4 d. ago Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special review – Excruciating sitcom plummets to unimaginable new depths

Luckily, Brendan O’Carroll’s show is broadcast at around the time most people are safely unconscious

Politics

5 d. ago Amandaland Christmas Special review: An absolutely fabulous festive frolic

Our favourite west London posho gets rural for this Christmas’s best festive viewing, complete with a deeply satisfying Ab Fab reunion

Politics

5 d. ago Call the Midwife Christmas Special 2025: this quietly radical show continues to surprise

A tragedy in Hong Kong overshadows a festive episode of sidequests and subplots

Politics

5 d. ago A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower review – Joanna Lumley does not hold back

A recurring, terrifying dream is the theme of this year’s tale from Mark Gatiss, starring Lumley and Tobias Menzies

Politics

6 d. ago Finding Father Christmas review – A conspiracy is unearthed in this appealing slice of festive whimsy

A finely balanced performance from Bafta winner Lenny Rush is at the heart of this unusual blend of detective thriller, grief memoir and science lesson

Politics

6 d. ago DOJ says ‘over a million more’ documents possibly tied to Epstein case uncovered and will take weeks to release them all

The Justice Department announced on Christmas Eve it had lawyers ‘working around the clock’ to review the materials, but it could take weeks to release the rest

Economics

6 d. ago Stuffed review – Guz Khan’s Christmas special is charming, funny and genuinely sweet

This joke-filled caper of a Muslim-Christian family going on a Lapland holiday after an unexpected bonus will leave your cockles well and truly warmedA one-off Christmas special must have the following traditional ingredients to be entitled to the name. First and most vitally, it must have a grumpy character to soften over the hour. (And it must be an hour – 75 minutes, tops. Anything longer and we’re out of letting-the-children-stay-up-and-watch-as-a-treat territory and that disqualifies it as a contender. Yes it’s a hangover from the days when television was broadcast at fixed points, instead of thrown into the digital ragbag to be pulled out at any time, but what is tradition if not such harkings-back? Come on).Second, there must be snow. I know the planet is burning now, but please see above re tradition and harkings-back. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Scrooge: A Cirque Spectacular at ICC Wales review as Christmas classic gets a special reinvention

This is the Christmas show for people who think Christmas shows aren't for them as it incorporates some of the key tropes (Oh yes it does!) while pulling in a whole lot you'll never have seen in this context before

Politics

7 d. ago How to make £2,026 in an HOUR: From energy to car insurance, our expert guide can cut all your bills with minimal effort

The hazy time warp between Christmas and the New Year is a great opportunity to review all your bills and savings to ensure you step into 2026 on the front foot.

Economics

7 d. ago How to make £2,026 in an HOUR: From energy to car insurance, our expert guide can cut all your bills with minimal effort. Stop putting it off, do it now... and save your family hundreds

The hazy time warp between Christmas and the New Year is a great opportunity to review all your bills and savings to ensure you step into 2026 on the front foot.

Economics

7 d. ago Tea With Judi Dench review – the most touching TV you’ll watch all Christmas (plus a sweary parrot)

She’s such a great interviewer that this chat with Kenneth Branagh feels like it deserves an entire series. It’s relentlessly charming – and hugely moving when they talk about Dame Judi’s late husbandCast your mind back to Christmas 2017, and you might remember a slightly wacky BBC documentary called Dame Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees. On the surface, it seemed like one of those god-awful shows put together by tombola; matching a celebrity with a random subject and hoping it would pass muster.However, this was not the case. Dame Judi Dench, it turned out, really did have a passion for trees. An obsessive passion, one that manifested itself in a small woodland where she named trees after friends of hers who had died. The result was unexpectedly tender and gorgeous, and the show ended up being the best thing on TV that Christmas. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Rare Beauty gift sets review: why Selena’s Faves is the perfect Christmas pick

From a cosy everyday fragrance to the viral Soft Pinch blush, Rare Beauty’s gift sets tick every box for thoughtful Christmas beauty buys

Politics

1 week ago Christmas Day review – Sam Grabiner serves up gripping dinner

Christmas Day review – Sam Grabiner serves up gripping dinner-table debate  The Guardian

Politics

1 week ago Christmas Day theatre review: Boldly tackles rising antisemitism

An ambitious new play in which a North London Jewish family comes together and discovers tensions within and without make for a difficult occasion

Politics

1 week ago Most Favoured review: A brief but provocative Christmas cracker

David Ireland’s new one-act comedy at Soho Theatre stars Lauren Lyle and Alexander Arnold as an odd couple dealing with the morning after a one-night stand

Politics

2 w. ago Bump: A Christmas Film review – the most masochistic holiday ever?

Oly and Santi take their newborn on a hellish cruise halfway around the world. But amid the torture there are beautiful moments to treasure in this much-loved Aussie drama As a teenager, Oly Chalmers-Davis weathered her fair share of motherhood-related horrors. For a start, the high-achieving 16-year-old went into labour in the school toilets, having not even realised she was pregnant. Not long afterwards, she was forced to tell her boyfriend he wasn’t the father – the baby was the product of a fling with another classmate. Then, unable to entertain the prospect of her perfect grades slipping, she decided to juggle studying with looking after a newborn, all the while navigating mastitis, mockery from her classmates (including some inventively mean-spirited memes) and a rocky on-off romance with her child’s dad, Santi.After five series following Oly (Nathalie Morris) and Santi (Carlos Sanson Jr) as they struggled to adjust to parenthood, hit Australian comedy-drama Bump wrapped thing...

Politics

2 w. ago 'I ate TGI Friday's Triple Stacked Jingle Bell Burger – it's a Christmas cracker'

REVIEW: The Daily Star's Neil Docking took his family to try TGI Friday's new Christmas menu complete with festive cocktails. His daughter's verdict said it all...

Politics

2 w. ago Christmas Carol Goes Wrong at the Apollo Theatre review: dynamite gags and expert slapstick

The veteran theatre company’s brash, obvious, knockabout humour is laced with moments of lightning-flash wit and invention

Politics

2 w. ago Goodbye June review – Kate Winslet’s Christmas heartwarmer is like a two

Star turns from Helen Mirren, Andrea Riseborough and Toni Colette can’t stop cartoony sentimentality smothering this film directed by Winslet and written by her son Joe AndersKate Winslet’s feature directing debut is a family movie, scripted by her son Joe Anders; it’s a well-intentioned and starrily cast yuletide heartwarmer, like a two-hour John Lewis Christmas TV ad without the logo at the end. There are one or two nice lines and sharp moments but they are submerged in a treacly soup of sentimentality; in the end, I couldn’t get past the cartoony quasi-Richard Curtis characterisation and the weird not-quite-earthlingness of the people involved. Having said this, I am aware of having been first in the queue to denigrate Winslet’s Christmas film The Holiday, that is regarded by many as one of the most successful films of all time.Helen Mirren is the June of the title, an affectionate but sharp-tongued matriarch who is diagnosed with terminal cancer in the run-up to Christmas, and h...

Events

2 w. ago El Mayor tequila review: Blanco, Reposado and Añejo compared for Christmas gifting

El Mayor is a premium tequila made with 100 percent Blue Weber agave. I tried three bottles in the range to see whether tequila deserves a place on your Christmas drinks shelf.

Politics