48 saturday review Saturday December 18 2021 | the times
Shaun the Sheep:
The Flight Before
Christmas
BBC1, 6pm
You may have noticed wintry
Aardman idents popping up
across BBC1 recently. That’s
because tonight we have the
return for popular stop-motion
ruminant Shaun the Sheep in a
half-hour special in which our
woolly hero faces a farmhouse
raid that leads to Timmy
heading off to a Christmas
market. With no words, this is,
as ever, a marvel of visual
comedy into which much old-
fashioned animation work has
gone. It takes something to
invest clay figures with such
charm and humour. JJ
Carols from King’s/
Royal Carols:
To g e t h e r a t
Christmas
BBC2, 6.15pm/ITV, 7.30pmDespite the best efforts of
numerous Christmas TV
specials this year, nothing will
create the magic of the season
as effectively as the sound of
choristers singing Hark! The
Herald Angels Sing. On ITV,
meanwhile, there is Royal
Carols: Together at Christmas,
the Duchess of Cambridge’s
new carol concert recorded
at Westminster Abbey.
Speculation has suggested
that someone in the royal
household had it moved to
ITV as a snub to the BBC. JJThe Amazing
Mr Blunden
Sky Max/Now, 7pmNot content with giving us one
ghost story today (see above),
Mark Gatiss is also behind this
new version of a spooky family
classic: Antonia Barber’s 1969
novel The Ghosts, made into a
film by Lionel Jeffries in 1972. It
concerns two teenagers living
in a country house supposedly
haunted by two children.
The ghosts turn out to have
travelled from the past and
need rescuing from wicked
Mr and Mrs Wickens (Tamsin
Greig and Gatiss). Can the
mysterious Mr Blunden (Simon
Callow) help? You can’t go too
wrong with a cast like this, and
this doesn’t. JJTop Gear:
Driving Home
for Christmas
BBC1, 8.30pmIn which Chris Harris, Paddy
McGuinness and Freddie
Flintoff choose cars for one
another in Bethlehem in
Carmarthenshire before
setting off on a road trip,
stopping for the traditional
parlour game of “high-speed
visual charades” and
delivering a vast tree to Bath
— apparently nothing says
“merry Christmas” like 1,000kg
of Norway spruce on the Royal
Crescent. And when they say
“driving home for Christmas”,
home is a Christmas-themed
test track. You get the drift. JJTop Gear: Driving Home for Christmas (BBC1, 8.30pm)All Creatures
Great and Small
Channel 5, 9pm
In the early hours of Christmas
Eve James Herriot is awakened
by the phone: a ewe has been
taken ill up on the moors.
There is no else you’d want
tending to its needs, although
this time we have a sad
moment to usher in what is
nonetheless a lovely edition of
the gentle vet drama. Moving
too because Mrs Pumphrey’s
Tricki Woo is desperately ill
and a theme of loneliness
starts to emerge, or rather
the need for each other at
Christmas. Rest assured,
the episode also warms the
cockles in a most satisfying
way. See pick of the week,
page 23 JJ
Spitting Image
Christmas Special
ITV, 10pmLike a shot of strong liquor in
the Christmas Eve schedule,
here’s Spitting Image and its
usual lewd and grotesque
brand of satire. It should be
pretty amusing too, by the
sound of what we’re promised.
Apparently there’ll be a
seasonal surprise for Prince
Andrew, while Keir Starmer
will finally spring into action
when faced with a looming
Christmas lunch crisis. Fresh
from adding polish to the latest
James Bond film, Phoebe
Waller-Bridge will add flair to
the Queen’s annual message.
As for Rishi Sunak, he is visited
by the Ghost of Tory Glory
Past. JJVariations
If All Creatures Great and Small
is the loveliest thing on today
(see pick of the week, page
23), there is also the return of
a fine TV tradition at a
spookier hour: a BBC ghost
story for Christmas Eve. Back
after a year away is an MR
James tale adapted and
directed by Mark Gatiss, and it
is one that creeps under your
skin through its slow-burning
restraint. It’s set in 1922, when
Edward Williams (Rory
Kinnear, right), a university art
curator living alone, receives
an engraving of a house with
an imposing façade. Yet is it
his imagination, or does the
mezzotint seem to change
each time he looks at it, often
when he’s alone with just the
crackle of a flickering fire for
company? The ghoulish
payoff is worth it. And if you
really want nightmares, stay
up late for a repeat of the
1968 Whistle and I’ll Come to
You (BBC4, 12.30am). Sweet
dreams. James Jackson
Christmas Eve | Viewing guide
Critic’s choice
The Mezzotint
BBC2, 10.30pm
It’s a Wonderful Life
(U, 1946)
Channel 4, 2pm
Frank Capra’s classic is the
ultimate seasonal perennial.
James Stewart’s everyman
charms are on full beam in his
role of George Bailey, a loans
company manager who, on
Christmas Eve, decides that
suicide is his only option when
he sees himself as responsible
for his community’s misplaced
funds. Then he meets Clarence
(Henry Travers), an angel in
training who shows George
a vision of how much poorer
a place his small town would
have been without him. It’s
the darkness into which
George descends that makes
the denouement irresistible.
(130min) Wendy IdeFilms of the day
Dolittle (PG, 2020)
BBC1, 4.30pm
Robert Downey Jr was pilloried
for his inexplicable Welsh
accent in this unwieldy take
on Hugh Lofting’s tale. It
follows the fun-filled voyage
of Dr Dolittle (Downey Jr,
above) to several zany
Caribbean locales to retrieve a
book written by his dead wife
that will reveal the site of a
magical fruit tree that can be
harnessed to save the dying
Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley),
who is the only one who can
stop the deeds to Dolittle’s
mansion from being sold. And
yes, he can talk to the animals,
which include a macaw called
Polynesia, voiced by Emma
Thompson, and a tiger called
Barry (Ralph Fiennes).
(97min) Kevin MaherAbominable (U, 2019)
BBC1, 3pm
This animated adventure is
precision-tooled to make
children squeal. It tells the tale
of a magical yeti called Everest
— think Sully in Monsters, Inc
meets the Dulux sheepdog —
whose basso profundo voice
can create all manner of
wondrousness. He is stranded
in Shanghai, thousands of miles
from his Himalayan home, with
Eddie Izzard’s dastardly yeti
hunter hot on his heels. Enter
a violin-playing Chinese
teenager called Yi, voiced by
Chloe Bennet. Yi and Everest’s
quest takes them to twinkling
cityscapes, fairytale valleys,
fields of yellow flowers and the
Leshan Giant Buddha statue in
Sichuan. (93min) Ed Potton(r) repeat (SL) In-vision signing● BBC2 Wales As BBC2 except: 5.35pm
Coast (r) 5.45-6.15 Wales’ Christmas
Home Movies. Footage of Christmases
from across the past 100 years (r)
● BBC1 Scotland As BBC1 except: 4.30pm
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and
Death. The duo open their own bakery (r)
5.00-6.00 Scotland’s Best Dog (r) 11.45
Christmas Celebration 12.30-1.00am Bad
Education Christmas Special (r)
● STV As ITV except: 3.40-5.00am
Unwind with STV. Daily relaxation
● BBC Scotland 7.00pm The Seven 7.15
Christmas at the Quay (r) 8.00 Scotland’s
Christmas Home of the Year (r) 9.00 Still
Game Christmas Special (r) 9.30 Growing
Up Scottish: Festive Special. Christmas
and Hogmanays past 10.00 Scotland’s
Big Night Out (r) 11.00-Midnight Inside
Central Station Christmas Special (r)
● S4C 6.00am Cyw 12.00 Adre (r)
12.30pm Heno (r) 1.00 Nyrsys (r) 1.30
Sain Ffagan (r) 2.00 News 2.05 Prynhawn
Da 3.00 News 3.05 Nadolig Hafod Lon (r)
4.00 Awr Fawr 5.00 Stwnsh 6.00 Richard
Holt: Yr Academi Felys (r) 6.30 Heno Aur
(r) 7.00 Heno 7.45 News 8.00 Pampro
Cwn Cymru 9.00 Aled Jones a Sêr y
Nadolig 10.00 Gareth! 10.30-12.05am
Chwarter Canrif o Garolau (r)Vienna Blood
BBC2, 9pmAs the final crime mystery in
this latest trilogy of Vienna
Blood begins, antisemitic
attacks and graffiti are
occurring across the city. And
when an odious monk is found
murdered, suspicion falls on
the Jewish man who publicly,
and nobly, reprimanded the
victim for spreading bigoted
rhetoric. Our Freudian hero
Dr Max Leibermann (Matthew
Beard) saw the contretemps
first-hand, and soon he and
Detective Reinhardt (Jürgen
Maurer) — 1907 Vienna’s
sleuthing odd couple — are
on the case, floating through
a world of Austrian high
society, then delving into
its dark underbelly. JJ