What to watch on TV this Christmas - Our pick of the best shows

Even when I was little I couldn’t wait for my mum to arrive home with the magazine containing two weeks of special programmes and films to intersperse the sprouts and tinsel.

Back then there was a huge amount of build-up around what would be the family movie shown just after the Christmas dinner had been ingested, at around 3pm.

One year there were a fair few complaints about Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom filling that slot because the scene where Lola Ram removes someone’s heart made a number of people a bit queasy on top of the mountain of food they had just consumed.

And I can still recall the palpable excitement over Flash Gordon getting its premiere.

Obviously much has changed since those heady and innocent days.

I doubt there will be many settling down to watch Frozen on BBC1 who haven’t already seen it a thousand times, know all the lyrics to the songs and own the duvet cover and pillow case.

For a start, in the heady days of the 1980s we had not even been gifted Channel 5 at that stage - let alone the now dizzying levels of choice we currently enjoy.

Access to technology and 24- hour entertainment could have put the dampers on continuing to make Christmas scheduling different and special but there are still a host of treats to be delivered.

Many pre-Christmas traditions remain on the television from when I was a child, the Royal Variety performance, BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

I think even Strongest Man in the World is still skulking about on one of the channels somewhere.

And there are new ones popping up all the time from the cute animated book adaptations for kids to the yearly twinkly offerings of Strictly and Call the Midwife.

It’s like putting on a lovely warm pair of slippers.

My top tip though is if you have to catch up on any of these, do it whilst the tree is still up.

There is something quite sad about watching the professional dancers pretend to throw snowballs at each other when the jingle bells have been long packed away in the loft.

No, these shows demand to be enjoyed with a family box of Quality Street on your lap and the tree lights twinkling in the background.

And while it has been a bumper year for viewing all round - from the ‘80s themed gem Stranger Things on Netflix to the BBC’s Night Manager and War and Peace, the year’s end isn’t shaping up too badly either.

So here’s a few top picks from me which hopefully will keep the whole family entertained over Christmas and New Year.

BEST FAMILY COMEDY Outnumbered (Boxing Day 10pm BBC1)

ONCE you are an adult, three years does not seem that long a passage of time - until you look at how much your children or those of family and friends have grown in that time.

So it will be with a mild amount of horror that we evaluate just how much the youngest two Brockman kids in this classic sitcom have changed during that time.

That is how long it has been since we last saw Pete and Sue and their three smart-alec kids.

The last series wasn’t as successful as the others, probably because Ben and Karen were no longer cute and annoying. They were just annoying.

It remains to be seen how annoying they will be here but no doubt in finding out what they are up to there will be more than a few families watching and nodding along in recognition.

BEST DRAMA Call the Midwife (BBC1 Christmas Day at 8pm) / Sherlock (BBC1 New Year’s Day 9pm)

I am not really sure Sherlock is technically a Christmas scheduling but you cannot ignore the pull of it or the massive NNFestive highlights - (clockwise friom above) Call The Midwife, Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, Rowan Atkinson in Maigret, the Outnumbered team and Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly from Strictly Come Dancing excitement surrounding its return.

Although there was a one-off special last year, the Abominable Bride, New Year’s Day will see the screening of the first of an entire series of the smash-hit modernisation of the franchise.

What a cracking way to start the year then and set the tone of what will hopefully be an even better 2017 for drama on the BBC.

It would have been easy for Benedict Cumberbatch to step away from the role which saw him break into Hollywood, since it was surely at its zenith a couple of years ago, but like Idris Elba and John Luther, it is obviously one close to his heart.

And a lot of fun to play.

Before we get there, and still very much within the festive scheduling, the Call the Midwife Christmas special has also become something of a mainstay of late.

This year they are, gasp, stepping out of Poplar and heading to South Africa but no doubt there will be plenty of laughter and tears along the way.

And a new series not far behind it.

As well as being an involving drama, over the past few series it has become a fascinating purveyor of recent social history which really should be shown to upcoming generations benefiting from all the modern inventions and niceties most of us enjoy.

And I really think ITV need to have a look at what the BBC are doing.

Is a follow-up to the underwhelming oneoff Easter special of Maigret starring Rowan Atkinson, really the best they can do for Christmas Day ?

BEST VARIETY SHOW Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1 Christmas Day at 6.45pm)

HAVING potentially just consumed your body weight in turkey and Christmas pudding, it would only be appropriate to watch a host of celebs jiving up and down the dance floor in skin tight clothing.

But I personally think the festive season would be a sad place, televisually speaking, without the now traditional Strictly special.

Having originally started these off by pitting former champions and runners up against each other in recent years the format moved to inviting a group of oneoff competitors.

I wasn’t a fan of this because you didn’t get to know the contestants - and none of them, let’s be honest about this, were any good as they had had hardly any time to perfect anything.

Happily, last year, they returned to their original strategy and brought back former competitors and it seems this year will follow suit with the return of Denise Lewis, runner-up in series two, Gethin Jones, Frankie Bridge, Pamela Stephenson, Ainsley Harriott and, somewhat inexplicably, Melvin Odoom who was the first to be booted off the current series.

Something tells me he is going to be equally as unsuccessful here.

There will also be a Strictly tribute to outgoing head judge Len Goodman screened over the festive season.

BEST ANIMATION Going on a Bear Hunt (Channel 4 Christmas Eve at 7.30pm)

Channel 4 is giving the BBC a run for its money with it’s animated adaptation of the classic children’s tale.

Olivia Colman, Mark Williams and Pam Ferris will all help bring Michael Rosen’s bedtime tale, hugely familiar to anyone who has had kids or grandkids over the past 25 years, to life in the form of an adventure-filled day.

But not to be outdone, and having already set the bar high with its enchanting Gruffalo and Stick Man offerings over the past few years, the BBC also has a few computer generated gems up its own sleeve.

Revolting Rhymes is a twopart adaptation of Roald Dahl’s twist on classic fairytales for which they have recruited the vocal talents of the likes of Dominic West, Tamsin Greig and David Walliams while there is also a feature length story from Snowman creator Raymond Briggs, Ethel and Ernest.

BEST COMEDY Mrs Brown’s Boys (BBC 1 Christmas Day 10.30pm)

THE late scheduling of this, if you have lived under a rock for the past few years and don’t know much about this show, will be a clue this is about a family but is not strictly family viewing.

Crude, and more than a little tongue in cheek, this really is one of the 21st Century’s surprise successes.

On paper it sounds dated and like a panto for grown-ups, but when you actually watch it, it is hard not to laugh.

Already voted the most popular sit-com of the 21st Century, its Christmas specials are fast becoming the stuff of legend.

This kicks off a two-parter in which Agnes is fed up with Christmas trees, Grandad’s health is a concern, grandson Bono is being bullied at school and Cathy’s new French boyfriend seems, well, a bit dodgy.

I basically just like it when creator, and star, Brendan O’Carroll goes off-script, or starts talking to the audience.

It’s not sophisticated, but it is funny.

And I would rather be watching this than any of the soaps, which I boycott over Christmas because I quite like to keep things upbeat during the festive season.