What's On TV Tonight: Wednesday 24th December 2025

Christmas Eve, then. The big one for telly. Gavin & Stacey signs off forever at 8:25pm - tissues mandatory - while Mark Gatiss delivers his annual dose of festive creepiness on BBC Two. If you want something gentler, Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse are pottering around Devon with a dog called Ted. Home Alone at teatime, Love Actually late evening. This is the schedule.

Table of Contents

Quick Picks: Tonight's Best

• Gavin & Stacey: The Finale - The actual end. Nessa's answer. Everything. (8:25pm, BBC One) ⭐
• A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower - Mark Gatiss and Tobias Menzies in creepy blitz-era horror (10pm, BBC Two)
• Finding Father Christmas - Lenny Rush investigates whether Santa exists (7:30pm, Channel 4)
• Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing - Bob, Paul and Ted the dog in Devon (9pm, BBC Two)

Early Evening: Family Viewing (5:30pm - 8pm)

Paddington - BBC One, 5:30pm

The marmalade-obsessed bear's first big screen outing remains an absolute joy. Ben Whishaw voices the Peruvian arrival who finds a home with the Brown family, and Nicole Kidman makes a deliciously villainous taxidermist. If you've somehow never seen it, fix that today. If you have, it holds up brilliantly.

Home Alone - Channel 4, 5:30pm

Kevin McCallister versus the Wet Bandits. You know the drill. Macaulay Culkin sets increasingly elaborate traps, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern suffer increasingly painful injuries. It's been shown roughly 47,000 times, but Christmas Eve isn't Christmas Eve without it.

Carols from King's - BBC Two, 5:45pm

The annual service from King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Once in Royal David's City, the lot. If you grew up with this, it's probably already part of your Christmas Eve ritual. If not, give it fifteen minutes and you'll understand why people get emotional about choristers.

The Great British Sewing Bee Celebrity Christmas Special - BBC One, 7:25pm

Delicious chaos as celebrities attempt to sew. New host Sophie Willan brings Taskmaster energy, Lucy Beaumont and Susan Wokoma add comedy chops, and Strictly's Anton Du Beke steps well out of his comfort zone. Gladiator Tom Wilson also has a go. Expect pricked fingers and wonky seams.

Finding Father Christmas - Channel 4, 7:30pm

Lenny Rush - brilliant in Am I Being Unreasonable? - plays 16-year-old Chris, who refuses to accept that Father Christmas isn't real despite his dad (James Buckley) telling him otherwise. His investigation involves astrophysicist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, mathematician Hannah Fry, and SAS veteran Jason Fox.

It's charming without being saccharine, and Rush is excellent at playing a kid who's smarter than everyone assumes. Perfect pre-Gavin viewing.

Prime Time (8pm onwards)

Gavin & Stacey: The Finale - BBC One, 8:25pm ⭐

This is it. After sixteen years, we finally find out what Nessa said. James Corden and Ruth Jones have promised this really is the end - no more specials, no more cliffhangers. The cast reunites in Barry for one last Christmas, and frankly, the nation is holding its breath.

Whether you've watched since 2007 or caught up during lockdown, this feels like an event. The 2019 special drew 18 million viewers. Expect similar numbers tonight. Stock up on tissues and keep the remote handy for an immediate rewatch.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing - BBC Two, 9pm

Hard to think of a more wholesome way to spend Christmas Eve than with Bob, Paul and Ted the terrier. This time they're in Devon and Cornwall, arriving by steam train before heading out to sea - which is often a recipe for disaster. Dawn French and Dr Anand Patel join them back on land.

It's gentle, it's funny, it's two old friends ribbing each other while occasionally catching fish. The fishing is almost beside the point. These two together is the reason to watch.

Love Actually - ITV1, 9:10pm

Richard Curtis's multi-strand romantic comedy divides opinion like few other films. Some people watch it every Christmas without fail. Others find it unbearably smug. Both camps are correct, somehow. Hugh Grant dances through Downing Street, Alan Rickman breaks Emma Thompson's heart, and Colin goes to America.

Twenty-two years old now, and the problems are more visible than ever. But the good bits - Thompson's bedroom scene, the kid running through the airport, Bill Nighy being Bill Nighy - still land. Love it or hate it, it's inescapable.

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower - BBC Two, 10pm

Mark Gatiss continues his revival of the BBC's supernatural Christmas tradition with this adaptation of an EF Benson short story. Tobias Menzies plays Roger Winstanley, haunted since childhood by a peculiar recurring dream. As he shelters in an air raid bunker during the blitz, he shares his vision with a sympathetic stranger. But as bombs fall overhead, too much imagination becomes dangerous.

Gatiss knows exactly what he's doing with these. Delightfully sinister, beautifully mounted, and genuinely unsettling if you're in the right mood. Not one for immediately after the festive schmaltz, but give it until 10pm and the atmosphere shifts.

Two Doors Down Christmas Special - BBC One, 10pm

The slow-burn Scottish sitcom returns for a festive dose of neighbourly chaos. When Eric and Beth put their Christmas tree up earlier than usual, it sends a signal to the rest of the street: the season has begun. Before long, the house fills with familiar faces requesting mince pies and debating whether they should still play Fairytale of New York.

Arabella Weir's Beth remains magnificently put-upon. If you've missed this show, the comedy comes from mounting social awkwardness rather than punchlines. Very British.

Late Night: For Those Still Awake

Midnight Mass from Our Lady of the English Martyrs, Cambridge - BBC One, 11:50pm

The traditional first Mass of Christmas, live from one of the largest Roman Catholic churches in the UK. Mozart's Coronation Mass, Poulenc's O Magnum Mysterium, carols, readings, and the blessing of the crib. A reflective way to usher in Christmas Day if you're still awake.

If You're Not Into Festive Drama

Film Choices

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial is on ITV1 at 1:35pm. Spielberg's masterpiece is 43 years old and still reduces people to puddles. If you haven't watched it in years, remedy that.

Citizen Kane is on BBC Two at 9am for the early risers. Orson Welles's debut remains astonishing - the ambition evident from the first frame. And what's more Christmassy than a man who has everything except the thing he really wants?

What's on Streaming

Netflix - Kate Winslet's directorial debut Goodbye June lands today. Helen Mirren plays her terminally ill mother in what sounds like a quality weepy. Tissues again.

BBC iPlayer - Gavin & Stacey: The Finale will be available immediately after broadcast. Expect it to break streaming records.

ITVX - Love Actually and E.T. for catch-up if you miss the broadcast times.

The Viewing Schedule Table

Final Verdict

Christmas Eve's schedule is stacked, but let's be honest: this is about Gavin & Stacey. Sixteen years of wondering what Nessa said to Smithy ends tonight. Clear the living room at 8:25pm. If you need something after the emotions settle, Mark Gatiss's ghost story offers a palate cleanser of a very different kind. Happy Christmas Eve.

Nick Bain writes about television for TVRadar.co.uk