Christmas TV highlights

Your SF Christmas

SATURDAY 20 DECEMBER
11.00am (BBC2)
Doctor Who: Infinite Quest
See the animated Time Lord series in full.

11.50am (BBC2)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Jack Skellington hijacks Christmas in one of the finest Christmas movies ever made.

5.30pm (Sky Movies Premiere)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Catch the latest episode of Jedi action.

8.00pm (UK Gold)
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol
Rowan Atkinson gets Scrooged.

8.00pm (Sky Movies Premiere)
Enchanted
It’s a fairy tale in New York (not quite like the Pogues song).

8.55pm (ITV2)
Gremlins
Anarchy in small-town America, courtesy of little green(ish) men.

10.25pm (BBC2)
V For Vendetta
Until Watchmen comes out next year, this is the finest Alan Moore adaptation to date.

10.00pm (Sky Movies Premiere)
Beowulf
“I’ll kill your monstah!” Digital Ray Winstone goes Anglo Saxon.

SUNDAY 21 DECEMBER
3.45pm (ITV1)
ET: The Extra Terrestrial
Get back to your childhood with Steven Spielberg’s classic.

6.50pm (FilmFour)
A Matter Of Life And Death
David Niven-starring supernatural classic.

7.00pm (BBC3)
Doctor Who: “Turn Left”
The finest episode of season four – and the Doctor’s barely even in it.

9.00pm (ITV2)
King Kong
Peter Jackson’s flawed-but-watchable 2005 remake.

9.00pm (Watch)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Gary Oldman torments Keanu Reeves.

9.00pm (FilmFour)
The Day After Tomorrow
Mother Nature’s a bitch in this climate change disaster movie.

11.20pm (BBC1)
Face/Off
John Travolta is Nicolas Cage and Nicolas Cage is John Travolta in John Woo’s confusingly punctuated actioner.

MONDAY 22 DECEMBER
7.00pm (BBC3)
Doctor Who: “The Stolen Earth”
The first part of this year’s Who finale.

8.30pm (BBC2)
The Brothers Grimm
Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are the titular siblings in Terry Gilliam’s muddled fantasy.

8.30pm (BBC3)
Clone
It’s the last in the series – if anybody’s still watching.

9.00pm (ITV4)
Sanctuary
The latest episode of the web drama turned TV drama.

9.00pm (SCI FI)
Eli Stone
It’s the season finale of the lawyer drama. The second (and final) season kicks off in the new year.

9.00pm (FilmFour)
Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro’s already-classic Spanish Civil War-set fantasy.

10.20pm (BBC2)
Heroes
Don’t miss “Duel”, the latest episode of the current series – Hiro’s teleported it to a Monday night.

10.30pm (BBC4)
Crooked House
The first part of Mark Gatiss’s spooky Christmas drama.

TUESDAY 23 DECEMBER
11.55am (BBC2)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
Kirk Douglas meets Captain Nemo in the ‘50s classic.

7.00pm (BBC3)
Doctor Who: “Journey’s End”
It’s this year’s season finale.

8.00pm (BBC3)
Alien Autopsy
Ant and Dec show why they’re better suited to presenting than acting in this lame comedy.

9.00pm (BBC1)
Survivors
It’s the last in the series of the Beeb’s excellent viral reimagining.

10.30pm (BBC4)
Crooked House
Part two of Mark Gatiss’s drama.

11.10pm (ITV2)
The Grudge
Sarah Michelle Gellar goes into Japanese horror remake mode.

CHRISTMAS EVE
3.00pm (Channel 4)
The Snowman
It wouldn’t be Christmas without this possessed snowman classic.

3.00pm (ITV1)
The Polar Express
The scariest movie on telly this Christmas – Tom Hanks voices a bunch of CG zombies.

4.10pm (BBC1)
Sky High
Kurt Russell heads the staff of a school for superheroes in this reasonable family movie.

4.50pm (ITV1)
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder warbles his way though the Roald Dahl adap.

6.05pm (BBC1)
Toy Story 2
One of the few sequels that can match the quality of the original.

6.45pm (Channel 4)
A Christmas Carol
Patrick Stewart is Scrooge in this 1999 version of the Dickens classic.

8.10pm (SCI FI)
Flash Gordon
He’s even got time to save the world on Christmas Eve.

8.30pm (ITV2)
Peter Pan
The live-action version of JM Barrie’s story.

10.30pm (BBC4)
Crooked House
The third and final part of BBC4’s Christmas scare-a-thon.

11.00pm (TCM)
Batman
Remind yourself why Jack Nicholson’s (very different to Heath Ledger’s) Joker was great in the Tim Burton original.

CHRISTMAS DAY
3.10pm (ITV1)
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
AKA Boy Wizard 3.

4.00pm (Channel 4)
Scrooged
Bill Murray does Dickens in the ‘80s Christmas Carol update.

4.30pm (BBC1)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
The 2005 W&G movie is today’s first slice of plasticine action.

6.00pm (BBC1)
Doctor Who
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for - “The Next Doctor”, this year’s Christmas special.

7.00pm (BBC3)
Doctor Who Confidential
Go behind the scenes of the Christmas special.

8.30pm (BBC1)
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death
The brand new Wallace & Gromit adventure.

11.00pm (TCM)
Batman Returns
Tim Burton goes into ultra-weird mode in his ultra-Gothic dark knight sequel.

BOXING DAY
11.55am (BBC1)
Ella Enchanted
Anne Hathaway does fairy tale.

2.30pm (BBC1)
Big
Tom Hanks gives one of his greatest performances in this body-swap comedy.

5.50pm (BBC1)
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
CS Lewis’s accurately titled fantasy goes live-action.

8.00pm (Sky Movies Premiere)
The Golden Compass
Still no sign of a sequel, so make do with this take on Philip Pullman’s fantastic Northern Lights.

8.30pm (BBC1)
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The best thing about this sequel is it’s less pointless than part three.

11.00pm (TCM)
Batman Forever
Not as bad as Batman And Robin.