CRITIC’S CHOICE
Pick of the day
Father Brown (BBC1, 1.45pm)
Christmas comes to Kembleford — and brings with it a double challenge for Father Brown (Mark Williams). England’s leading Catholic peer, the Duke of Frome (Ray Coulthard), will be staying at the stately home and attending mass, and the bishop demands that singing standards must be improved for the service and a “full biblical line-up” of animals provided around the crib. Soon after the guests arrive, however, the duke’s infant heir disappears, and working out what happened to him takes over as the priest-detective’s chief obsession.
Once again, the solution turns on Brown’s ability to see beyond the obvious in a whodunnit in which the toffs and servants provide most of the suspects. With a much larger cast than is usual for this drama, this is an elaborate and lavish entertainment for a weekday afternoon, but is a suitable warm-up for the returning series in the new year.
John Dugdale
More than just a seven
Strictly Len Goodman (BBC1, 7pm)
Strictly Come Dancing risks running low on ballroom content after the departure of Len Goodman, the head judge, who is effectively the show’s last link to the old ways of the dancefloor. As the ravens leave the Blackpool Tower, this farewell tribute gives him a chance to reminisce about his highlights from 12 years with the show, while Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, previous contestants and his fellow judges also offer their perspectives on Goodman’s shouty reign.
Woodland wonders
Wild Tales From The Village (BBC2, 7.30pm)
The adventures of creatures who furtively inhabit a hilltop French village, as seen from their point of view and shot and edited in a style that could be indebted to Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Amelie and Delicatessen. Stone martens, squirrels, toads, hornets, tawny owls, bumblebees and a ravenous wild boar all feature in a captivating documentary that follows them through the seasons of a year. How much is “true”, though, is hard to work out, as some sequences appear to be recreated or enhanced rather than recorded conventionally. The Missing’s Tcheky Karyo narrates.
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Strictly pastures old
Darcey Bussell — My Life On The BBC (BBC4, 8pm)
Some new material with Bussell reminiscing and giving footnotes would have been welcome, but even just as a compilation of old clips — ranging from early Blue Peter appearances to her Covent Garden farewell — this is a treat for fans. As well as rehearsing and performing with partners such as Irek Mukhamedov, Jonathan Cope and Roberto Bolle, the Royal Ballet’s “biggest star since Margot Fonteyn” is seen branching out — as presenter of a broadcast of Frederick Ashton’s Sylvia, as a guest artist abroad and as a foil for French and Saunders.
Royal irreverence
The Windsors (C4, 10pm)
The writers Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffrie are unbothered by subtlety or good taste, but their subversively grotesque imagining of the royal family is hard to resist — at least until their heads adorn Traitors’ Gate. At Sandringham, Vicki Pepperdine’s Princess Anne and Haydn Gwynne’s Duchess of Cornwall are enraged by Kate’s desire to cook a stress-free Christmas lunch. Meanwhile, Harry Enfield’s Prince of Wales is forced to deliver the Queen’s Speech, and Prince Harry (Richard Goulding) is tempted by a pop-star crush.
John Dugdale and Victoria Segal
Radio pick of the day
Gardeners’ Question Time (R4, 3pm)
Number 10 Downing Street is the venue: 80 lucky listeners sat in the mistletoe-bedecked state dining room on December 3 and we heard Eric Robson’s panel deal with dogwood, cauliflowers, holly and Brussels — sprouts, that is. The funniest question comes from a Theresa May “on behalf of her husband, Philip”, asking what can he do about his spindly roses, in the shade, near conifers, in the garden of their constituency home in Maidenhead. We also hear from No 10’s head gardener, Paul Schooling.
Paul Donovan
FILM CHOICE
How To Be Single (2016)
(Sky Cinema Premiere, 12.15pm/8pm)
A flimsy comedy starring Dakota Johnson as a newly unattached woman venturing onto the New York dating scene with support from a raucous friend (Rebel Wilson), Christian Ditter’s film is not a movie with which you should expect a rewarding emotional relationship. The best you can hope for is a fleeting bit of fun.
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Saving Mr Banks (2013)
(BBC2, 8.30pm)
Disney turns to its own history for inspiration in this film about the making of 1964’s Mary Poppins. Focused on PL Travers, Mary’s exacting creator, and Uncle Walt himself, John Lee Hancock’s movie comes with several spoonfuls of sugar, mostly derived from pure fiction, and the resulting concoction is a little hard to take. Nevertheless, the performances of Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks in those lead roles help it go down.
Northern Soul (2014)
(Film 4, 10.45pm)
The dance nights that shaped the 1970s’ northern-soul movement are pictured with sweaty vividness in Elaine Constantine’s film, a small British drama that was a word-of-mouth success; and the passion of those scenes spills over into the film’s loose story of teenage friends.
Signs (2002)
(BBC1, 12.25am)
The first really clear hints of M Night Shyamalan’s capacity for risible storytelling came in this tale of a farmer (Mel Gibson) who finds marvels in crop circles. Unlike the director’s later follies, however, this effort has enough flair in its set pieces to give it a certain compulsiveness.
Edward Porter