Click on a day to see the unmissable TV shows this festive season...
Top 20 Xmas Films
Compiled by, Jason Best, Heidi Rice, Adele Craciun & Beth Williams
The Nightmare Before Christmas
BBC3, 8.55pm, Saturday, December 17 & BBC3, 11.45pm, Friday, December 23
Halloween mischief and menace meets Christmas magic and merriment in this wonderfully inventive stop-motion festive fantasy. The tale of a fiendish scheme by Halloweentown residents to take over Christmas, this visually enchanting film was born out of a poem penned by Tim Burton in the 1980s. But, while he co-wrote and produced, Burton didn't actually direct - that duty went to animation expert Henry Selick. With its delightfully dark tone, surreal humour, imaginative ghoulish creations, and fabulous Danny Elfman soundtrack, this magical movie has something for everyone - young and old alike. In 2001, Disney discussed a sequel, but Burton, wanting to conserve the film's purity, convinced them to drop the idea. It was re-released in 3D in 2006.
The Boat That Rocked
ITV1, 10.05pm, Saturday, December 17
Richard Curtis's celebration of the world of 1960s pirate radio is a hit and myth affair. The minimal plot revolves around the laddish antics of the DJs on pirate radio station Radio Rock, which broadcasts from a leaky boat in the North Sea to the delight of the nation but the fury of the government. On board, callow teen Carl (Tom Sturridge), whose godfather (Bill Nighy) runs the station, is learning lessons in love and sex from the DJs, including Philip Seymour Hoffman's laid-back American, Rhys Ifans's cool hipster, Chris O'Dowd's sad cuckold and Nick Frost's lecherous swinger. Some of the DJs' hi-jinks are just plain sleazy, but the movie stays afloat thanks to its buoyant soundtrack and the charm of its cast. Even so, the film's sexual politics will leave many viewers queasier than a sailor in a force 10 Gale.
Scrooge - A Christmas Carol
Channel 5, 1pm, Sunday, December 18 & Channel 5, 5.05pm, Christmas Eve
Alastair Sim was born to play Charles Dickens' supernaturally reformed miser from A Christmas Carol and he relishes every moment of his time on screen to provide a performance to treasure. Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns and a splendidly sepulchral Michael Hordern, as the ghost of Jacob Marley, offer sterling support and Brian Desmond Hurst's solid direction is complemented by the work of two directors-to-be, cinematographer C Pennington Richards and editor Clive Donner. The definitive screen version of the story, full of genuine Dickensian atmosphere and not given its due in its day.
It's a Wonderful Life
Sky Movies Classics, 8.40pm, Wednesday, December 21, & Sky Movies Showcase 2pm, Christmas Day
If the season to be jolly has turned you into a grouchy scrooge, then kick
back, relax, take the opportunity to watch Frank Capra's yuletide classic again and inject a healthy dose of Christmas spirit back into the proceedings. James Stewart is perfect as suicidal savings and loan man George Bailey who rediscovers the will to live courtesy of Henry Travers's trainee angel and a clever reinvention of Dickens's A Christmas Carol which sees him getting a glimpse of what his small town would have been like if he had never lived. It may be quaint, but it's still quality entertainment delivering a warm, fuzzy message about what's really important in life - namely family, friends and community - with wit, wisdom and vitality.
Bad Santa
Channel 5, 9pm, Wednesday, December 21
This gleefully offensive black comedy lets you know right away what lies in store with an opening shot that shows Billy Bob Thornton's drunken department store Santa vomiting in an alleyway. Thornton's wastrel of a character is actually a safecracker who takes a seasonal job in a different store each year - and then robs it on Christmas Eve with the aid of his black midget sidekick, who gives a new twist to the role of 'Santa's little helper'. This is a Santa unlike any you've ever seen: a foul-mouthed, selfish, alcoholic slob. The film doesn't try to give Thornton's character any saving graces, yet without resorting to anything remotely too sugary, director Terry Zwigoff (maker of 2001 cult film Ghost World) does give him a surprising - and satisfying - form of redemption.
The Young Victoria
BBC2, 9pm, Thursday, December 22
One of history's best love stories sits at the heart of this sumptuous costume drama - the romance between the young Queen Victoria and her beloved hubby Albert. Lovingly scripted by Downton Abbey screenwriter Julian Fellowes, this period movie is also a feast for the eyes, bagging an Oscar for Best Costume as well as nominations for Art Direction and Make-up. It's a bit slow moving in places, but there's no denying that Emily Blunt suits the role of Victoria perfectly. Rupert Fiend as Albert is less interesting, but you'll love Paul Bettany's Lord Melbourne, Jim Broadbent's King William IV and Miranda Richardson as the Duchess of Kent. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, is famously a producer on this film. Look out for a cameo from her daughter Princess Beatrice - Queen Victoria's great-great-great-great-granddaughter.
Tamara Drewe
BBC2, Friday, December 23
Posy Simmonds' shrewdly observed, tightly plotted and slyly satirical graphic novel becomes an entertaining rustic romp in the hands of director Stephen Frears and a spot-on cast of rising home-grown stars and stalwart character actors. Gemma Arterton is perfect as the one-time ugly duckling turned beautiful swan who causes emotional havoc when she returns to her childhood home in a quiet Dorset village and soon has three very different men vying for her affections - Luke Evan's lovelorn handyman, Dominic Cooper's preening rock star and Roger Allam's philandering novelist. She's matched by the superb Tamsin Greig, holding things together as the cheating author's willfully blind wife, while Jessica Barden and Charlotte Christy provide vivid turns as bored local teenagers. Ultimately, Frears's screen version manages to be more cartoony than Simmonds' original cartoons, but it's still hugely entertaining fare.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
BBC1, 5.50pm, Christmas Eve & BBC3, 7.55pm, Friday, December 30
Given the success of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies, it was inevitable that Hollywood would get around to putting CS Lewis's beloved Narnia chronicles on screen. Whilst it's undeniable that a little of the story's whimsical magic has been sacrificed in favour of swashbuckling action sequences - notably a climactic battle scene missing from the novel - the film otherwise remains true to its source material. What's perhaps most impressive are the winning performances by the children - Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Skandar Keynes and Anna Popplewell - who are cute without being cloying, and manage to hold their own against the special effects. Among their adult co-stars, Tilda Swinton's icy and imperious White Witch is one of the best ever villains of children's cinema.
Polar Express
ITV1, 1.45pm, Christmas Eve & ITV2, 8pm, Boxing day
The perfect movie to get you in the Christmas mood, Robert Zemeckis's motion-capture classic is a glorious re-enactment of Chris Van Allburg's festive picture book come to life. All the characters, from a jovial Santa, to the stern train conductor and even the young hero - embarking on a frosty journey one Christmas Eve to restore his Christmas spirit - look spookily like Tom Hanks (who played the parts for the motion-capture camera), but it's really in the action scenes that this movie comes into its own. Particularly breath-taking scenes include the children's present-chase through Santa's highly automated workshop and the old steam train's ice-breaking journey across a frozen lake. One to watch snuggled up in front of the TV with all the brightly wrapped presents waiting under the tree.
Son of Rambow
BBC3, 9.20pm, Christmas Eve & BBC3, 8pm, Wednesday, December 28
Garth Jennings' charming coming-of-age comedy is set in 1980s Hertfordshire and follows the escapades of two schoolboys as they try to film their own version of Sylvester Stallone's First Blood. The pair make an unlikely duo. Bill Milner's meek Will Proudfoot comes from a strict religious family and Will Poulter's Lee Carter is the surly school tearaway who ropes him into being the stuntman in the home movie he is making of Stallone's film. The scenes in which the innocently gung-ho Will literally throws himself into a series of hair-raising stunts are a hoot, but the film goes beyond comic pratfalls to deliver a convincing portrayal of childhood imagination and teenage friendships. Jennings also hits some potent nostalgia buttons, and has mildly satirical fun with 1980s fashion and music.
Happy Feet
ITV1, 3.10pm, Christmas Day
In the mid-noughties, Penguins were seriously in. The makers of Surf's Up decided to stick them on Hawaiian surf boards, while Happy Feet went a more traditional route and situated its cartoon flock in the Antarctic. That said, while these penguins don't surf, they do sing - cue Hugh Jackman's Elvis penguin crooning Heartbreak Hotel and Brittany Murphy's disco-diva penguin getting down to Boogie Wonderland - all except Eijah Wood's misfit hero Mumbles, who can't sing, but can dance. Once you add Robin Williams' Latin troubadour penguin and his amigos plus that worthy final reel eco-message to the mix, it all starts to get very silly indeed. Lots of fun, but you've got to ask yourself, are tap-dancing penguins really the answer to global warming? Still it was successful enough to herald a 3D sequel this year.
Ratatouille
BBC1, 4.50pm, Christmas Day
Paris has never looked lovelier than in Pixar's brilliant animated comedy about a humble country rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt) who gets split up from his pack and fetches up in the big city, where he sets out to realize his dream of becoming a gourmet chef with a little help from gastronomically-challenged kitchen boy Linguini (Lou Romano). Offering up satisfying helpings of comedy, romance and drama - as well as some mouthwatering recipes supplied by professional chef Thomas Keller - the film marks another triumph for writer/director Brad Bird following the underrated sci-fi drama The Iron Giant and the smash hit The Incredibles. There are also amusing vocal turns from Janeane Garofalo, Brian Dennehy, Ian Holm and Peter O'Toole, the last of whom is particularly amusing playing a cadaverous food critic.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part I
Sky Movies Premiere, 5.15pm, Christmas Day
With Voldemort in the ascendant, Harry, Ron and Hermione are on the run from the forces of evil in the penultimate episode of JK Rowling's epic film saga. There's no return to Hogwarts, and no time for jokes, japes or games of quidditch, leaving Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint exposed on screen as never before, but the young stars rise to the challenge. As their characters try to track down the magical objects on which Voldemort's power depends, the mood is dark and the pace slow. But there are bursts of excitement - including Harry's thrilling escape in Hagrid's flying sidecar - and moments of great beauty. In places, the film is surprisingly affecting, including a heart-rending death scene. Not the best Potter film, but a sturdy springboard for the climax to come.
The King's Speech
Sky Movies Premiere, 8pm, Christmas Day
A deserved hit, The King's Speech takes an obscure footnote from royal history and turns it into enthralling human drama. On paper, the story of a stammering monarch's relationship with his speech therapist hardly sounds a promising subject, but David Seidler's adroit script and superb performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush keep the viewer gripped, amused and moved. Oscar-winner Firth's nuanced performance as king-to-be George VI (known as 'Bertie') conveys testiness, pride, vulnerability and anguish, and every shade of emotion in between, while Rush matches him brilliantly, playing maverick Australian Lionel Logue with wit, gusto and charm. Bertie and Logue's unconventional rapport is the movie's heart, but Helena Bonham Carter offers regal support as the king's shrewd consort, the future Queen Mother. Sitting on her husband's chest during one of Logue's unorthodox exercises, she says, 'This is actually quite good fun.' So it is.
The Wizard of Oz
TCM, 3.40pm, Boxing Day & Channel 5, 5.10pm, Boxing Day
Judy Garland's Dorothy skipping along the yellow brick road in those ruby slippers - makes you smile just thinking of it, doesn't it? However, had Shirley Temple been available - MGM's original choice for Dorothy - things might have turned out quite differently. Thanks to Garland and her brilliant performance, this 1939 movie about the Kansas girl who's swept away to a magical land hasn't lost anything over the years. With its dazzling picture-book visuals, wonderful songs, and iconic characters, The Wizard of Oz is pure, timeless escapism. And the movie's universal appeal has seen it referenced in thousands of shows, films and songs, a mountain of trivia, and Wicked - one of the most successful stage musicals of all time.
Tropic Thunder
BBC1, 10.45pm, December 27
A no-holds-barred send-up of Hollywood pomposity directed and co-written by Ben Stiller. Stiller also stars as one of a bunch of egotistical actors - among them Robert Downey Jr's method actor Kirk 'I don't break character till the DVD commentary' Lazarus and Jack Black's coke-addled, fart joke connoisseur Jeff Portnoy - who are making a Vietnam war epic when their British director (Steve Coogan) takes them deep into the jungle to complete the film 'guerrilla style' and they end up having to fend for themselves against real drug lords with real weapons. Tropic Thunder aims a blunderbuss at its targets, which got it into trouble with the PC police, but also delivers big laughs, especially for those who realise the butt of the joke is ultimately Hollywood and its pampered stars. And if it doesn't keep up the same level of comic invention throughout, it is hysterically funny at times.
Confessions of a Shopaholic
BBC2, 6.20pm Thursday, December 29
Sex and the City meets the credit crunch in this frothy chick flick starring Isla Fisher as a ditzy New Yorker hooked on buying stuff from the city's designer stores - which has given her a mountainous credit card debt. Thanks to a fluke, she lands a job writing a savings advice column for a financial magazine, but her addiction to Prada and Gucci and other posh labels threatens to derail her career - and her budding romance with Hugh Dancy's handsome editor. Based on British author Sophie Kinsella's chick lit series of novels, but with the setting moved from London to New York, Confessions of a Shopaholic is silly but effervescent fun thanks to the likeable Fisher and appealing supporting turns from John Goodman and Joan Cusack as Rebecca's parents, and Kristin Scott Thomas as a snooty rival editor.
Paul
Sky Movies Premiere, 10am & 8pm, Friday, December 20
Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost turn to sci-fi for a genial and very funny send up of ET. As well as writing and directing, they play a pair of nerdy British sci-fi fans who are touring America's UFO hotspots when they run into a pot-smoking, beer-drinking extraterrestrial (voiced by Seth Rogen). The Brits, joined by Kristen Wiig's naÏve Christian, agree to help him return home, but first they must outrun a trio of federal agents. Directed by Greg Mottola, rather than Pegg and Frost's usual collaborator Edgar Wright, Paul is slacker than the pair's previous efforts, but the gags still come thick and fast, as do the fanboy in-jokes and geeky film references. Rogen is in excellent form as the foul-mouthed, snarky alien and there are some great cameos too.
The Holiday
ITV1, 10.15pm, Friday, December 30
In this fluffy romcom, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz play lovelorn women on opposite sides of the Atlantic who swap homes for the festive season and manage to mend their broken hearts in the process. That Winslet's junior journalist Iris owns a large cottage in rural Surrey is somewhat hard to believe. And that she lands Diaz's massive LA mansion as her holiday residence and gets to hobnob with Tinseltown residents is even more far-fetched. But only the really cynical will be unable to suspend their disbelief because this Yuletide trip is a real joy to take. Diaz's love interest in Blighty, dishy Jude Law provides nice eye candy, while over in Hollywood, Jack Black wins Winslet's affections as charming and witty composer Miles. A feel-good festive fantasy - cosy up and enjoy.
