Published: 22 December, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

Remember those days before we a had a gazillion satellite and cable channels offering us every film under the sun, 24 hours a day – a relentless world of film after film?

The unrecognised knock-on effect of the explosion in our movie diet is the Christmas film has lost its potency. No longer are we limited to watching a James Bond film just once a year.

But, for the terrestial channels, scraping together some true blockbusters in the Christmas ratings war is part and parcel of being top dog in December – and there is still something rather nice about watching a big-screen special on the BBC or ITV with the family instead of Sky.

This year there is a nice mixture of crackers and turkeys.

• Emma Thompson stars in Nanny McPhee (ITV2, 8pm, December 24), her cranky take on Mary Poppins as the Nanny who comes in and licks some truly unruly children into shape. Thompson wrote the screenplay and roped in Colin Firth to help shuffle things along. It is soft, gentle and rather good fun – a little like Mary Poppins (who we, of course, know is practically perfect in every way). It is a modern take on the idea that when you are in a tight spot, there’s nothing like a good matriarch to get things ticking back along how they should be.

• This year will be remembered by wizard fans as the one that the Hogwarts saga finally came to an end. But have no fear Muggles, they have made so many films of JK Rowling’s best-selling books, it is the cinematic version of the Forth bridge.  You could begin with the first instalment and watch the lot, and, by the time you’ve reached the end, you will have forgotten what part one was all about, thus allowing you to re-enter the world of magic and enjoy it all over again. ITV have two on offer this year: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (ITV1, 3.30pm December 26) is the second in the series of the Potter franchise and it all starts getting a little spooky as Harry is warned not to return to Hogwarts.  When he does a series of violent and mysterious events begin to reveal how big the threat from the dark arts and Voldemort is to the young wizard. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (ITV1, 3.30pm, January 1) is the second to last book and the film takes us on a rather spectacular journey as Lord Voldemort reappears, Albus Dumbledore comes a cropper and Harry gets ready for the big showdown.

• It needs no introduction, but for the youngster who has not yet seen it, you have to push the ankle-biters in front of the box for Spielberg’s masterpiece, E.T. (ITV1, 3.25pm, Christmas Eve).
The adventures of the cutest, ugliest thing (how does that work?)  in the universe as he discovers what life is like in Elliot’s home – and then decides he wants to get back up among the stars – is as charming as when it came out in the early 1980s.

• Disney’s superb animated Aladdin (ITV, 1.15pm, Christmas Day) is a sing-song delight. While the look and feel is a bit dated – now we have the likes of Pixar and Aardman pushing the boundaries of animated film – the songs are brilliant, and, with Robin Williams doing the voice of the genie, there is plenty of humour too.

• I can’t recommend Son Of Rambow enough (BBC Three, 9.20pm Christmas Eve). This is one of the funniest films you will see this Christmas. It is a long, hot summer and two schoolboys are wondering what to do with themselves. The answer? Put together a remake of the Sly Stallone classic First Blood. This is hilarious – and also a very touching and insightful take on childhood.

• I thor­oughly enjoyed watching the tale of Po, a large, noodle-slurping panda who become an unlikely martial arts hero in this inventive animated caper. Great for children, and with enough cultural references and beautiful pictures to make it one that adults can comfortably sit through too. Jack Black provides the voice of our hero and gives it real comic quality. Kung Fu Panda (BBC1, 12.35pm, Christmas Day).

• One good way of escaping the in-laws for a sizeable amount of time is to hunker down in front of Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O’Toole’s epic about the Englishman who shaped the political landscape of the Middle East (Christmas Day, 2.45pm, Channel 5).

• Ben Stiller directs and stars in Tropic Thunder (BBC One, December 27, 10.45pm), a pretty good spoof flick that draws on the talents of Robert Downey Jr and Jack Black. They are a gang of prima donna actors asked to star in a Vietnam film – and the action gets a little hot when they are dumped in a jungle and asked to survive for real.

• Posy Simmonds’ wonderful graphic novel Tamara Drewe ran in the Guardian and was the first time I had been persuaded not to go straight to the back pages for the sports news.
Her brilliant soap opera about being a teenager in a rural area, the affairs of a respected man of letters, his writer’s retreat, and the lovely Tamara Drewe, whose loose morals and lovely looks cause a stir when she returns to the village of her birth, was utterly captivating. To translate it onto the big screen was tricky, and it has lost some of the quirks that made the strip so brilliant: but with Stephen Frears directing and Gemma Arterton as the perfect Tamara, this is a highlight of the Christmas schedules (BBC 2, 10.30pm, December 23).

• I love the opening scene of Monsters Versus Aliens (BBC One, 3.10pm Christmas Day).
It is the picture-perfect wedding day of leading lady Reese Witherspoon. Now, normally the bride may get some pre-wedding collywobbles: will the best man disgrace himself? Will the groom show up? Will an aged aunt get up to her old tricks? Will the flowers, cake and food be OK? And will the horrible schoolfriend show up in a dress to upstage the bride? None of the above happens – but a meteorite does crash through the roof of the chapel and cause the bride to undergo a rather shocking transformation.

• Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Channel 5, Boxing Day, 3.10pm) has always loomed large on my radar as it was the first film I saw after recovering from a bout of childhood measles. Having been in quarantine for two weeks, I was allowed to join my siblings for this wonderful musical starring Howard Keel. It is MGM musicals at the very top of their game.

• Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong (ITV1, December 27, 10.30pm) mixes humour with action to just the right degree and creates a very watchable action adventure. The opening scenes of a Depression-hit New York are particularly enthralling.

• Angela Lansbury stars in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (BBC1, 4.05pm Wednesday 28), a super fantasy about children evacuated to live with a witch – whose magic powers become crucial in fighting off the invading Nazis.

• An air of horrible depression hangs over Revolutionary Road (BBC Two, December 28, 10pm) starring Kate Winslet and Leonard DiCaprio. They are a couple who have settled into middle-class-dom and Winlset’s character is super-bored by the path being chosen for her by her husband. This is brilliant and shocking – not perhaps the best thing to watch when cooped up over the festive period with your other half, but then again, it may put the argument over who burned the spud or over-boiled the sprouts into perspective.

• It’s is hard to judge quite how spectacularly good The Railway Children is. This adaptation of the
E Nesbit take by Lionel Jeffries has long been recognised as one of the finest children’s films made in the UK. Starring a young Jenny Agutter, with Bernard Cribbins popping up too, if your youngsters haven’t seen it, this is your chance to make amends (ITV1, December 29, 10.55am).

• If you fancy getting warm and snuggly, The Holiday (ITV1, 10.15pm December 30), starring a dashing Jude Law and a rather gorgeous Cameron Diaz, a sullen Kate Winslet and humorous Jack Black, is a good bet. It is a straight-up, no-frills comedy romance that draws on the age-old Brit-meets-Yank synopsis.
Diaz plays the American heading to a chocolate box-perfect rural cottage in Gloucestershire to see out the festive season and try to forget a broken heart. Then the spiffing Jude turns up on the doorstep with his daughter in tow. He is (violins, please) a widower. Meanwhile, Winslet, who has swapped the shires for California, is in a similar position.

• It has dancing penguins – surely that’s enough to sell Happy Feet (Christmas Day, ITV1, 3.10pm) to everyone? This Oscar-winning adventure stars Elijah Wood as the penguin called Mumble who can’t sing – not a good start for a penguin born into a musical colony. But what he can do is dance. And dance he does, in some rather spectacular ­set-piece homages to the great days of Hollywood films. This is Ginger and Fred on ice. Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams and Nicole Kidman lend a vocal hand.

• Bugsy Malone (Channel 4, Boxing Day, 11.25am) is still as delightful as when it first came out in 1976, and the characters created have become legends – Fat Sam and Dandy Dan, Bugsy, Bloughsie, Tallulah, Baby Face, and Knuckles. When one gang of Chicago mobsters gets hold of a new secret weapon, the splurge gun, to replace the antiquated custard pie, Fat Sam’s speakeasy empire is under serious threat. Alan Parker’s musical is full of wit and charm, jokes galore and looks great – but above all, it has some massive foot-tappers. All together: “We could have been anything that we wanted to be...”

• James Cameron made a fortune out of Titanic (Channel 4, Boxing Day, 5.20pm) and he spent his cash on designing and building a new underwater robotic remote-controlled camera that films in 3-D. He promptly sent it to the bottom of the ocean and explored the ship on the bed of the Atlantic, to give us the first proper and comprehensive glimpse since it went down in 1912. Despite the song by Celine Dion, this is a big film made in the great trad­itions of the Hollywood blockbuster.