Christmas TV 2012: What to watch CRITIC'S CHOICE: Strictly Come Dancing BBC One, 6.30pm and 8.50pm It's grand final time and as the 10th series reaches its climax, what have we learnt? Well, that the ballroom contest is thriving, thrashing The X Factor in the ratings; that re-introducing the dance-off has reinvigorated the results show; that after a shaky start (yah?), Darcey Bussell has become an excellent judge, strong on technical detail; that Lisa Riley has been the most popular, Michael Vaughan the hardest-working, Dani Harmer the most improved and Denise Van Outen the most consistent. Now, after 11 weeks, it all comes down to four couples. Louis Smith, Kimberley Walsh, Harmer and Van Outen will start by performing two routines each - their "anything goes" showdance and the judge's choice. Then there's an hour's gap for phone voting before we return at 8.50pm. The couple with the fewest votes will be eliminated straight away, leaving the three remaining pairs to battle it out by performing their favourite dance of the series. Robbie Williams will provide some light relief by singing live in the studio, and all this year's contestants will take to the floor for a final group routine before the Strictly 2012 champions are crowned. Sequin addicts shouldn't despair, though - there's only three days until the Christmas special. The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song You know all those festive tunes you're slightly sick of hearing? Well, here's a chance to torture your ears with them again, in this 90-minute countdown of the top 20 Christmas songs, as voted for in a survey of ITV viewers, timed to mark the 70th anniversary of Bing Crosby's White Christmas - the best-selling festive song of all time. Expect familiar hits from Wizzard, Band Aid, The Pogues, Wham!, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and Slade, while in between, talking heads tell the stories behind the hits. The Mystery of Coppélia/ Coppélia Sky Arts 2/SA2HD, from 7.00pm After more than 50 years as star dancer and then choreographer at the Paris Opera, Patrice Bart staged this mysterious, macabre version of Delibes's Coppélia. It's preceded by a behind-the-scenes documentary about Bart's imaginative interpretation of this classic ballet. Arena: Screen Goddesses BBC Four, 9.00pm This pleasingly glitzy documentary tells the story of the Hollywood studio era, from its beginning in 1910 to its collapse 50 years later. The starlets, sirens and big-name beauties on parade include Lillian Gish, Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Ava Gardner. The Jonathan Ross Show Christmas Special It's the motor-mouthed host's last show this year and a bumper cast squeezes onto his banquette of banter for the occasion. Ross welcomes arena-filling stand-up Michael McIntyre, actresses Sheridan Smith and Sienna Miller, plus Paralympic gold medallists Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock. Chef Jamie Oliver cooks festive food, while there's music from Charlotte Church and clowning from Broadway-wowing Russian troupe Slava's Snow Show. Hemingway & Gellhorn Sky Atlantic/SAHD, 9.00pm This feature-length, based-on-fact HBO drama packs a powerful punch. Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman play macho novelist Ernest Hemingway and intrepid war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, who had a torrid romance during the Spanish Civil War and eventually married, with him crediting her as the inspiration for For Whom the Bell Tolls. The starry lead pair are backed up by the likes of David Strathairn, Robert Duvall and Parker Posey. It's slightly less than the sum of its parts but still solid, Emmy award-winning fare. BBC One, 8.30pm Victoria Wood has smartly reinvented herself in recent years, broadening her repertoire from comedy to straight drama, deservedly winning two Baftas for her wartime tale Housewife, 49. This quietly compelling true story, written by Wood and inspired by an article in The New Yorker, is as good, if not better. In early Fifties London, concert pianist Joyce Hatto (played by Maimie McCoy in her youth, and Francesca Annis later) meets her future husband, aspiring impresario William "Barrie" Barrington-Coupe (Rory Kinner then Alfred Molina), who vows to make her a star. However, their high hopes come to nothing and 50 years later, they're a seemingly ordinary married couple who've retired to a modest bungalow in a genteel Hertfordshire cul-de-sac. In Wood's version, when his wife is stricken by terminal cancer, William does something rather extraordinary to cheer her up, releasing recordings in her name that meant she was hailed as "the greatest living pianist you've never heard of." But had the pair pulled off the greatest hoax in classical music history by doing so? At heart, it's a tender love story spanning half a century, and Annis's and Molina's performances are pitch perfect. David Suchet: in the Footsteps of St Paul BBC One, 9.00am This two-part travelogue, which concludes tomorrow, finds popular Poirot actor David Suchet on a personal journey in search of St Paul, the enigmatic figure who, 2,000 years ago, helped transform the teachings of Jesus into a global religion - despite starting out as an active persecutor of Christianity. Suchet starts by travelling from Israel to Turkey, investigating Paul's early career, his conversion on the road to Damascus and the start of his missionary work. Mr Stink BBC One, 6.30pm David Walliams stars in this family comedy, adapted from his own children's book, joined by a weighty cast including Hugh Bonneville, Sheridan Smith, Johnny Vegas and Pudsey - not the charity bear but the dancing dog who won this year's Britain's Got Talent. Bullied, lonely Chloe (Nell Tiger Free) is ignored by her politician mother (Smith), so invites local tramp Mr Stink (Bonneville) and his faithful hound Duchess (Pudsey) to stay in their garden shed. Chloe soon discovers there's more to her aromatic guest than meets the eye. Or indeed nose. Joanna Lumley: the Search for Noah's Ark The actress Joanna Lumley embarks on an expedition across two continents to uncover the truth behind the myth of Noah's Ark. She tells the story of the flood, and finds the biblical vessel's supposed final resting place. It's an enlightening tale full of twists, turns and stunning scenery, while Lumley, as always, makes for charming company. Channel 4, 9.00pm The conspiracy thriller's second series comes to a captivating climax. Following the dramatic events at the mill, Carrie Matheson (Claire Danes) considers a return to the CIA, Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) ponders the future of his family, Saul Berenson (the quietly classy Mandy Patinkin) undertakes a secret mission and Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) makes a momentous decision. A third series has been commissioned. CRITIC'S CHOICE: The Snowman and the Snowdog Channel 4, 8.00pm When it comes to The Snowman, the animation of Raymond Briggs's bittersweet children's tale which has been a staple of Channel 4"s Christmas schedule since its debut in 1982, it's hard to imagine how the original could be bettered. This sequel, however, comes with the addition of an adorable dog and is nearly, if not quite, as wonderful as the original. It arrives (with Briggs's blessing) to celebrate the cartoon's 30th anniversary, and features the talents of two of the original animators, giving us a welcome break from the preponderance of CGI in animations elsewhere. Young boy Billy moves into the house of the boy in the original story and discovers some carefully treasured reminders of the original snowman. Inspired, Billy fashions a new snowman and also a snowdog in his garden. And magic ensues. The official song, a modern pop tune called Light the Night, may lack the ethereal quality of Walking in the Air, but this is a worthy successor to a classic film. The Art of the Snowman and the Snowdog, shown earlier today at 8.20am, details how the characters were brought to life. For an interview with Briggs. Carols from King's BBC Two, 6.15pm In some ways the apex of the Christmas schedules, this gentle, numinous annual treat of words and music stays reassuringly the same. The service opens with a lone chorister singing the first verse of Once in Royal David's City, and other favourite carols featured include The Angel Gabriel and In the Bleak Midwinter, as well as a new work by John Rutter. The charismatic Stephen Cleobury conducts. For more seasonal song, Christmas Carols on ITV (ITV1, 9.00pm) sees Russell Watson lend his lungs to the Nativity story, with help from the cast of Coronation Street. Meanwhile this year's Midnight Mass (BBC One, 11.45pm) comes from St Anne's Catholic Cathedral in Leeds. The Mass will include the blessing of the crib, and the setting is Louis Vierne's Messe Solennelle. Morecambe & Wise: Song and Dance BBC Two, 7.30pm Shirley Bassey getting into big boots, Andre Previn (or should that be Mr Preview?) watching in horror as Eric Morecambe murders Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Glenda Jackson being a remarkably convincing Ginger Rogers... We've seen these clips time and again, yet somehow they never cease to raise a smile. Penelope Keith, who took part in Morecambe and Wise's 1976 Christmas special, presents the best of the pair's musical routines from the archives. Spice Girls" Story: Viva Forever! The fab five reunite to discuss their time together, the infamous spats, and to niftily plug the new, critically mauled Spice Girls musical, Viva Forever! The highlight is footage of the girls as beginners, recording Wannabe, before their slickly marketed personas emerged. Outnumbered BBC One, 9.35pm The Brockmans" disastrous Christmas party kicks off three sitcom specials tonight. Mrs Brown's Boys (BBC One, 10.15pm) promises some old-school laughs as matriarch Agnes finds herself overrun. Meanwhile in Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4, 10.30pm), there's a battle between Nice Grandma and Horrible Grandma in the Goodman household. Christmas with Aled Jones Sky Arts 2/SA2hd, 4.00pm Aled Jones, who is hosting Christmas Carols on ITV at 10.15pm, also introduces a family afternoon concert with music from London's Royal Albert Hall, including Howard Blake's Walking in the Air and Tchaikovsky's Suite from the Nutcracker as well as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and I Saw Three Ships. The music is performed by the Bach Choir and the London Concert Orchestra, with soprano Laura Mitchell. Uncle Wormsley's Christmas Sky Atlantic/SAHD, 10.00pm An earlier slot might have been more suitable for this rudimentary animated children's fable. It's a gruesome, cautionary tale about love, greed and a giant crab, written by Tim Gallagher and Joel Veitch, and produced by Baby Cow. Steve Coogan narrates the story of a miserably creepy, grey old man, Uncle Wormsley, whose sole companion is a huge crab that he keeps in a cage and to whom he feeds the neighbours" pets. Across town lives the spoilt Johnnie, whose parents are obscenely wealthy and who is given everything he wants. But the one thing he craves is a giant crab and so his father enters into a devilish pact with the mysterious "crab-catchers." Julian Barratt, John Thomson and Julia Davis provide the voices. CRITIC'S CHOICE: Call the Midwife: Christmas Special BBC One, 7.30pm Snow, tinsel, pushbikes, wimples, urchins: it can only be Jennifer's (Jessica Raine) first Christmas as a midwife in Fifties Poplar. This drama's rose-tinted view of yesteryear, which helped it to become the smash hit of 2012, could have been created specially to snuggle into the Christmas night schedule. Yet the cleverness of Heidi Thomas's scripts always lies in their unvarnished stories of East End poverty and misery, unblunted by all the sentiment, and tonight's is no exception. Mrs Jenkins (Sheila Reid) seems, at first, like just a scary, flea-infested, old witch who looms over babies in prams. When Jennifer and Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris) try to help her, they are thanked with a slap and a blood-curdling "workhouse howl." Then there's teenager Lynette (Ami Metcalf), dumpy and uncooperative, and surreptitiously stashing her mother's kitchen scissors under her pillow. But if anyone can find the tear-jerking good in these two, of course, it's Jennifer and the nuns. Comical Chummy (Miranda Hart) has her work cut out, too, as she tries to put on a Nativity play worthy of the mayor. "Gary Schofield," she yells at one of her pre-pubescent shepherds, "any more poking with that crook and I'll demote you to a bullock!" The Queen BBC One and ITV1, 3.00pm Her Majesty's annual address to the nation and the Commonwealth, following the pomp, pageantry and pop music of her Jubilee year. Room on the Broom BBC One, 4.35pm From the producers of The Gruffalo comes another gorgeous Christmas animation for younger viewers. Based on the book by Julia Donaldson, it tells the story of a kindly witch and her loving cat. When they fly off on a broomstick, the witch keeps dropping precious things - her hat, the bow from her hair and her wand. Luckily they're all found by a dog, a bird and a frog, who then wonder if there's room on the broom for them, too. Narrated by Simon Pegg and with the voices of Gillian Anderson and David Walliams. Doctor Who BBC One, 5.15pm It is Christmas Eve, 1892, and alien snowmen with razor-sharp icicle-teeth have invaded London. Help from the Doctor (Matt Smith) is, of course, the only hope for a pretty governess (Jenna-Louise Coleman) and the children in her care. The Doctor doesn't have the stomach for a fight - until he finds something lurking in Captain Latimer's (Tom Ward) garden. And naturally the snowmen turn out to have an evil puppetmaster - Doctor Simeon, played by a suitably chilling Richard E Grant. Here's what we know about the two-hour Downton Abbey Christmas special: it's not about Christmas, nor much about Downton Abbey, either. The Crawleys are on their summer holidays, stalking deer and attending the Ghillies's Ball at Duneagle Castle in the Scottish highlands, with their Scottish cousin Shrimpy (visiting cast member Peter Egan). Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) might find love with newspaper editor Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards), who is conveniently vacationing nearby. Beyond that, and a few snippets about the servants frolicking back at base while they prepare for the country fair, ITV is being unusually secretive about tonight's episode. Which means that something really juicy might just happen... A Musical Nativity with John Rutter BBC Four, 7.00pm First shown last year, this retelling of the Christmas story through the music of the composer John Rutter was filmed at Dorchester Abbey with the Aurora Orchestra and the Cambridge Singers. Rutter conducts and the soloists are baritone Gerald Finley and soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. Extracts from the nativity story will be read and Rutter gives a backstory to some of the anecdotes surrounding his work such as the Picasso painting which inspired his Shepherd's Pipe Carol, written when he was just 16. The Nutcracker Sky Arts 2/SA2HD, 8.00pm Peter Wright's 1984 production for the Royal Opera House of Tchaikovsky's ballet was described by the Telegraph as "beautifully traditional," and is still performed today. Based on ETA Hoffman's story, the tale begins on Christmas Eve when a girl opens an enchanted present and embarks on a magical adventure. BBC Two, 9.00pm Alfred Hitchcock was one of cinema's greatest directors but that didn't necessarily make him a nice man. His obsession with blondes raised eyebrows in movie circles long before the unpalatable picture painted of him in Spellbound by Beauty, Hollywood biographer Donald Spoto's book on the director's toxic relationships - at times verging on the sadistic - with his leading ladies, among them Grace Kelly, Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren. Both Spoto and Hedren are acknowledged sources of this drama penned by Gwyneth Hughes, which has already provoked headlines over its focus on Hitchcock's (Toby Jones) apparently pathological pursuit of Hedren (Sienna Miller), whom he plucked from obscurity to star in two of his best known films, The Birds and Marnie. It portrays "Hitch" as a creepy, cruel, control freak who treated women appallingly; and suggest Hedren thought not even stardom was worth being harassed by a fat Cockney with repellent breath. Controversial, undoubtedly, but very well done too: Jones is terrific, Miller shines and Julian Jarrold's direction is full of aptly Freudian nods and winks for fans. Lots more Hitchcock follows this evening. John Wilson on Broadway Uncut BBC Two, 11.00am; not Wales One of the most popular of this year's Proms: conductor John Wilson's tribute to Broadway musicals, with the music of Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and others performed with a Stateside-style verve rarely heard this side of the pond. Shown here in full, gems include Julian Ovenden and Sierra Boggess's pairing for Tonight from West Side Story. That Dog Can Dance! It's Strictly Come Barking as, in the wake of dancing wonder dog Pudsey's triumph in last year's Britain's Got Talent competition, a parade of Britain's most twinkle-pawed pooches take to the stage in an extravaganza of canine choreography. Their efforts are appraised by dog-dancing fans Sharon Osbourne and Bill Bailey, plus (with rather more expertise) Pudsey's teenage dance partner Ashleigh Butler, before the studio audience vote on the act with the most, er, bow-wow factor. Miranda BBC One, 9.00pm Miranda Hart and her troupe of japers return for a third series of the popular sitcom - and it is more delightfully bonkers than ever. Despite the Christmas rush, Miranda's toy shop has succumbed to the recession and her mother (Patricia Hodge) is threatening to cancel the festivities altogether if her daughter doesn't shape up (well, down actually, as in dieting). Worst of all, though, she and Gary (Tom Ellis) have decided to be "just friends." Doors Open Ian Rankin's 2008 art heist novel has been so filleted and rearranged in this adaptation, it bears little relation to the original beyond character names and backgrounds. But what it loses in authenticity it gains in fun; the emphasis here is most definitely on laughs. Douglas Henshall is the bored Edinburgh millionaire who, with his drinking buddies - professor Stephen Fry and banker Kenneth Collard - set out to divest one of Scotland's biggest corporate art collections of some of the jewels in its vast but unseen stockpile of paintings. Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2012: The Modern Alchemist BBC Four, 8.00pm Cambridge University's Dr Peter Wothers gives this year's Christmas lecture at the Royal Institution as he explores and explains the chemistry of the world around us. Over three nights in which there is rarely a dull moment, Wothers performs various feats of "alchemy," looking at air "the elixir of life," water "the fountain of youth" and earth "the philosopher's stone." Moominland Tales: the Life of Tove Jansson The story of the peace-loving and philosophical Moomins have delighted children since the Forties when they were devised by their Finnish author, Tove Jansson. This fascinating film shows how in many ways the Moomins, a family of trolls, eclipsed the other work of the colourful and unconventional Jansson, who lived a bohemian life as an artist in war-torn Helsinki before becoming a recluse on a remote island on the Gulf of Finland. Comprising insightful interviews and home movie footage (shot by Tuulikki Pietilä, her long-time female lover), it highlights the strong autobiographical theme in the Moomin books and the reasons why the stories came about. Importantly, it also shows how Jansson's creativity extended way beyond the Moonim books and comic strips to encompass satire, art and fiction. More on Christmas Click here for Christmas radio highlights Click here for full TV and radio listings