Vicious
ITV, 9pm
This is the first of this year’s Christmas specials, and it is also the final episode of Vicious. It is just about possible to argue that Vicious was, in some ways, a groundbreaking sitcom. It did, after all, feature two elderly gay characters (Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi) occupying a primetime slot on a commercial channel — and you don’t get much more mainstream than that. “In the past,” said McKellen, “gay characters in sitcoms have been figures of fun. They were funny because they were gay. But these characters are funny because of the people they are. This year’s revival of Are You Being Served? showed how attitudes have advanced between now and then. There is no sniggering or double-entendre in Vicious. Gay characters are treated with as much respect as straight characters. It is as if TV has grown up.” Well, yes and no. Another selling point was the sheer quality of the cast, three of whom (McKellen, Jacobi and Philip Voss) have played King Lear — and all of whom were able to get laughs from lines that were often horribly unfunny. “Once you have money,” says Freddie (McKellen), “you really notice how revolting everyone who doesn’t have it is.” And Stuart (Jacobi), trying to hide his affluence, says: “That’s not caviar. I sneezed.” The problem with the series — and with this grand finale that follows a year in the lives of the characters — is that it was locked in such a creaky and old-fashioned format. The characters may have grown up and moved on, but the sitcom they inhabited was arthritic.
The Nutcracker
CBeebies, 4.30pm
Parents of the under-fives know that these CBeebies pantomimes are rapturously received by the target audience, as the channel’s beloved talent perform an original adaptation. Filmed at the Crucible in Sheffield, this year it’s a modern twist The Nutcracker, with Clara (the presenter Cat Sandion) and Fred (Ben Faulks aka Mr Bloom) transported to a magical Land of Sweets, where toys come alive and a festive dance-off between the mice and the toys threatens to ruin Christmas. Junior members of the Sheffield People’s Theatre also have a starring role in the production, as does the evergreen channel fave Justin “Mr Tumble” Fletcher. Joe Clay
Coastal Path
BBC Two, 8.30pm
On the final leg of his 630-mile walk along the South West Coast Path, Paul Rose visits the Beer Quarry Caves, which provided the stone for 24 cathedrals. He goes hunting for fossils on Charmouth beach. He wanders through the oldest wildflower meadows in England at West Hay Farm, visits the nesting mute swans at Abbotsbury and canoes along the Jurassic Coast from Lulworth Cove. “There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window,” said the Swedish writer Charlotte Eriksson. “You’d be a fool to miss it.”
Rick Stein’s Long Weekends
BBC Two, 9pm
In the last of the series, Rick Stein heads to Palermo in northern Sicily. It is a city with influences from north Africa, France, Spain and Italy, where numerous civilisations have left their mark — the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Normans. Palermo’s multicultural cuisine ranges from home-cooked dishes with pine nuts, raisins and almonds, to gutsy street food made with snails, octopus and grilled intestines. Stein watches as locals celebrate a festival in honour of Palermo’s patron saint, Rosalia; he is given a cookery class by a duchess; and rustles up a dish of Marsala chicken — the Sicilian classic beloved of British bistros since the 1960s.
The Dave Clark Five and Beyond: Glad All Over
BBC Four, 9pm
Made by the American PBS network, here is another chance to see this definitive two-hour documentary that tells you everything you could possibly ever need to know about the “short but stellar” career of the British pop group. The Dave Clark Five had 15 consecutive Top 20 singles in the American charts in two years, second only to the Beatles. With their white turtlenecks and snappy jackets, Ed Sullivan described them on his show as the kind of young men that every mother would love to have in her home — much to the horror of Dave Clark. The documentary includes contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and even Whoopi Goldberg.
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Catch-up TV, by Joe Clay
Billions
Sky box sets, available now
One of the television highlights of the year is available to binge-watch as a box set. The slick, topical drama follows a game of cat and mouse between Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis), a charismatic financial genius who uses dubious methods — including insider trading and bribery — to acquire and maintain his vast wealth; and Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), a crusading federal prosecutor of financial crimes, intent on bringing Axe down. All good dramas require a shrink, and Maggie Siff (Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men) stars as Chuck’s wife and Axe’s therapist. The complex financial jargon is often impenetrable, but you don’t need to understand it to enjoy some alpha-male grandstanding of the highest order from Lewis and Giamatti.
Film choice
Rock Around the Clock (U, 1956)
BBC Two, 1pm
This is the original rock’n’roll movie. The plot tells the fictional story of how rock’n’roll was discovered in America. Spotting Bill Haley and His Comets performing at a barn dance, big band manager Steve Hollis (Johnny Johnston) decides that they are exactly what is needed. We’re not here for the plot though, are we? Haley and his chums bash out the title track and other rockin’ numbers, and there are songs from the Platters and Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys. In 1956 — in a scene that we can only hope is included in Peter Morgan’s The Crown — the Queen requested a print of the film to be shown in Buckingham Palace. Rock’n’roll, Ma’am. (77min) Chris Bennion
22 Jump Street (15, 2014)
Channel 5, 9pm
The sequel to the knockabout 21 Jump Street succeeds in being an extremely funny mainstream comedy with mass appeal and a playground of cine-literate meta-jokes that should resonate with older and more discerning audiences. Despite the stream of gags about the inherent lameness and cynicism of the sequel as an entity, 22 Jump Street is equal to the best. At the heart of the film is the relationship between rookie cops Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) during a new assignment that takes them, undercover, to college. High points include Jenko’s attempt at a Mexican accent; an excruciating impromptu poetry slam; and a brilliant running gag in the closing titles (watch until the very end). The equally silly, equally charming buddy cop pastiche, The Other Guys, is on straight after (11.10pm). (101min) Wendy Ide
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Dazed and Confused (15, 1993)
Film4, 1.50am
It’s the last day of school in smalltown Texas, and the incoming and outgoing high school students are on a mission. And that mission is to get high, drunk or laid — or preferably all three. So far, so similar to a multitude of other teen flicks. But the writer-director Richard Linklater’s perceptive and very funny stoner picture is a cut above the rest, not least for the fact that it features early appearances from many actors who would go on to become stars. Ben Affleck plays a bully who delights in hazing the freshmen; Matthew McConaughey is a twentysomething local with an eye for high school girls. Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey, Renée Zellweger and Adam Goldberg all appear in the film. (102min) Wendy Ide
Radio choice, by Catherine Nixey
The Kids Who Decide What All the Other Kids Talk About
Radio 4, 11am
A programme that makes you long for the good old days, when all teenagers did was drink cider in graveyards and catch chlamydia from each other. Today, all young people are beset by the even more alarming virus of social media. As one of the teenagers interviewed here puts it: “The only time I’m not on my phone [is when] I’m talking to people or I’m actually in a lesson.” Still, what’s bad news for teenagers’ mental health is good news for the entrepreneurs who have learnt how to monetise such obsessions. Enter, Social Chain, the brainchild of digital entrepreneur Steve Bartlett, a Manchester-based company that, it is said, has the capability to make anything the No 1 trending topic on Twitter within half an hour.
Radio 3 in Concert
Radio 3, 7.30pm
It is some comfort that when the babble of the modern world becomes too much, there is always Radio 3. This programme is the aural equivalent of a panettone — lovely and Christmassy but not so sickly that you’ll feel disgusted with yourself afterwards. Thomas Tallis’s Missa Puer Natus est Nobis is sandwiched between Magnificat Primi Toni, Britten’s Hymn to the Virgin and Salve Regina. The lovely Martin Handley presents; the Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Philips, sing live from the Temple Church in London, as part of the Temple Winter Festival.