The world slows down at Christmas time, trying to relax and reflect on the chaos of the year gone by. But the BBC keeps churning out fresh new shows and specials with a rate that rivals the productivity in Santa’s workshop.
The Beeb’s 2021 lineup promises festive screen gifts for the whole family to enjoy, across all its free-to-air TV channels and digital platform iPlayer.
Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore has promised “a stocking full of special programmes to enthral and enchant featuring your favourite stars and characters, whatever your mood”, and if your mood is sheepish? Then we’ve got just the stop-motion special to fix that.
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas brings Aardman’s wooly farm family together to celebrate the meaning of the holidays. He’s probably the season’s biggest non-human star, with animated children’s story Superworm coming in a close second.
A Very British Scandal will star Claire Foy and Paul Bettany in the scandalous divorce drama of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, whilst Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Oyelowo face off in psychological thriller The Girl Before.
Other star-filled features worth sticking atop the Christmas tree include Jamie Dornan’s Australian outback drama The Tourist, and a lush new adaptation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. David Tennant is mustachioed dandy Fogg, Leonie Bemesch is journalist ‘Fix’, and Ibrahim Koma throws some punches as Passepartout.
Some of the most comfortingly familiar shows to return for the holidays include Death in Paradise, Would I Lie to You, Call the Midwife, Doctor Who, Worzel Gummidge, QI, Eastenders, The Weakest Link, Mrs Brown’s Boys, and Strictly Come Dancing. I will never for the life of me understand the grammar or meaning of that show’s title, but there you go.
David Attenborough brings us back the vibrant natural world with two new specials: one on the greatest birdsongs of the animal kingdom, and the other forensically investigating a mammoth graveyard.
And, since the holidays should be filled with song, you can expect Christmas and New Year concert sing-a-longs aplenty, plus Madonna and Adele concert specials from the vault. Before spontaneously breaking out in a joyful carol yourself, be sure to visit the BBC’s website to see the full lineup for each channel and digital platform.
