PICKS OF THE MONTH: DECEMBER 2025, WHAT TO WATCH THIS MONTH

The new and returning programming airing this December have been revealed.

The War Between The Land And The Sea

The five-part series follows Barclay (Russell Tovey), a low-level UNIT staff member whose ordinary life becomes a world of terror when an ancient species rises from the sea. Barclay becomes humanity’s ambassador when the mysterious Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) emerges from the Tank at a summit on the Thames. UNIT, led by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), fights for control as humanity faces destruction.

Alongside Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Jemma Redgrave, the series features a star-studded cast including Ruth Madeley as Shirley Bingham, Alexander Devrient as Colonel Christofer Ibrahim, and Colin McFarlane as General Austin Pierce. Other previously announced cast members include Adrian Lukis, Patrick Baladi, Francesca Corney, Mei Mac, Vincent Franklin, Waleed Hammad, Iestyn Arwel, Hannah Donaldson, Manpreet Bachu, and Ann Akinjirin.

Amandaland Christmas Special

Alongside the returning cast, the Christmas special welcomes the absolutely fabulous Jennifer Saunders who will play Aunt Joan, Felicity’s (Joanna Lumley) sister. Aunt Joan is a ball of country-living, enthusiastic upper-class bluster – very, very different from Felicity. This very special episode will be the first scripted on-screen reunion for Jennifer and Joanna since Absolutely Fabulous.

Two Doors Down Christmas Special

Multi award-winning Scottish sitcom Two Doors Down is set to return with a new Christmas special. The residents of Latimer Crescent will congregate at Beth (Arabella Weir) and Eric’s (Alex Norton) house to celebrate Christmas. The neighbours are all back: Christine (Elaine C Smith), Cathy (Doon Mackichan) and Colin (Jonathan Watson), Alan (Graeme Stevely) and Michelle (Joy McAvoy), plus Beth and Eric’s son Ian (Jamie Quinn) and his fiancé Gordon (Kieran Hodgson).

The Room In The Tower: A Ghost Story For Christmas

Tobias Menzies (The Crown; F1) and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous; Motherland) will star in the latest ghost story this Christmas. For 15 years, Roger Winstanley has been haunted by an unsettling, recurring dream: an invitation to spend the night in the house of an acquaintance, where an unseen terror lurks and the figures who populate the dream seem to age in real time. Nightmare and waking life seem to finally collide when an invitation to the dreaded "room in the tower” becomes all too real…

Mammoth

Made by BBC Studios Comedy, the hit comedy about PE teacher Tony Mammoth from the 70’s getting a second chance at life, is soon to return to our screens on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer and will include a Christmas special. Mike Bubbins (Death Valley, The Socially Distant Sports Bar podcast) is Tony Mammoth, believed to have died in an avalanche during a school trip in 1979, attempting to restart his life after miraculously returning from the dead when his body is discovered frozen in time.

The Celebrity Apprentice

12 celebrity candidates will head to reindeer-filled Lapland, where they will face the biggest business challenge yet – to create a magical festive biscuit. The celebrities will then have to pitch their Christmas gingerbread biscuits to the biggest UK retailers, who will then, for the first time in the show’s history, sell the biscuits in stores across the UK - with a percentage of profits going to BBC Children in Need. The celebrities' biscuits will hit the supermarket shelves in time for Christmas.

Packed with festive cheer and celebrity sparkle, the show promises unforgettable moments as the celebrity candidates go on a heartwarming mission, with viewers able to get involved for the first time, through purchasing real life products to help raise money for a great cause.

Celebrity Gladiators

The four daring celebrities taking on the mighty Gladiators in Gladiators: Celebrity Special are Joe Wicks MBE, Sam Thompson, Nicola Adams OBE and Vogue Williams. They will don their gym kits and take on iconic challenges such as Duel, The Wall and the legendary Eliminator. Who will have the power to succeed and emerge victorious?

Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special

As the Ballroom is once again transformed into a magical winter wonderland. Expect festive cheer, jingle bells, mistletoe madness, bedazzling baubles and six celebrities all sleighing their way to Elstree in a bid to be crowned the Strictly Christmas Champion 2025.

In the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, each of the six couples will perform a festive fuelled routine in the hope of impressing the judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and Head Judge Shirley Ballas, and the voting studio audience. But who will emerge the Christmas star of the evening, and lift the sought after Christmas trophy?

The 1% Club Rollover

New Series

The 1% Club Rollover shares the same game mechanics as The 1% Club, but this time it’s bigger than ever as The 1% Club Rollover enables the prize pot that’s not won on one show to roll over to the next day’s show - if all the pots roll over, there could be an astonishing amount of up to £500,000 won.

The Rollover has another rule - anyone who gets as far as the 1% question automatically comes back to compete again. This means that if someone wins big on one show, they get to come back for the next day’s show where they could potentially win the Prize Pot again and, in effect, double (or even treble or quadruple) their winnings.

The Royal Variety Performance

New

The Royal Variety Performance welcomes a new host each year with comedian, actor and presenter Jason Manford taking the reins this year for a spectacular evening in the presence of members of the Royal Family as opera star Katherine Jenkins leads the National Anthem. 

The Accidental Tourist

New

Stephen Mulhern has asked Ant & Dec to help him finally change his ways... and they have decided to send their good friend to Asia to broaden his horizons. Throughout his travels, Ant & Dec will be checking in with Stephen from afar, taking their cue from viral clips and setting him quirky and often mischievous challenges to test his resolve and push his boundaries - these mean that Stephen will encounter epic locations, exotic cultures and cuisines, incredible people and places, and exciting activities he would never have chosen for himself.

The Masked Singer

Christmas Special

Celebrating this festive season is a one-off special of TV’s favourite guessing game. The Masked Singer Christmas Special will see four well-known celebrities compete undercover in elaborate Christmas-themed costumes to keep their true identities hidden with all four famous faces unmasked in one episode.

Ant & Dec's Limitless Win

Christmas Special

Smash-hit entertainment show Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win returns to ITV and ITVX for a brand new celebrity Christmas special. Christmas special will see celebrity pairs trying to conquer the Limitless ladder. The famous duos will all be hoping for some festive luck as they play for their chosen charities.

You Bet! On Tour

Christmas Special

Each episode sees a panel of celebrities join Stephen at a different location across the UK. With the panel closer to the action than ever before, they must predict whether each plucky challenger can complete their challenge… or not! From supersized adrenaline-fuelled action to smaller and quirkier skills, each challenger is competing for a £5,000 cash prize while the panellists vie to become that week’s You Bet champion

Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance

New

This film, made by FilmNova, explores Torvill and Dean’s career, looking back on their professional highlights, and following the skating duo as they train and prepare to say goodbye to their fans and dance on ice together one last time.

Audiences will follow these British sporting icons throughout their final year as performers - from their preparations and last ever television performance on Dancing on Ice; those early gruelling training sessions and first rehearsals for their farewell tour in Aberdeen; through to the iconic first performance of the live tour at Wembley Arena and throughout their shows across the UK.

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

Series Continues

BAFTA Award-winning hosts Ant & Dec are back to present all the big stories live every night as the new line-up of celebrities for 2025 will leave their plush pads and luxuries far behind spending up to three weeks taking on the Australian jungle with a whole host of surprises created just for them.

Whoever ends up in the legendary jungle camp will find themselves cut off from the outside world and stuck on a diet of rice and beans, and their fate will be in the hands of viewers who have the power to decide whether they deserve to face a dreaded Bushtucker Trial.

Dear Father Christmas

Follows 16-year-old Chris (Lenny Rush), who still wholeheartedly believes in Father Christmas. His concerned dad (James Buckley) decides it’s finally time to have “the talk” and tell him the truth. But Chris refuses to give up on Santa and embarks on a madcap mission to prove his dad wrong. 

Joined by his cousin Holly (Ele Mckenzie), Chris’s journey takes him into the heart of a Christmas conspiracy. Along the way he meets a cabal of scientists and thinkers – including Stephen Fry, Hannah Fry, Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, and Jason Fox – who seem to know the truth about Santa and may have cracked the science behind his apparent magical feats. 

The Great Festive Bake Off

It’s a time for spices, sweets and tasty baked treats as Prue Leith, Paul Hollywood, Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond bring some holiday cheer to The Great British Bake Off in two festive episodes, on Channel 4. In each episode four former bakers from previous series will return to the tent to go head to head in three seasonal challenges to find out who will top the tree as Star Baker.

Taskmaster Champion Of Champions

Five task titans will compete in the ultimate quest for victory as previous winners of series 16 to 20 return to square off in a one-off face off. Returning to the Task arena alongside Maisie Adam  are Andy Zaltzman, John Robins, Mathew Baynton, and Sam Campbell. One of them will cart home the ultimate prize of Greg Davies’s buff body forged in gold. 

The Last Leg Christmas Special

In this very special Christmas episode, Adam Hills, Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker are joined by a host of celebrity guests for a dose of merry Yuletide leglessness.

Gogglebox

From the Saturday night juggernauts and the week’s big soaps, to documentaries and gritty drama, the Gogglebox households offer witty, insightful, feisty and sometimes emotional critiques of the week’s popular and topical TV shows. Their reviews could also be interrupted by breaking news stories and controversial TV events – subjects the outspoken households certainly won’t be shying away from.

The Sycamore Gap Tree Mystery

On the morning of 28 September 2023, news spread across social media that the iconic Sycamore Gap tree had been deliberately felled overnight. The tree had famously stood in a remote nook of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland - a popular tourist spot renowned for its appearance in the Hollywood film ‘Robin Hood Prince of Thieves’. Candour Productions have exclusive access to Northumbria Police and will tell the extraordinary story of this headline-grabbing crime.

Transmission details will be announced in due course.