Sit back and relax this festive season with our guide on the best TV and radio airing over Christmas 2021.
Best TV to watch in Christmas 2021
Countryfile Christmas Special!
BBC One, Sunday 19 December, 16.45
!["Programme]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/15960019-low_res-countryfile-876c37c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C414" "\"15960019-low_res-countryfile\"")
To celebrate the festive season, the Countryfile team head to the thriving rural community of Christmas Common in Oxfordshire to meet Christmas tree farmers, local butchers and candlestick-makers.
Where is Countryfile visiting this week and what time is it on BBC1?
It’s Christmas!
The Countryfile team head to the thriving rural community of Christmas Common in Oxfordshire. Matt Baker meets the Ingrams, former dairy farmers who now operate one of Britain’s biggest Christmas tree farms, growing around 120,000 pines, from small saplings to 40-foot, 30-year-old spruces. In the market town itself, Charlotte Smith helps the local butcher, baker and candlestick-maker craft their seasonal offerings, including speciality sausages, ‘boozy Eccles cakes’ and creative candles.
Meanwhile, John Craven discovers that he has played a part in a modern-day miracle, as the 13 red kites he helped to release 30 years ago at Christmas Common have since produced around 10,000 living descendants. Venturing further afield, Adam Henson visits the ancient Christmas livestock market in Uppingham and Tom Heap meets the Inverclyde community offering a warm welcome to Afghan refugees.
!["Christmas]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2018/11/Christmas-gifts-GettyImages-623081412-39b7e3a.jpg?quality=45&resize=556,556" "\"Christmas-gifts-GettyImages-623081412\"")
Gardeners’ World Winter Specials
This year, green-fingers viewers are treated to two winter specials from Gardeners’ World.
Friday 17 December at 8pm, BBC Two
The aptly named Adam Frost hosts this winter special from his garden. Nick Bailey visits the winter garden at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire, which bursts into life and colour with the onset of winter. Frances Tophill admires the largest single span glasshouse in the world at The National Botanic Garden of Wales while Carol Klein immerses herself in summer at the gardens of Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire and Rachel de Thame highlights the wintry magic of witch hazel. At Scape Lodge, Arit Anderson meets a couple who have created a spectacular garden created in very challenging conditions on the steep slopes of the Pennines.
!["WARNING:]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/Gardeners-World-74f082d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C465" "\"Gardeners'")
Christmas Eve Friday at 8pm, BBC Two
Monty Don creates a winter-interest container filled with seasonal favourites and shares his tips on caring for house plants over winter and sorting seeds for the year ahead. Rachel de Thame spends a festive day making Christmas decorations with florist and gardener Arthur Parkinson, from a door posy filled with berries and evergreens to a Christmas wreath with a modern twist. Sue Kent digs out her Christmas jumper as she prepares some festive gardening gifts, and the show visits a Yorkshire nursery specialising in poinsettia.
You may like:
- Plant Britain: Spring bulbs to plant now for bees and butterflies
- Winter gardening for wildlife
- Best plants for winter colour
- Meet Britain’s toughest animals – and discover how they survive winter
!["Yellow]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2020/10/Winter-aconite-Eranthis-hyemalis-6a549eb.jpg?quality=45&resize=556,556" "\"Winter")
The Hairy Bikers Go North for Christmas
Wednesday 22 December, 8pm, BBC Two
!["WARNING:]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/23552296-low_res-the-hairy-bikers-go-north-for-christmas-307f8ad.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C414" "\"The")
The Hairy Bikers plan to treat their families to the perfect Northern Christmas dinner using ingredients they find on their ride along the Pennines. Dave Myers and Si King tour the backbone of the North, meeting artisan food producers on the way, before rustling up a festive extravaganza with a twist, featuring Turkey Doner Kebabs, gourmet marshmallows and indulgent Christmas puddings with 21 ingredients.
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas
Christmas Eve Friday, 6pm, BBC One
!["WARNING:]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/Shaun-the-sheep-3a120b3.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349" "\"Shaun")
Shaun the Sheep brings a smile to pretty much everyone’s face, so it’s great news that Aardman Studios are bringing a new half-hour special to BBC One this Christmas. In The Flight Before Christmas, the flock’s seasonal excitement sets off a raid on the farmhouse for bigger stockings, and in the commotion, little Timmy goes missing. Can Shaun and co save Timmy before he becomes someone else’s present? With themes of loyalty, mischief and fun, crafted with Aardman’s signature humour, heart and imagination, this is perfect family fare.
The Abominable Snow Baby
Channel 4, Christmas Day, 7.30pm
Terry Pratchett’s tale of a very English town beset by heavy snowfall and the manifestation of a 14-foot tall Abominable Snow Baby has been brought to life delightfully in this 30-minute long animation. Rejected and feared by the villagers, Snow Baby is given kindness and sanctuary by Granny (Julie Walters) and her grandson Albert (Hugh Darcy). Will the townsfolk follow Granny’s example and offer their unexpected visitor hospitality and affection in the spirit of Christmas?
Superworm
Christmas Day, 2.30pm, BBC One
!["Programme]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/Superworm-fd197e5-1.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349" "\"Superworm\"")
Super-long and super-strong, Superworm is always there to help his garden-creature friends and save the day when they are in trouble. That is, until a wicked Wizard Lizard magically entraps him and forces him to toil for treasure. Although his best friend Butterfly has never been given credit for her equally heroic efforts in past rescues, she can’t leave her friend in trouble, so she sets about devising a daring plan to free him…
Starring Olivia Colman as Narrator and Matt Smith as Superworm, this adaption of the best-selling Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler story enters the canon of charming Christmas animations that parents quite like watching, too.
The Larkins Christmas Special
Christmas Day, 9pm, ITV
!["Larkins_1200x800"]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/Larkins_1200x800-b51f14e.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Larkins_1200x800\"")
The buoyant Larkin family are back for a feature-length festive special, in which Mariette and Charley return to Kent for Christmas. Pop and Ma are overjoyed to have the pair back in the nest, but chaos descends on the farm when Charley’s parents arrive to meet the clan and a power cut leaves the entire village without lighting and heating. Meanwhile, PC Harness attempts to find the culprit of an ongoing spate of burglaries, and everyone eagerly awaits the debut of the village’s Christmas pantomime. Set in the 1950s, this latest adaptation of HE Bates’s Darling Buds of May finished its first series this autumn, so fans will be delighted to see this seasonal special.
Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing
BBC Two, 26 December, 9pm
!["WARNING:]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/Bob-W-and-Paul-W-ed65ded.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349" "\"Mortimer")
Accompanied by canine companion Ted, Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer set out to catch a prized English salmon in the beautiful rivers Eden and Tyne around Newcastle. During their quest, they discuss the meaning of Christmas with special guests Paul Gascoigne and Dr Anand Patel, while the Beautiful South’s Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott provide musical entertainment at the annual Gone Fishing work party. As ever, Paul and Bob’s quirky combination of honesty, warmth and wit keeps the riverbank merry and bright, with a still small voice of calm.
Worzel Gummidge
28 and 29 December, 7.15pm, BBC One
!["WARNING:]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/Worzel-Gummidge-eba33d2-1.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C414" "\"Twitchers\"")
Mackenzie Crook’s lovable scarecrow is back with two tales to entertain the whole family this Christmas. In Twitchers, a flock of rare choughs appear at Scatterbrook Farm, bringing attention from a group of avid birdwatchers and the appearance of Mr B’s old rival, Lee Dangerman. In Calliope Jane, a travelling fair arrives in town, and rumours of a legendary enchanted organ that sends humans to sleep promise scarecrows the chance to attend the fair – but is the legend true, and can the scarecrows evade detection? With appearances from Bill Bailey and Steve Pemberton, these new instalments are sure to delight the household.
Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard
30 December, 8pm, BBC One
!["Programme]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/22/2019/12/David-Attenborough-and-Ben-Garrod-05174f1.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C414" "\"Mammoths\"")
In 2017, a pair of amateur fossil hunters spotted the huge fossilised leg bone of a mammoth sticking out of a gravel quarry just outside Swindon. Their discovery led to the uncovering of an extraordinary Ice Age mammoth graveyard in this old prehistoric riverbed of the Thames, along with a stone hand-held Neanderthal axe. Could Neanderthals have killed these Ice Age giants? Keen fossil-hunter David Attenborough joins the dig as archaeologists and palaeontologists excavate the site and the team attempt to answer questions such as why the mammoths were here, and how they died.