The BBC has announced a whole host of exciting TV programmes for its 2022 Christmas schedule. Strictly Come Dancing and Mrs Brown’s Boys will return for the festive period, alongside a New Year's Eve edition of The Graham Norton Show and a Call the Midwife special.
Last year, the BBC's Strictly’s Christmas special was the most-watched programme over the Christmas period aside from the Queen’s festive message. This year, the jam-packed schedule is also set to feature Bad Education, Ghosts, Malory Towers, the Great British Sewing Bee and Motherland.
BBC One sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys will return with special episodes over Christmas and New Year. Originally a theatre production, the show, starring Irish comedian Brendan O’Carroll as Agnes Brown, was first broadcast on BBC One in 2011 and has since become one of the biggest comedies on TV.
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The Call The Midwife Christmas Special, which was the BBC's third most-watched programme in 2021, also returns to screens this year. In its 75-minute festive show, the midwives move the maternity clinic into new premises, as the period show covers December 1967.
The Bafta-winning comedy Detectorists also returns after a five-year break for a 75-minute special. The show’s writer and director Mackenzie Crook stars alongside Toby Jones to offer fans an update on the lives of metal detecting hobbyists Lance and Andy, as their Danebury Metal Detecting Club is in trouble.
Other new shows to be broadcast over Christmas include Sir David Attenborough’s Dynasties II and Frozen Planet II, The Cleaner, The Repair Shop, Antiques Roadshow and Inside No 9. There will be game show specials of Blankety Blank, The Weakest Link, House Of Games, The Hit List, Question Of Sport, Pointless, The Wheel, University Challenge, Would I Lie To You and QI.
The BBC is also bringing back crime drama Happy Valley for its third and final series, set in West Yorkshire and starring Sarah Lancashire as Sergeant Catherine Cawood. The six-part series will be the final chapter of the Happy Valley story, created by Sally Wainwright.
Meanwhile, the final chapter of the trilogy His Dark Materials will also be broadcast over the Christmas period, starring Ruth Wilson and James McAvoy. The adaptation of Philip Pullman’s novel is a co-production between the BBC and US station HBO.
There will also be another adaptation of JK Rowling’s Cormoran Strike crime fiction series, which she wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
Charlotte Moore, BBC chief content officer, said: “Nothing brings people across the UK together like Christmas on the BBC and this year we’ve got a world-class line-up like no other. Get ready to escape and be entertained with an incredible range of new festive shows across every genre. Live or on demand, there’s something for everyone."
In music news, Sir Cliff Richard will chat to Sara Cox in Cliff At Christmas about his 64-year career as he performs some of his Christmas classics, new songs and best-loved hits. Top Of The Pops returns for a Christmas Day special hosted by Radio 1’s Clara Amfo and Jack Saunders as does Jools’ Annual Hootenanny. In addition, Eurovision runner-up Sam Ryder will host a New Year’s Eve party for the first time.
Elsewhere, an animated film based on Charlie Mackesy’s best-selling book, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse will also be released, and Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s intergalactic story, The Smeds And The Smoos, will be made into a half-hour special.
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