet the Larkin clan as a power cut hits the entire village, chaos descends on the Larkins’ farm and Christmas hangs in the balance.
