The Listener’s Christmas TV Guide: Wham! Doctor Who! Nigella! And other seasonal specials

The devil and the dance floor

Screening: TVNZ 1, 7pm, Sunday December 22

Her Majesty Queen Camilla was a late withdrawal from this year’s event, because of “lingering post-viral symptoms”, but the King arrived looking fairly sprightly and the show went on. This year’s performance features Elton John and his hubby, David Furnish, introducing a number from their new stage production of The Devil Wears Prada, plus performances from the casts of Oliver! and Starlight Express. Pop fans can look forward to this year’s Eurovision winner Nemo, treble Brit Award winner James Bay and Sophie Ellis-Bextor (just make her a dame, already) doing Murder on the Dance Floor. There’s also Cirque du Soleil, the English National Ballet and Penn and Teller. Alan Carr returns as co-host with a very excited Amanda Holden.

Repeat of the 2023 show on Boxing Day.

Wonder at the stately home

Screening: TVNZ 1, 9.30pm, Sunday December 22

A special taking viewers inside preparations for the annual Christmas celebrations at the storied Elizabethan house, Longleat in Wiltshire, which is home to Lord and Lady Bath and a large team of staff. We’re taken through the weeks of work that turn the estate into a “Christmas wonderland”, complete with fake snow and one of Europe’s largest lantern festivals. This year’s theme, “Treasured Tales”, evokes Peter Pan, Narnia and Cinderella. Meanwhile, house curator James Ford leads his team through the dressing of the Great Hall and the setting of the stately dining table for the big day. If the place looks vaguely familiar, that might be because it has been a location for a number of episodes of Doctor Who over the years.

Going Dutch

Screening: TVNZ 1, 8pm, Monday December 23

For her annual Christmas special (this is actually the 2023 edition), Nigella Lawson has forgone the enduring British tradition of going to Amsterdam and getting absolutely blazed and instead explores the culinary traditions of the city and its migrant communities. So, alongside recipes for speculaas and oliebollen, she cooks up Indonesian-inspired biryani and a spicy pineapple salad. (She does also visit a coffee shop, just not that kind.) The Guardian’s reviewer was quite enraptured by both Nigella and this “dreamy version of a Christmas bash, classy, sophisticated, casually chic, chicly casual”.