Pick of the week
The Young Offenders Christmas Special 2024
Friday, BBC One, 9.30pm
It’s Christmas in the MacSweeney household, but it’s not Santa whose arrival is eagerly expected this year. There’s a new baby on the way, and Conor (Alex Murphy) is keen to help his mum, Mairéad (Hilary Rose), around the house as she and Sgt Healy (Dominic McHale) prepare for their impending bundle of joy. Seems like Alex is a reformed character, but when Mairéad finds a handgun in his washbasket, she’s left wondering what Alex has got himself into. Chris Walley co-stars as Jock in this riotous Christmas special, with Demi Isaac Oviawe as Linda, Jennifer Barry as Siobhán, Shane Casey as the terrifying Billy Murphy, and comedian Jason Byrne making a guest appearance as the even more terrifying Jack Hammer, a local Cork gangster. RTÉ have inexplicably shoved series four of Peter Foott’s hit comedy on to the RTÉ Player in advance of a 2025 broadcast on RTÉ One – does Montrose know Cork exists at all?
Strike: The Ink Black Heart
Monday, BBC One, 9pm
Just in time for Christmas comes a new adventure adapted from the popular crime novels written by JK Rowling and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. In this four-part series, detective Cormoran Strike (Tom Burke) and his colleague Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) investigate the murder of a cartoonist, Edie Ledwell, and find themselves drawn into a deeper mystery. Was the murder linked to her popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart? And who is the mysterious online stalker calling themselves Anomie? Strike and Ellacott will have to somehow join the dots to see the bigger picture.
Gino & Fred: Emission Impossible
Monday & Tuesday, UTV, 9pm
Where’s Gordon? Chef Gino D’Acampo and maitre d’ Fred Sirieix take a road trip around Austria and Croatia, and there’s no sign of their usual third amigo, Gordon Ramsay, on this outing. No matter – D’Acampo and Sirieix have big personalities of their own, and the pair are on a mission to travel as emissions-free as possible while still getting to sample the cuisine and culture of both countries. In a world where climate scepticism is gaining traction, Gino and Fred are out to inject some positivity in to the debate.
Martin Lewis: How to Win at Board Games
Tuesday, UTV, 8pm
For us competitive types, Christmas brings a chance to destroy our opponents at Monopoly, Cluedo and other board games. There’s no seasonal spirit here – all we want for Christmas is to sweep the board and leave every other player humiliated. So we’ll be taking copious notes as Martin Lewis shows us some of his tips and tactics for winning board games, including which properties will bring in the Monopoly money, and why three is the magic number in Connect 4. And Lewis is so confident he can win at Scrabble, he’s challenging a world champion to a round of the word game.
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So This Is Christmas
Wednesday, RTÉ One, 9.35pm
“So, are you all set for Christmas?” For those dealing with loneliness, bereavement, mental health issues or poverty, the expectations around the season can be overwhelming. Film-maker Ken Wardrop takes his 35mm camera and focuses on five people in different parts of the country as they navigate the bumpy sleigh ride through the season, where the bright and sparkly myth contrasts with the stark realities of life. But far from wrecking our Christmas buzz, Wardrop’s film, shown in cinemas last year, sets out to show us a deeper meaning beneath the tinsel.
Secrets of the Christmas Market
Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm
Every year, Belfast’s City Hall is transformed into a magical Christmas market, with more than 100 stalls, a Santa’s grotto, recreations of favourite local pubs and a ginormous Christmas tree. But it doesn’t happen overnight – a 50-strong team spends a fortnight building this festive wonderland and getting it ready to receive more than 1.2 million visitors from all over the world. This programme takes us behind the scenes to see the preparations for this popular winter attraction, now in its 20th year, and to meet the stallholders from 30 different countries offering seasonal treats and delights to all and sundry.
The Great British Sewing Bee Celebrity Christmas Special
Thursday, BBC One, 9pm
When the Apocalypse comes – sometime next week, probably – it won’t be the tech-heads or social media influencers who will survive the collapse of civilisation. It will be those who are a dab hand with a needle and thread, the sort of people who can knock up a fallout shelter out of old pairs of Levi’s, or turn old lace doilies into bear traps. In this year’s GBSB celeb special, singer and actor Ian “H” Watkins, EastEnders star Kellie Bright, comedian Fatiha El-Ghorri and businesswoman Charlotte Crosby will be tasked with sewing an advent calendar and putting their own twist on it, making children’s Christmas costumes out of onesies and choosing a Christmas chart-topper as the theme for a unique outfit.
Streaming
Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking
From Tuesday, December 17th, Prime Video
So you’re a dab hand at brewing up some Polyjuice Potion, and your Veritaserum is one of the best. But can you bake an elaborate Harry Potter-themed confection that is both dazzling and delicious? In this new series, bakers have their skills put to the test at Hogwarts, where they’ll have to use all their kitchen wizardry to magic up some spellbinding sweet treats. The contest takes place on the original film sets for Platform 9¾, the Great Hall, Gringotts, Diagon Alley and the Forbidden Forest. Hosting the six-part series are James and Oliver Phelps, aka Fred and George Weasley; Carla Hall and Jozef Youssef will be on hand to judge the creations. Along the way, special guests from the Potter films – Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) – will give their unique perspective on the Potterverse.
The Secret Lives of Animals
From Wednesday, December 18th, Apple TV+
Apple TV+ has teamed up with the BBC’s acclaimed natural-history unit to create this 10-part series on amazing animal behaviours, some of them never seen before. When you see some of the inventive survival techniques these 77 species come up with, you’ll never use the term “dumb animal” again. Among the creatures that cleverly adapt to their surroundings are a spider that creates “self-portraits” to scare off predators, a mouse that makes its own signposts to find its way around, and a frog that teams up with a tarantula. The series is narrated by Hugh Bonneville.
Beast Games
From Thursday, December 19th, Prime Video
James Stephen Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is one of the internet’s biggest personalities, with more subscribers to his YouTube channel than anyone else, plus more than 100 million followers on TikTok. His fast-paced videos featuring bizarre challenges and daring giveaways are catnip for digital natives, and now his move into the mainstream continues with this ambitious new series, in which 1,000 players compete in a series of weird and wacky challenges, with a grand prize of $5 million (the biggest ever offered for a TV gameshow) for whoever can stay the course. Donaldson has been mired in controversy recently, with allegations that he has rigged some of his online challenges and deceived his fans, and his new snack venture, Lunchly, with KSI and Logan Paul, has been roundly scoffed at. Will Beast Games restore Donaldson to his status as king of the social-media jungle?
