The Royal Variety Performance 2024
The devil and the dance floor
Screening: TVNZ 1, 7pm, Sunday December 22
Her Majesty Queen Camilla was a late withdrawal from this year’s event, because of “lingering post-viral symptoms”, but the King arrived looking fairly sprightly and the show went on. This year’s performance features Elton John and his hubby, David Furnish, introducing a number from their new stage production of The Devil Wears Prada, plus performances from the casts of Oliver! and Starlight Express. Pop fans can look forward to this year’s Eurovision winner Nemo, treble Brit Award winner James Bay and Sophie Ellis-Bextor (just make her a dame, already) doing Murder on the Dance Floor. There’s also Cirque du Soleil, the English National Ballet and Penn and Teller. Alan Carr returns as co-host with a very excited Amanda Holden.
Repeat of the 2023 show on Boxing Day.
Christmas At Longleat
Wonder at the stately home
Screening: TVNZ 1, 9.30pm, Sunday December 22
A special taking viewers inside preparations for the annual Christmas celebrations at the storied Elizabethan house, Longleat in Wiltshire, which is home to Lord and Lady Bath and a large team of staff. We’re taken through the weeks of work that turn the estate into a “Christmas wonderland”, complete with fake snow and one of Europe’s largest lantern festivals. This year’s theme, “Treasured Tales”, evokes Peter Pan, Narnia and Cinderella. Meanwhile, house curator James Ford leads his team through the dressing of the Great Hall and the setting of the stately dining table for the big day. If the place looks vaguely familiar, that might be because it has been a location for a number of episodes of Doctor Who over the years.
Nigella’s Amsterdam Christmas
Going Dutch
Screening: TVNZ 1, 8pm, Monday December 23
For her annual Christmas special (this is actually the 2023 edition), Nigella Lawson has forgone the enduring British tradition of going to Amsterdam and getting absolutely blazed and instead explores the culinary traditions of the city and its migrant communities. So, alongside recipes for speculaas and oliebollen, she cooks up Indonesian-inspired biryani and a spicy pineapple salad. (She does also visit a coffee shop, just not that kind.) The Guardian’s reviewer was quite enraptured by both Nigella and this “dreamy version of a Christmas bash, classy, sophisticated, casually chic, chicly casual”.
WHAM! Last Christmas Unwrapped
The story of a Christmas hit
Screening: TVNZ 1, 8pm, Christmas Eve
If you’ve survived Whamageddon by managing not to hear that song even once for the whole month, you can probably afford to drop your guard and soak up this documentary celebrating the 40th anniversary of Wham!’s Last Christmas. The story itself has been told before, but there’s a “once-in-a-lifetime” reunion of cast members from the original video for the song, in which Andrew Ridgeley and the backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie return to the location at Saas-Fee in Switzerland to visit the ski lift and the chalet and reconnect with their old driver – who is now the town mayor. There’s also previously unseen footage of George Michael performing Last Christmas at Wembley Arena in December 2006, and commentary from the likes of Neil Tennant, Sir Bob Geldof and more.
Doctor Who Christmas Special
Christmas crisis averted
Streaming: Disney+, Christmas Day
The trailer for this year’s Christmas special does not stint there’s a – T Rex, time travel, double Doctors, an alien metropolis, and a mystery train. The special also introduces Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls, Bridgerton) as a new character, Joy, who seems set to help the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) through a personal Christmas crisis. She’s drawn into his orbit after she checks into a London hotel and opens a door to all manner of danger.
Royal Special: Together at Christmas
Carols and kindness
Screening: TVNZ 1, 7.50pm, Christmas Day
The fourth year of Princess Kate’s Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey is also a significant step in the princess’s gradual return to public life after cancer treatment. According to the Prince and Princess’s foundation, this year’s service “will shine a light on individuals from all over the UK who have shown love, kindness and empathy to others in their communities, whether on a personal level with friends and family, through their work or as they selflessly give up their time through volunteering”. Speakers include the Prince of Wales and Richard E Grant, and Gregory Porter and Paloma Faith are among the singers.
Gavin and Stacey: The Finale
What’s occurring?
Streaming: TVNZ+ from noon, Boxing Day
Screening: TVNZ 2 at 9.30pm, Boxing Day
Here’s a killer fact: the first season of Gavin and Stacey, all the way back in 2007, drew an average of 960,000 viewers. Its first Christmas special, in 2008, notched up more than seven million, as did a two-episode “third season” straddling New Year in 2009. Then, after a decade’s silence, the 2019 Christmas special pulled a striking 18 million sets of eyeballs. Who knows what this, the very last televisual visit to Barry and Billericay, will do? It’s five years since Nessa popped the question to Smithy and, according to advance publicity, Gavin and Stacey are “looking for new ways to spice up their 17-year marriage”. Crikey. If you want to prep for the 90-minute special, all previous episodes of Gavin and Stacey are available to view on TVNZ+.
Call The Midwife Christmas Special
All the fun of the fair
Screening: TVNZ 1, 7.55pm, Friday December 27
If you still can’t move after that Christmas dinner, you’re in luck: the annual Call the Midwife Christmas special, screening in the UK in two 60-minute parts, will air here as one monster episode, so you won’t need to leave the couch for ages. The whole gang reconvenes for the Christmas of 1969, when a funfair comes to Poplar and preparations are in train for a carol concert and mince pie competition. Less happily, somebody turns up with Hong Kong flu and there’s an escaped prisoner on the loose. And, of course, amid the fears and festivities, some babies are born.
For less jolly new television offerings, have a look at the December viewing guide.
