TV tonight: our highlights for Tuesday 22nd December

watch All Creatures Great and Small Christmas 2020 special online - James and Helen

All Creatures Great and Small Christmas special is just one of the gems today...

All Creatures Great and Small gets festive with a Christmas special, The Goes Wrong Show brings us hilarious calamities and Being Bridget Jones reveals an insight into the classic movies. Here's what you shouldn’t miss tonight. 

  • Our hand-selected recommendations for what's on TV tonight include three TV shows, a film, live sport and the latest trending need-to-binge-on-now box set 
  • Keep up to date with the latest soap spoiler storylines on TV tonight with our daily soap synopsis 
  • For more information about what’s on TV tonight see our TV Guide 

What's on TV tonight 

Our expert TV journalists have picked the best things on TV tonight... 

Best TV shows on TV tonight

All Creatures Great and Small Christmas special, 9pm, Channel 5

All Creatures Great and Small 2020 Christmas special

A festive special of the much-loved vet series airs tonight (Picture: Channel 5) (Image credit: Playground Television (UK) Ltd.)

The fresh but nostalgic take on James Herriot’s tales has been one of our favourite dramas of 2020 and this festive instalment is a treat. At a Christmas Eve bash, not everyone is in a party mood, as Mrs Hall’s awaiting the arrival of her estranged son, Helen’s nervous about her wedding to Hugh, and James is sad about losing her. So it might not be wise for Helen and James to tend to a pregnant dog together… Full of twists, mistletoe and a donkey, sit back and enjoy! ★★★★★ CC

Being Bridget Jones, 9pm, BBC2 

A lot has changed in the 25 years since journalist Helen Fielding started documenting the trials and tribulations (and calories consumed and alcohol drunk) of Bridget Jones in a newspaper column. Three hit movies later this entertaining tribute looks back at how the misadventures of a single 30-something became a phenomenon, and how attitudes to women have evolved. Featuring interviews with Helen, Colin Firth, Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, and a host of celebrity fans. ★★★★ JL

The Goes Wrong Show, 7pm, BBC1 

After last Christmas’ calamitous performance resulting in a drunken Santa and the set falling on the cast, the BBC has refused to fund any more of Cornley Polytechnic Dramatic Society’s works, so this year’s Nativity has corporate sponsorship… Cue the greatest story ever told with financial advice. Fear not, there’s still the hilarious slapstick and disasters we’ve come to expect from the Goes Wrong gang, including nine wise men and a fire… ★★★LP

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

Call the Midwife, BBC iPlayer, series 1 to 9

TV Tonight, Call the Midwife

Catch up on all the drama from Poplar before the Christmas special (Picture: BBC/Neal Street Productions/Soph) (Image credit: BBC/Neal Street Productions/Soph)

Call the Midwife is back on BBC1 for a Christmas special, so why not binge watch the entire nine series before tuning in on Christmas Day? Or, if you're new to Call the Midwife, now is your chance to catch up on all the drama from Poplar. Based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife follows a group of midwifes in the poverty-stricken East End of London in the 1950s. 

Best film to watch on TV tonight

Love Actually, 10am & 5.40pm, Sky Cinema Christmas/NOW TV

TV tonight Love Actually

Martine McCutcheon stars in Christmas movie Love Actually

 Yes, we’ve seen it countless times, but this really is the perfect Christmas romcom. If you haven’t seen the film, it has all the makings of being overly sentimental, but thanks to the writing and the performances, is surprisingly good, and very involving. It examines eight intertwining love stories, including Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister falling for tea girl Martine McCutcheon. But it’s Bill Nighy’s jaded popstar that steals the film. Great fun. ★★★★ IR

Live sport

  • League Cup quarter final: Brentford v Newcastle United, 5pm (k-o 5.30pm), Sky Sports
  • League Cup quarter final: Arsenal v Manchester City, 7.30pm, (k-o 8pm), Sky Sports

Soaps on TV tonight

If you watch just one thing on TV tonight… 

Don't miss The Vicar of Dibley for the final lockdown episode.

Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide. 

Happy viewing!

Claire Crick
Assistant Managing Editor at What To Watch

Claire is Assistant Managing Editor at What To Watch and has been a journalist for over 15 years, writing about everything from soaps and TV to beauty, entertainment, and even the Royal Family. After starting her career at a soap magazine, she ended up staying for 13 years, and over that time she’s pulled pints in the Rovers Return, sung karaoke in the Emmerdale village hall, taken a stroll around Albert Square, and visited Summer Bay Surf Club in sunny Australia. 

After learning some tricks of the trade at websites Digital Spy, Entertainment Daily, and Woman & Home, Claire landed a role at What’s On TV and whattowatch.com writing about all things TV and film, with a particular love for Aussie soaps, Strictly Come Dancing and Bake Off

She’s interviewed everyone from June Brown — AKA Dot Cotton — to Michelle Keegan, swapped cooking tips with baking legend Mary Berry backstage at the NTAs, and danced the night away with soap stars at countless awards bashes. There’s not a lot she doesn’t know about soaps and TV and can be very handy when a soapy question comes up in a pub quiz! 

As well as all things soap-related, Claire also loves running, spa breaks, days out with her kids, and getting lost in a good book.