What's On TV Tonight: Friday 26th December 2025

Boxing Day telly is traditionally the hangover cure - and this year's lineup doesn't disappoint. Jimmy Carr's annual quiz is the main event, but there's Helen Mirren with a cello that survived the Nazis, panto legends judging The Masked Singer, and the most beloved bear in Britain getting another outing. Football fans get United vs Newcastle at Old Trafford. Not a bad spread.

Table of Contents

Quick Picks: Today's Best

• Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2025 - Jimmy Carr's annual recap with Katherine Ryan, Richard Ayoade and the usual chaos (9pm, Channel 4) ⭐
• The Repair Shop at Christmas - Helen Mirren's cello with a genuinely remarkable backstory (7:30pm, BBC One)
• Paddington 2 - The most perfect film ever made. Fight me (5:20pm, BBC One)
• All Her Fault - Sarah Snook's kidnapping thriller reaches its finale (9pm, Sky Atlantic)

Early Evening: Family Viewing (5pm - 8pm)

Paddington 2 - BBC One, 5:20pm

There's an argument that this is the greatest film ever made. Citizen Kane might have technical innovation and cultural influence, but does it have a marmalade-obsessed bear learning to tolerate prison food? Does Orson Welles make you cry with sheer kindness? Exactly.

Hugh Grant is having an absolute blast as the villain, Brendan Gleeson's hardened criminal discovers a love of books, and the whole thing floats on a cloud of pure, distilled decency. Nicolas Cage cried watching this in a film once. That's the level we're at.

The Dog House at Christmas - Channel 4, 6:45pm

The 2024 festive edition from Wood Green, the Animals Charity, where rescue dogs find their forever families just in time for Christmas. Tissues at the ready - this show has a near-perfect hit rate for making grown adults sob.

Would I Lie to You? at Christmas - BBC One, 7pm

The 2025 Christmas special of the panel show that's been quietly running for 18 years without anyone getting tired of it. Rob Brydon and Lee Mack do their thing, David Mitchell looks increasingly exasperated. You know exactly what you're getting, and that's the appeal.

The Masked Singer: Christmas Special - ITV1, 7:30pm

The most wonderfully bonkers singing contest gets a festive makeover - and this time they've drafted in panto royalty to help. Su Pollard, Christopher Biggins, Lesley Joseph and yes, Basil Brush, are on hand to deliver clues about who's behind the masks. Expect plenty of "Oh no it isn't!" instead of the usual "Take it off!"

The Repair Shop at Christmas - BBC One, 7:30pm

Helen Mirren visits the barn with a broken cello, and the backstory is extraordinary. It belonged to the late UK-based theatre director Martin Landau, one of the handful of possessions he managed to keep when fleeing Nazi-held Berlin for Britain as a child. This is The Repair Shop at its finest - the objects matter because the stories matter.

The Festive Pottery Throw Down 2025 - Channel 4, 7:45pm

Four celebrity novices attempt to throw pots without making a complete mess of it. This year's brave souls are Love Island's Amber Gill, broadcaster Colin Murray, comedian Tim Vine, and actress Sarah Hadland. They're tackling reindeer water bowls and a north pole scene. Good luck with that.

Prime Time (9pm onwards)

Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2025 - Channel 4, 9pm ⭐

Jimmy Carr's annual review of the year that was, complete with TV star cameos, schoolchildren saying things their parents probably wish they hadn't, and a memoir reading from Charles Dance because of course there is.

This year's panel: Jonathan Ross, Richard Ayoade (the most reliable straight man on television), Katherine Ryan, Nick Mohammed, Roisin Conaty and Lou Sanders. Three hours of mocking everything that happened in 2025. Perfect hangover viewing.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Christmas Special - ITV1, 9pm

Stephen Fry won £250,000 for charity earlier this year - can anyone top that? Katherine Ryan and Celebrity Traitors star Joe Marler are having a go. Jeremy Clarkson hosts what might be one of his final stints before the handover to whoever's taking over. The tension is real, even when it's for charity.

All Her Fault - Sky Atlantic, 9pm

The finale of this claustrophobic kidnapping drama arrives just when you thought you couldn't take any more tension. Sarah Snook (yes, Shiv from Succession) plays Marissa, whose family has been slowly unravelling since her son disappeared. Tonight, the hard realities about her nanny - and her husband - finally come to light. This has been a masterfully uncomfortable watch.

Call the Midwife Christmas Special - BBC One, 8:30pm

Part two of the festive special, which means we're still in Hong Kong dealing with the aftermath of a building collapse. The nuns have gone international! Back in snowy Poplar, the skeleton crew faces their own emergencies. Whether the globe-trotting improves things or makes you miss Nonnatus House is entirely personal, but the production values are impressive.

Christmas University Challenge - BBC Two, 9pm

Trinity College Cambridge takes on Bristol in Amol Rajan's festive academic quiz. If you've ever wanted to feel clever and thick at the same time, this is your show.

Lesley Garrett at the BBC - BBC Four, 8pm

The Yorkshire soprano revisits her greatest BBC moments, from orchestral festive selections to the Perfect Day Comic Relief fundraiser. A career full of big moments, curated nicely for an evening on BBC Four.

Late Night: For Night Owls

Four Weddings and a Funeral - BBC One, 10:15pm

Richard Curtis's 1994 rom-com that made Hugh Grant a star and introduced the world to Andie MacDowell asking about the weather. It holds up remarkably well, mostly because the ensemble cast (Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow, John Hannah's devastating funeral reading) does the heavy lifting around Grant's stammering.

Die Another Day - ITV1, 10:15pm

The last Brosnan Bond, and frankly the one that broke the formula so badly they had to reboot with Daniel Craig. The invisible car, the ice palace, Madonna's cameo - it's magnificently silly. Either you find this hilarious or you'll be reaching for the remote. No middle ground.

Jaws 2 - BBC Two, 11pm

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water." The sequel is nowhere near as good as the original (BBC Two showed Jaws itself yesterday), but Roy Scheider's still here and there's another shark eating teenagers. That's really all you need to know.

The Great Escaper - BBC Two, 9:30pm

Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson's final film roles, based on the true story of Bernie Jordan, who escaped his care home to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France. Properly moving, and a fitting farewell for two British acting legends.

If You're Not Into Quiz Shows

Live Premier League: Manchester United v Newcastle - Sky Sports Main Event, 7:30pm

Boxing Day football at Old Trafford. Whether that fills you with excitement or dread depends on which of these teams you support, but it's definitely an alternative to another celebrity quiz show.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One - Film4, 9pm

Tom Cruise does increasingly ridiculous stunts while Hayley Atwell tries to keep up. The train sequence in the finale is genuinely breathtaking. Nearly three hours, so make sure you've got snacks.

What's on Streaming

Sky Cinema Premiere - Ryan Coogler's Sinners is showing at 8pm. Michael B Jordan plays twins in 1930s Mississippi, and it starts as a historical drama before tipping into something supernatural. Jordan Peele territory, essentially. Oscar-worthy stuff.

Netflix - Cover-Up with legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh is worth seeking out. Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus have made a film about a man who barely trusts anyone, and it's fascinating.

Paramount+ - Sophie Turner's Trust is a cabin-in-the-woods thriller where Hollywood's rule one gets ignored. It's remarkably silly, but fun if you're in the mood for claustrophobic paranoia.

The Viewing Schedule Table

Final Verdict

Boxing Day delivers the goods. The Big Fat Quiz is the centrepiece - three hours of mocking 2025 is exactly what post-Christmas lethargy requires. But don't sleep on Helen Mirren's Repair Shop cello story or the All Her Fault finale if you've been following it. And if you can only watch one thing, make it Paddington 2. It genuinely might be the most perfect film ever made. Happy Boxing Day.

Jen Thakar writes about television for TVRadar.co.uk