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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Phil Harrison, Jack Seale, Ellen E Jones and Hannah Verdier

TV tonight: cheese, chips and cookies – it’s Nigella’s Amsterdam Christmas

Nigella Lawson explores her family connections with Amsterdam
Let them eat cake … Nigella Lawson explores her family connections with Amsterdam. Photograph: Jay Brooks/BBC Studios

Nigella’s Amsterdam Christmas

8pm, BBC One

Nigella Lawson has longstanding family ties to Amsterdam and this special sees her dipping into the unique festive ambience of the city to create some meals in its spirit. She visits a liquorice shop, a cheese emporium and a chip shop with queues round the block, then plans a menu. Traditional Dutch cookies represent continuity with the past, while a chicken biryani reflects Amsterdam’s multicultural present. Phil Harrison

The Great British Sewing Bee: Celebrity Christmas Special

9pm, BBC One

New host! Kiell Smith-Bynoe, of Ghosts, Stath Lets Flats and Taskmaster fame, takes over as presenter of the comradely embroidery contest, easing himself in with the celebrity version – in which he himself competed in 2021. Needling furiously here are punk singer Toyah Willcox, Black Ops star Hammed Animashaun and comic actors Kerry Godliman and Jessica Knappett. Jack Seale

The Real Vanishing Act: Missing Millionaires

9pm, ITV1

There’s no need to have watched ITV’s Australian true-crime drama Vanishing Act – which has been streamed across this week over on ITVX. This accompanying documentary, also exploring the real-life story of fraudster Melissa Caddick, is fascinating regardless. In November 2020, amid an investigation of her estimated $30m fraud, the then 49-year-old Caddick walked out of her seafront Sydney mansion and disappeared. Had she engineered her own escape from justice? Or was something more sinister at play? Ellen E Jones

All Creatures Great and Small Christmas Special

9pm, Channel 5

Slightly counterintuitively, this revival of a much-loved show manages to work on its own terms by changing almost nothing – the drama exists in a delightful bubble of innocence and is none the worse for it. Tonight, Darrowby is preparing for a community Christmas celebration and James is determined to get home to an emotional Helen. She’s in the latter stages of pregnancy, so no prizes for guessing where this may be going. PH

Joe Lycett presenting Late Night Lycett: It's Christmas!
Do they know it’s Christmas? Joe Lycett certainly does. Photograph: Patch Dolan/Channel 4

Late Night Lycett: It’s Christmas!

10pm, Channel 4

Like forgetting to switch off the Christmas lights and moving the elf on the shelf, Joe Lycett is now a festive late-night staple. Of course, Linda Biscuits, Hardev from the shop and Lycett’s quiche-brandishing aunties are on the guest list, but there’s also Self Esteem, Aisling Bea, Guz Khan, Shaun Ryder and Mel B. Plus, a celebrity secret Santa makes the pilgrimage to Birmingham to join the party. Hannah Verdier

A Very Brassic Christmas

10pm, Sky Max

It seems almost inevitable that a Brassic Christmas special will involve some sort of heist. And so it proves, as a raid on a winter wonderland becomes a route to saving Christmas. Elsewhere, look out for a typically roguish take on the nativity story. Featuring big-name guest turns from Greg Davies and Imelda Staunton. PH

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