What TV should you be watching this Christmas?

Must Watch reviewers Scott Bryan, TV Editor at Buzzfeed, and Hayley Campbell, journalist and critic, share their top TV picks for the Christmas period.

What are you looking forward to? Leave your comments below...

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The Morecambe and Wise Show, The Lost Tapes

Fifty years ago the BBC sent two tapes of Morecambe and Wise to Sierra Leone, hoping they would buy the series.

Hayley says: "We don’t know if they ever did but the BBC never asked for their tapes back, which is good because they probably would have tried to re-use it in a cost saving device and then it would have been deleted and lost, which is what everybody thought had happened to these two episodes.

"They have been found in a derelict cinema and now they’re being broadcast for the first time since 1968".

Scott says: "The show is really interesting, because you’re able to see sketches that you might not have seen before or might not have seen for many years. I was reading more about how they found these tapes and it’s a guy called Philip Morris who is an archive preservation expert who tries to find these tapes."

He adds, "in this digital age you sort of think that everything is going to be preserved forever, but I think that the opposite is true. You only have to find an old news story or an old clip on YouTube that gets taken down due to rights holder, or disappears because the website’s not been updated, and it makes me realise that you really have to hold on to hard copies of these things."

Morecambe and Wise specials have graced our screens over Christmas for many, many years but Hayley says she's just "thrilled" to see something she hasn't seen before: "They played it once and then wiped it. It blows my mind."

The Morecambe and Wise Show, The Lost Tapes, will air on BBC Two on Boxing Day at 19:50 GMT.

The Great British Bake Off Christmas Special

The Great British Bake Off is back with not one but two festive specials, inviting eight former contestants to return to the famous tent to show off their not-so-soggy bottoms.

Scott says: "What's really nice about it is that it’s that sort of fun and freedom that you don’t necessarily get with the main show because no-one really takes it too seriously".

Liam Charles, who now has his own show 'Liam Bakes', is one of them and Scott says "he's such a joy".

"He didn’t make it to the final and that was a big blow, so finally he’s having time to redeem himself."

So who else can you expect to see? 

Scott says: "There's Flo Atkins, who you might remember had great chemistry with Liam in the tent. But also there’s a scene where she sings along to Meghan Trainor’s, All About That Base, which was quite funny."

Jane Beedle was one of the last contestants to feature in the BBC series, before Bake Off moved over to Channel 4.

"She comically once wore a moustache behind the scenes!" says Scott.

Andrew Smyth will be back too. Scott adds: "He's the one who made the bread basket that he managed to put onto his own head."

"The thing that I love so much about Bake Off contestants" says Scott, "is that there’s no kind of persona because they are on the show as themselves".

The Great Christmas Bake Off will air at 20:00 GMT on Christmas Day on Channel 4.

Bottom

Hayley has been taking a look at alternatives to the fixed Christmas TV schedule. What could you watch on your laptop upstairs when you need a break?

Hayley says: "Did you know that Netflix has the entirety of Bottom? I have recently re-watched all of it and it is so, so good".

Originally aired between 1991 and 1995, Bottom followed the disgusting lives of Eddie (Ade Edmondson) and Richie (Rik Mayall) in their Hammersmith flat, where fingers would be cut off, legs would be sewn to the couch, and punch-ups were a regular occurrance.

Hayley says: "Watching Bottom is a whole different experience as an adult who has actually lived in squalid flats. When you’re a kid it’s all fart jokes and violence, but it’s actually so, so bleak and it’s so smart and so funny.

"They have a Christmas episode where Richie opens up all the Brussel sprouts that he has wrapped individually for himself.

"It’s so good, I don’t think it’s as loved as the Young ones but I like Bottom better."

Bottom is available on Netflix now.

Torvill and Dean

The story of British ice dance stars Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's journey to Winter Olympic gold is a one-off biopic on ITV.

Scott says: "This could be either really good or really quite terrible because there are no previews available."

"It’s made by the same people who did Made in Dagenham... It stars Will Tudor and Poppy Lee Friar and it’s leading up to the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.

"What’s interesting is that ITV have been really plugging this as the fixture for their Christmas schedule. They’re really confident that this is going to be a big thing."

Scott has a Torvill and Dean fact: "With Bolero, the song is four minutes 18 seconds and the maximum amount of time that you can go and do your performance is only four minutes.

"The time only starts when you start skating so that’s why for the first 18 seconds they’re sort of dancing on their knees."

Torvill and Dean will air on Christmas Day at 21:15 GMT on ITV.

House of Cards

The BBC has released over 100 archive classics to binge on over Christmas this year; From Blue Planet II to The Musketeers, Uncle to Sense and Sensibility. 

"One of those box sets is the old House of Cards with Ian Richardson" says Hayley. "If you were as disappointed as I was with what happened to the Netflix series, which started out so well but went downhill so quickly, especially this year, you should go back and watch this".

Michael Dobbs' House of Cards trilogy was adapted for the screen by Andrew Davies and originally broadcast in the post-Thatcher years of the early 1990s.

"I’ve always like it better", Hayley adds. "It’s very good and it ends in such a shocking way that if the US series had done that it would have been Sopranos level shocking as an ending. But they kept dragging out their TV show because it was successful."

House of Cards is available now on BBC iplayer.

Courtney Act's Christmas Extravaganza

Scott says: "Courtney Act is a drag superstar who was on RuPaul's Drag race and became one of the famous contestants on the show."

"She went on to win Celebrity Big Brother in January and then hosted her own reality show - The Bi Life - which focused on a group of bisexual, pansexual, fluid and questioning British individuals on the 'ultimate adventure to find love'.

"She is so funny, so witty and she’s going to be covering a lot of musical numbers. I certainly see this as a pilot. They’re going to see how people respond to this."

Scott says he spoke to Courtney Act about it, and it's going to be very camp: "They get Johnny Peacock and give him a drag makeover and see what it’s like for a straight guy to have a drag makeover.

"Very, very camp and very festive!"

Courtney Act’s Christmas Extravaganza will premiere on Christmas Eve, 23:05 GMT on Channel 4.

The Snowman and the Snowdog

"There are a lot of festive repeats of stuff that are actually really nice to see each year," says Scott.

"There’s Mary Poppins, there’s Indiana Jones, there’s The Muppet Christmas Carol which, controversially, is on Christmas day and for me that is always a Christmas Eve film."

Raymond Briggs' classic The Snowman is one of those firm Christmas favourites and, as Scott points out, so too now is the sequel, The Snowman and the Snowdog.

"I think people overlook it because it was sort of a flash in the pan originally, I wouldn’t say I prefer it to the original but it’s really quite touching and really quite amazing.

"There’s an amazing sequence in it, where they have the new snowman with the young child and the snowdog, flying over London. What's so nice about it is that it’s modern London.

"For me that’s better than Walking in the Air, because it's all of the little bits of London, and all the bits of the country that it’s so familiar to see."

Both films are expected to air on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, although timings are yet to be confirmed.

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