19 December 2021 61THE BEST TV FROM MUBI AND BEYOND... CHRISTMAS EVE
Christmas Eve: it’s when the
veil between worlds is at its
thinnest and we want to sit
by a glowing fire and ... be
scared silly. Our wish comes
true this year with A Ghost
Story For Christmas — The
Mezzotint (tonight, BBC2,
10.30pm). Adapted and
directed by Mark Gatiss from
a truly terrifying tale by that
master of the uncanny, MR
James, it stars Rory Kinnear
as the unwilling recipient
of an old engraving with
a strange figure at the
edge of the frame. Then
it’s on to the controversial
2009 reworking of Henry
James’s The Turn Of The
Screw (BBC4, 11pm), with
Michelle Dockery, and
Jonathan Miller’s masterful
1968 MR James adaptation
Whistle And I’ll Come To
Yo u (BBC4, 12.30am),
starring Michael Hordern.
Andrew MaleChristmas Kate (ITV, 7.30pm)ON DEMAND
The Wheel Of Time
(Amazon Prime Video)
On Demand’s nomination for
this year’s Christmas turkey
is this ponderous adaptation
of Robert Jordan’s 14-volume
fantasy novel series. In a
desperate desire for it to be
hailed as the next Game of
Thrones, the showrunner,
The Outlaws (BBC iPlayer)
Centred on seven disparate
lawbreakers doing community
service together, Stephen
Merchant and Elgin James’s
six-part comic drama featured
some of the year’s finest
comedy and offered much
more than the headline
casting of Christopher Walken.
It took sitcom stereotypes
and gradually revealed their
complexity and humanity.
Andrew MaleRafe Judkins, has aged the
series’ main characters, done
away with their adorable
awkwardness and sexed up
the content. Yes, Rosamond
Pike is terrific as the resolute
Moiraine Damodred, but from
a book series that was able to
explain a fully-evolved magic
system to teenage readers this
is yet another fantasy series
where every moment of
backstory and exposition
is a convoluted drag.See ewe down the Woolpack? Shaun and Timmy brew up festive comedy (BBC1, 6pm)Shaun The Sheep — The
Flight Before Christmas
(BBC1, 6pm)
Shapeshifting wool, a
sideways glance, a
meaningful bleat: it is always
amazing just how expressive
a flock of animated sheep
can be. This is another
excellent ovine caper from
Aardman, triggered when
lamb Timmy wanders off
in pursuit of Santa and the
farmer tries to sell his home
brew at a Christmas market.
The subsequent mayhem is,
as ever, a gloriously inventive
riot of silly disguises and
contraptions worthy of
Heath-Robinson. Watching
adults will enjoy the
subversive Snowman parody,
the skewering of “influencer”
culture, a fleeting Doctor
Who reference and an
excellent trombone-based
visual gag. Watch this flock.
Victoria SegalAll Creatures Great And
Small (C5, 9pm)
Siegfried (Samuel West) hosts
a Christmas Eve party that
most of the characters attend,
but it is Mrs Pumphrey
(Patricia Hodge), away in her
mansion, who emerges as
this episode’s key figure. It is
her pet dog Tricki’s worrying
illness that preoccupies the
vets, and she who unwittingly
solves James (Nicholas Ralph)
and Helen’s (Rachel Shenton)
dilemma of which family to go
to on Christmas Day. Overall,
the mix of animal, family and
romantic stories generates
an agreeable festive glow, but
compared with last year —
“will Tricki die?” v “which
suitor will Helen choose?” —
this edition is less stuffed
with tension and drama.
John Dugdale
Carols From King’s
(BBC2, 6.15pm)
It’s not Christmas until you
have watched this iconic
programme; but today you
could, like the royals, opt for
ITV instead. Royal Carols
— Together At Christmas
(7.30pm) blends Christian,
secular and multi-faith
moments and is hosted by
the Duchess of Cambridge.The Repair Shop (BBC1, 7pm)
Christmas jumpers on, the
team of experts stand ready
to restore an elderly doll,
a ruined decoration and a
harmonium riddled with
woodworm. As it’s Christmas,
it is all edited at such a fierce
emotional pitch that tears
rolled from this steely
previewer’s eyes less than five
minutes into the episode.The Amazing Mr Blunden
(Sky Max, 7pm)
Mark Gatiss’s revival of Lionel
Jeffries’s film is an instant
classic, splendidly cast with
Simon Callow in the title role,
supported by Tamsin Greig
and the Hammer Horror
favourite Madeline Smith,
who appeared as one of the
children in the 1972 version.
Helen StewartCRITICS’ CHOICE
Ghosts of
Christmas pasts
Abominable (BBC1, 3pm)
Adults watching this animated
movie might see a Hollywood
studio, DreamWorks, trying
to keep in with China, but
younger viewers will be more
interested in the film’s visual
inventions. The story has
three Chinese kids befriend a
yeti, and this benign creature
is able to change the natural
world in dynamic and
beautiful ways. The plot itself
is stuck in an old, familiar form
— with bad guys chasing the
yeti — but the bursts of magic
liberate the movie’s talented
artists. Dir: Jill Culton (2019)It’s A Wonderful Life
(C4, 2pm)
The fashionable thing to say
about Frank Capra’s tale of
a harried small-town citizen
( James Stewart) is that it has
darker shades than its cosy
reputation might lead people
to expect. This is a fair point,
but the film’s defining quality,
all the same, is its dogged
optimism. (1946) B/WWingman: Stewart (C4, 2pm)FILM CHOICE
Amazing Grace (BBC2, 11pm)
Aretha Franklin is on top
form in this concert movie,
which was filmed in 1972 and
put together years later (by
Alan Elliott) after technical
hold-ups. It shows the singer
recording her gospel album
Amazing Grace in a Baptist
church — a project that
took her back to her roots.
The presence in the film of
her father, the minister CL
Franklin, underlines the
strength of her ties to church
music, but the power of her
singing is already enough to
prove the point. (2018)Home Alone (C4, 6pm)
Home Sweet Home Alone, the
remake now on Disney+, is
pretty weak, but calling it
disrespectful would be too
much. After all, the original
is hardly subtle or delicate.
Starring Macaulay Culkin as
a kid accidentally left by his
parents, Chris Columbus’s
movie is loved for its simple
ebullience, which peaks in
the hero’s slapstick battle
with two burglars. (1990)
Edward Porter