Happy Valley And Motherland In BBC's Christmas TV Line-Up This Year

Christmas films may be iconic (Love Actually and The Holiday, anyone?), but Christmas TV was made for sitting down with a blanket and a cup of tea.

The BBC has just announced this year’s Christmas programming, and we’re in for a treat as hit shows such as Motherland and Call The Midwife are getting festive specials, while Happy Valley is set to return for its third and final season.

Also on the roster include a special screening of Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel, in which he will spin a yuletide wheel with guests like Alesha Dixon and Bear Grylls.

There will also be a Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special, Richard Osman will host new episodes of the Festive House of Games, and The Graham Norton Show will return with a New Year’s Eve edition.

The new season of Happy Valley marks the end of the show’s six-year hiatus and we will finally be able to watch the third and last season of the hit crime drama.

Sarah Lancashire will return as Sergeant Catherine Carwood in the multi-BAFTA award winning hit show, which will involve Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) and Catherine’s now-16-year-old grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah).

According to the BBC, after Catherine discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir, it sparks a chain of events that leads her straight back to Royce, and Ryan has his “own ideas” about the sort of relationship he wants with Royce, who is his father.

Elsewhere, Motherland: Last Christmas will see the mums and Kevin (Paul Ready) get back together as they prepare for a blended Christmas celebration.

The BBC’s schedule also includes some original films, such as an adaptation of Charlie Mackesy’s best-selling book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

The story will follow the unlikely friendship of (you guessed it) a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse travelling together in the young boy’s search for home. An uplifting Christmas tale indeed which might make a nice change of pace from, you know, murders in the Yorkshire Dales.

Here’s a full rundown of the shows added to the BBC Christmas TV schedule:

BBC One