Catch up: the best TV this winter

Sherlock returns, BBC1

Three feature-length episodes starring everyone's favourite pin-up, Benedict Cumberbatch and his trusty side-kick Martin Freeman return to BBC1 this Christmas.

Moriarty is now very much dead, we trust, so who is the baddie? Enter Culverton Smith (Toby Jones) who has been described by the writers as “the darkest villain we’ve ever written”.

Witness for the Prosecution, BBC1

Last year’s Agatha Christie special, And Then There Were None, was a big Christmas hitter, which bodes well for this glamorous murder mystery.

Christie returns to our screens this winter with Sex in the City's Kim Cattrall, who stars as the glamorous and rich Emily French in the 1920s set drama.

Also starring Toby Jones and Andrea Riseborough, Witness for the Prosecution is the centrepiece of the BBC's Christmas line-up.

The Last Dragonslayer, Sky1

After you've opened the presents and eaten the turkey, why not invite a fire breathing dragon into your sitting room this Christmas day?

Sky1 is adapting Jasper Fforde's first in a series of novels to bring us a cinematic drama starring Ellise Chappell, John Bradley (Game of Thrones) and Richard E. Grant.

This epic adventure is set in the UK and combines the magical world of witches, wizards with the ordinary world of supermarkets and everyday British life, as an indentured orphan Jennifer Strange discovers her destiny is to become the last Dragonslayer.

Maigret’s Dead Man, ITV Christmas day

Rowan Atkinson stars in ITV's adaptation of the mystery novel by Georges Simenon. When a series of vicious, murderous attacks on three wealthy farms in Picardy hit the national headlines the elite Brigade Criminelle at the Quay Des Orfevres is called upon.

Revolting Rhymes, BBC

A new story weaved together from Roald Dahl’s alternative book of Fairy Tale poems, Revolting Rhymes arrives on BBC this Christmas retelling classic fairytales with a different twist and ending.

Written by Dahl in 1982, but the BBC has put a modern new spin on them as two half-hour films. At least one of them is expected to air on Christmas Day.

Alan Bennett's Diaries, BBC2

Inspired by his acerbic and hilarious personal journals, Alan Bennett's Diaries follows the playwright to the places that have been significant in his life, from New York (where he had his early triumph in comedy stage revue Beyond the Fringe) to Shepherd's Bush. And, of course, a trip to the Yorkshire village he still calls home.

Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker, BBC

No tickets to the Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker this year? Watch it from the comfort of your home instead on the BBC.

A classic firmly embedded in the festive season’s imagination, and surely one of the finest Christmas ballets anywhere, the Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker is a sumptuous affair featuring Tchaikovsky’s twinkling score.

Ethel and Ernest: heartwarming Christmas film, BBC

For more than 30 years, Christmas magic was captured by Raymond Briggs' classic story The Snowman, broadcast on Channel 4.

This year, the BBC hopes to keep some of that Christmas spirit for itself, with another tear-jerking Raymond Briggs' story. Adapted from Briggs’ book of the same name, this will tell the story of his mother and father who met in 1928, and will track the key moments throughout 20th century London, from the Second World War to the first man on the moon.

Ethel and Ernest will be voiced by Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent.

Barry, Netflix

As the US president prepares to leave office on 20 January, Netflix has tracked his past for a biopic based around the life of Barack Obama as a student at Columbia University, contemplating race and identity in America in the 1980s.

Devon Terrell stars as the 20-year-old Obama in the film, directed by Vice on HBO and documentarian Vikram Gandhi.

Life in the Snow, BBC

If you were in love with Planet Earth II this November, then Life in the Snow is the Christmas programme for you. Gordon Buchanan meets the animals who make their home in the snow, revealing how these remarkable animals living in the world’s most spectacular winter wonderlands have conquered the cold.

Spend Christmas with the polar bear mother who gives her cubs the best possible start in life, the owl that catches food hidden beneath a blanket of snow, and the plucky penguins that huddle together to keep warm.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong, BBC1

Since the eye-wateringly funny The Play that Goes Wrong arrived in London's West End, the Olivier-award winning theatre company behind it has gone from strength to strength.

This Christmas, Peter Pan Goes Wrong by the same team is not only on in the West End, but being broadcast on our TV screens.

This is the ridiculous, calamitous story of The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, who attempt to stage a performance of JM Barrie's classic children's story, with disastrous results. Peter Pan must fly through the air, Captain Hook and his pirates must sail across the lagoon, Tinkerbell must light up the stage in a beautiful luminous costume. Easy peasy. No need to panic.

To Walk the Invisible

A new look at the extraordinary Brontë family, To Walk the Invisible is the story of these three remarkable women who, despite the obstacles they faced, came from obscurity to produce some of the greatest novels in the English language.

Written and directed by multi Bafta-winner Sally Wainwright and filmed in and around Yorkshire, this BBC One original one-off drama stars Jonathan Pryce, Chloe Pirrie, Finn Atkins, Charlie Murphy and Adam Nagaitis.

Delicious, Sky1

A new 4 part drama starring Dawn French and Emilia Fox comes to Sky1 to fill the dead time between Christmas and New Year.

Dysfunctional and hilarious, it is the story of a charming chef and hotel owner whose ex-wife and sensual Italian cook Gina has an unsettling relationship with his new wife.

Set in the stunning Cornish countryside, Delicious is an honest, compelling and uplifting story of love, sex, betrayal, food and female friendship, where things are never quite as they seem.