The Last Word Christmas TV Guide

We asked our regular tv panel, Christine Bohan and Patrick Freyne, to pick their Christmas tv highlights. This is what they came up with.   

PATRICK  and CHRISTINE BOTH CHOSE:

1. The Rubber Bandits Guide To 1916 (New Year's Eve, RTE 2, 11pm) The Rubberbandits crash through Irish history from Brian Boru, through the Famine and right up to Irish independence, with the help of the Trout of No Craic, Willie O'DJ, some lads from the local takeaway and a goat.
2. Sherlock (BBC 1, New Year's Day 9pm) Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson go back in time to London in the 1890s to investigate what appears to be a murderous ghost dressed in her wedding gown.

PATRICK ALSO CHOSE

1. Snow Chick: A Penguins Tale – (BBC 1 8.30 Wednesday, December 23): Kate Winslet narrates a BBC natural history film following the fortunes of a young Emperor Penguin. Snow Chick was shot in an Antarctic Midwinter – where temperatures plummet to -60 degrees Celsius – and follows the fortunes of the tiny creature’s first precarious months on the ice.
2. The Al Porter Show – (RTE 2, Christmas Eve, 9.45pm) - a variety show with a old school/newschool mix. 
3. Maureen O'Hara and The Quiet Man (TG4 Christmas Day, 5.45pm) - a documentary all about John Ford's classic.
4. Dickensian – This is a soapy murder mystery starring characters from Charles Dickens books that begins its 20-part run on BBC on St Stephen’s Day at 7pm.

CHRISTINE ALSO CHOSE

1. Final ever episode of Downton Abbey on Christmas Day. (Note: This won’t be on UTV Ireland, so if you don’t have a satellite dish, you’ll have to wait until St Stephen’s Day on TV3 -9pm - to see it).
2. Gogglesprogs (Channel 4, Christmas Day, 8pm). It's like Gogglebox, except with children.
3. Well Holy God it's Glenroe (Sunday 27 December,RTE One, 9.30 pm) - as the name suggests, it's a look back at the late, great Glenroe.
4. All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride – (BBC4, Christmas Eve, 8pm) this is a 2 hour programme just showing a sleigh ride across the Arctic on BBC4 and looks ridiculously lovely. 
5. Mrs Brown. ON RTÉ One it’s a Mrs Brown’s Boys bonanza as Brendan O’Carroll’s smash hit show returns for two new Christmas specials, airing on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, plus Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie is the big movie on Christmas Night
6. Luke Kelly: Prince of the City, (29 December at 9.30pm) Utilising RTE’s Library alongside rare material from The Dubliners private archive collection, stars recall Kelly’s life.