Here are the Christmas TV highlights for Christmas Eve including The Madame Blanc Mysteries Christmas special and much much more... (we also have a Christmas TV guide with all the shows on over the festive season).
The Madame Blanc Mysteries, Channel 5, 9.15 pm
Father-and-son children's entertainers Frederick (Pavel Douglas) and Christian (Philippe Spall) have delighted the kids of Sainte Victoire for many years with their traditional Guignol shows but their performance comes to a premature end this Christmas when Frederick is killed with his own puppet. (It makes sense in context, trust us!) Naturally, this is a perfect case for Jean (Sally Lindsay), who manages to tear herself away from her giddy secret romance with best pal Dom (Steve Edge) to use her unparalleled antiques knowledge to sniff out Frederick’s killer. Meanwhile, Judith (Sue Holderness) receives a distressing message that threatens to ruin her entire Christmas — can her friends save the day?
The Repair Shop at Christmas, BBC One, 8.15 pm
Step into the twinkly repair barn for a feel-good special, as the busy expert elves weave their magic to bring some yuletide treasures back to life. Among the much-loved items is an enchanting miniature Christmas village belonging to foster carers, who have looked after more than 30 children in need of a home. Other festive fixes include a donkey saddle that's been handed down through four generations of farmers, a pair of giant puffins that have welcomed generations of children to a very special bookshop and a 100-year-old magic lantern projector, which has been at the centre of one family’s Christmas Eve tradition for decades. As warming as a log fire and a cup of cocoa…
The Great Christmas Bake Off, Channel 4, 8 pm
’Tis rarely the season to be jolly in the nation's soaps, so it's wonderful to see some famous faces swerve the usual divorce, death and disaster storylines, and grab a joyous break in the twinkly Bake Off tent instead. With no worse than a soggy bottom to worry about, EastEnders’ Natalie Cassidy takes on her former screen sibling, Dean Gaffney, as well as Emmerdale’s Chris Bisson and Sheree Murphy and former Corrie star Shobna Gulati. The yule logs prove easy, the meringue Christmas trees are as tricky as they sound and the festive biscuit soap scene showstopper is deliciously amusing. Don’t miss!
Woman of Stone, BBC Two, 10.15 pm
Writer E. Nesbit is best known for her children's books, most notably "The Railway Children", but she also wrote ghost stories, and Mark Gatiss has adapted her chilling tale "Man-Size in Marble" for this year's A Ghost Story for Christmas. Set in the 1880s, it centres on troubled newly weds Jack (Eanna Hardwicke) and Laura (Phoebe Horn), who move to a cottage in the country, where their housekeeper Mrs Dorman (Monica Dolan) tells them of a disturbing local legend. On Christmas Eve, a pair of marble knights rise from their slabs in the village church and come back to their old home — the couple's cottage...
See our TV Guide for full listings.
