What To Watch Over The Christmas Break

Following its summer release at the cinema, Brad Pitt’s F1 has landed on Apple TV. In the 1990s, Sonny Hayes (Pitt) was Formula 1's most promising driver until an accident on the track nearly ended his career. Thirty years later, the owner of a struggling Formula 1 team convinces Sonny to return to racing and become the best in the world. Driving alongside the team's hotshot rookie, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), Sonny soon learns that the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.

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Emily Cooper is back – only this time she’s swapping the Seine for the streets of Rome. Landing on Netflix this month, season five promises a tale of two cities as Emily takes on new challenges in career and love. It’ll be more of the same: signature fashion moments, escapist glamour and headline-making plot twists that have made the show a global obsession – all set against an ultra-romantic Italian backdrop.

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This one’s well worth catching up with over Christmas, as there’s still one more episode to drop. Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan worked with Rhea Seehorn on Better Call Saul. He liked what she did so much, he created a show just for her. This is it: a post-apocalyptic thriller that, like his most famous series, is set in Alburquerque. Except this time, most of humanity has succumbed to a virus that joins everyone together in an endlessly happy hive mind. Seehorn’s Carol – cynical, angry, independent minded – appears to be immune. As the full extent of Carol’s situation is unpacked across nine episodes, Seehorn delivers the performance Gilligan hoped for: obstinate and unbreakable in the face of both existential crises and medical emergencies.

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This is the series to binge-watch ahead of series two arriving in February. Brought to the screen by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, this six-part series is set in the perilous world of illegal boxing in 1880s Victorian London. Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), best friends from Jamaica, find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly as they enter London’s thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene. Hezekiah finds fortune and fame through the art of pugilism, but he attracts the attention of the infamous Queen of the Forty Elephants, Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), who sets about exploiting his talents to further her criminal enterprise. Meanwhile, the menacing and self-declared emperor of the East End boxing world, Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), determines to destroy Hezekiah, whose ambitions to fight in the West End threaten everything he has built.

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New to Netflix this month, Jay Kelly is the latest film from Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, Frances Ha). It follows famous movie actor Jay Kelly (George Clooney) as he embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting both his past and present, accompanied by his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler). Poignant and humorous, epic and intimate, the film is pitched at the intersection of life's regrets and notable glories.

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This film is new to Netflix – and this, plus the two previous films in the series, are just the things to press play on when the whole family doesn’t fancy a rerun of Mrs Brown’s Boys. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapter of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery opus. When young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is sent to assist charismatic firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), it’s clear that all is not well in the pews. Wicks’s modest-but-devoted flock includes devout church lady Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), circumspect groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), tightly wound lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), aspiring politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), bestselling author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott) and concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny). After a sudden and seemingly impossible murder rocks the town, the lack of an obvious suspect prompts local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to join forces with the renowned Detective Blanc to unravel a mystery that defies all logic.

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BBC’s Motherland has built a cult following, so it was no surprise to see its spin-off Amandaland (by co-creators Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh and Helen Serafinowicz) take off in the same way. Starring Lucy Punch, Joanna Lumley and Philippa Dunne, the 2025 comedy picked up after the end of Motherland, as post-divorce Amanda has had to downsize and relocate to South Harlesden – or, as the estate agent insists, SoHa. Now they’re all back for BBC 1’s headline 9pm slot on Christmas Day. Amanda and the family head to Aunt Joan’s country house but the plans change when Mal and Anne tag along and she struggles to recreate the magical Christmases she spent there as a child. Anne is in despair at being separated from her family, and Felicity is increasingly irritated by her sister’s constant high spirits. Meanwhile, Mal sees a hidden photo that seems to reveal a deep family secret.

Christmas Day

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Sky Original’s Amadeus stars Will Sharpe (Giri/Haji, The White Lotus) as musical prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Paul Bettany (A Very British Scandal) as envious court composer Antonio Salieri, and Gabrielle Creevy (Black Doves) as Constanze Weber, Mozart’s fiercely loyal wife. Based on Peter Shaffer’s award-winning stage play and boldly adapted by Joe Barton (Black Doves, Giri/Haji, The Lazarus Project), this five-parter explores the meteoric rise and mythic downfall of one of the world’s greatest composers. When 25-year-old Amadeus arrives in 18th-century Vienna, no longer a child prodigy and craving creative freedom, his world collides with two pivotal figures. Amadeus is a threat to all that Salieri holds dear: his talent, his reputation, even his faith in God – and so Salieri vows to bring him down. What begins as professional rivalry turns into a deeply personal obsession spanning 30 years, culminating in a murder confession and a desperate attempt to entwine himself with Mozart’s legacy forever. 

21st December

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The BBC's ghost story for Christmas 2025 is Mark Gatiss's adaptation of EF Benson's The Room in the Tower. Set in 1944, Roger strikes up a conversation with Verity, a Wren, while sheltering during an air raid. When he asks if she dreams, he begins to recount the haunting vision that has followed him for most of his life: a recurring dream of a mysterious house, a silent family on the lawn and an unseen, unidentified terror lurking in the room in the tower. But when he is invited to stay at a country estate eerily similar to the one in his dreams, and is assigned the very same room, he becomes increasingly disturbed as his nightmares begin to become reality…

Christmas Eve

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Marty Supreme is the forthcoming American sports comedy-drama film produced and directed by Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems), loosely inspired by American table tennis player Marty Reisman. Starring and co-produced by Timothée Chalamet, the film also features Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher in supporting roles. The drama is set in New York City during the 1950s, and focuses on up-and-coming table tennis star Marty Mauser as he goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness. We’re already loving the merch Chalamet and pals (including Tom Brady, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner) have been rocking in the lead up to the film’s cinema release on Boxing Day.

26th December

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Great news – The Traitors returns for its third series on New Year's Day. Hosted by the ever-popular Claudia Winkleman, this thrilling, award-winning reality show brings together a fresh group of strangers, each vying for a shot at £120,000 in a game of lies, loyalty and betrayal. With new faces and even bigger twists, who will make it to the end?

1st January 2026

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Fans of the BBC's 2016 smash-hit adaptation of John le Carré's The Night Manager will be happy to hear that two new seasons are in the pipeline – with the first set to start on New Year’s Day. Tom Hiddleston will reprise his role as Jonathan Pine in the hugely popular thriller, which will air on the BBC and Amazon Prime. Olivia Colman will also be back as Angela Burr, alongside Alistair Petrie as Sandy Langbourne and Douglas Hodge as Rex Mayhew. The new series will pick up eight years after the first season's dramatic conclusion.

1st January 2026

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