Programme Information

Combining the Christmas lunch and Aunt Sal's 70th birthday, Ronnie and Roxy do their best to ease the Mitchells's financial burden, in tonight's visit to Walford. Aunt Sal provides some unexpected yet impressive entertainment.

Meanwhile, Amira visits her father, Qadim, to inform him of her exciting news but doesn't get the reaction she expected.

Aunt Sal is played by Anna Karen, Ronnie by Samantha Womack, Roxy by Rita Simons, Amira by Preeya Kalidas and Qadim by Ramon Tikaram.

JM3

To top

Gavin is uncomfortable with Gwen and Bryn knowing the ins and outs of his and Stacey's sex life, as the Bafta Award-winning comedy series continues. Meanwhile, Smithy goes beyond the call of friendship by making a staggering suggestion.

Later, Pete and Dawn prepare to renew their wedding vows and everyone heads to Billericay to help them celebrate. But how will Dave react to the bombshell revelation about the curry night in Essex?

Gavin is played by Mathew Horne, Gwen by Melanie Walters, Bryn by Rob Brydon, Stacey by Joanna Page, Pete by Adrian Scarborough, Dawn by Julia Davies and Dave by Steffan Rhodri.

CS

David Moore and Sarah Willingham help Raymond Blanc make his final decision

It's the final and just two of the nine couples remain.

Raymond Blanc and investors Sarah Willingham and David Moore must now decide which couple will become their new business partners but, first, a huge challenge lies ahead.

The two remaining chefs head for Raymond's famous restaurant in Oxfordshire for a cooking lesson, while their front-of-house partners are given a lesson in providing a high level of service at David's exclusive restaurant in London.

It's all preparation for their final challenge: to serve a prestigious banquet for Lord and Lady Arran and their exclusive guests at their stately home in Devon. The banquet will be a six-course meal and the couples will compete by making alternate courses. They then face a head-to-head cook-off with a soufflé for dessert. Lord and Lady Arran have high standards – service at Castle Hill is steeped in tradition. One wrong move and the butler could step in.

Raymond, Sarah and David are there to watch as the couples do their best to show that they should win the prize of a lifetime – a restaurant partnership with all three of them.

JD/PA

Russell Howard is in a festive mood

Viewers are invited to hang up their Christmas stockings for a festive edition of Russell Howard's Good News.

Usually seen offering his unique perspective on the big stories dominating the media across TV, online and in print, as well as picking up on those sometimes overlooked things that make him smile, this seasonal special sees Russell taking on traditional yuletide topics and considering some of the more unusual aspects of the mince pie and sherry soaked merry-go-round we call Christmas.

APR

BBC Four celebrates this season's festivities with a multi-artist session featuring a host of contemporary folk talent.

Including performances by the critically acclaimed 11-piece folk group Bellowhead, 2008 Mercury nominees The Unthanks and vocalist and fiddle player Lisa Knapp, this seasonal celebration also features special guests including singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore.

The gathered artists perform seasonal songs of their own alongside yuletide favourites, ranging from beautiful ballads and folk carols to carousing dance numbers, with everyone coming together for a rousing folk finale.

At the atmospheric Shoreditch Town Hall, a new venue for BBC Four Sessions, the setting evokes an old music hall sprinkled with hints of a festive Victorian family parlour. The session sees a heady mix of rural folk traditions with a burlesque twist and promises to be a night of midwinter merriment to remember.

SG

To top

A Child's Christmases In Wales

Thursday 17 December

10.00-11.00pm BBC FOUR

BBC Four celebrates A Child's Christmases In Wales

Ruth Jones stars in A Child's Christmases In Wales, a charming seasonal single comedy drama for BBC Four written by comedian Mark Watson.

The "child's Christmas" evoked by Dylan Thomas, and the inspiration for this captivating story, is a montage of many idyllic, colourful festive seasons rolled into one delicious dream. But for young Owen Rhys, growing up in a terraced house in Eighties South Wales, Christmas is a rather less poetic affair – though just as eventful.

Every Christmas, the peace and quiet of Owen's house – where he lives with his pessimistic father and his obsessively tidy mother – is shattered by the arrival of three family members: Owen's two uncles and his cousin, Maurice. In a series of glimpses from three Christmases across the decade, Owen and Maurice grow from boys into young men, while his dad and uncles seem to regress to a childhood of sibling rivalry and Owen's mum watches in despair.

The years change but the Christmas routine remains the same. Dad and his older brother, Hugh, bicker and undermine each other; Hugh's son, Maurice, and Owen are forced into competitive games which play out their respective fathers' rivalries; the youngest brother, Gorwel, the black sheep of the family, arrives late, hands out badly judged presents and usually destroys the bathroom; while Owen's mother, Brenda, tries to prevent everything from going to pieces.

Yet despite all this antagonism there is a peculiar joy in the certainty that they couldn't really have Christmas without the family.

Mum is played by Ruth Jones, Dad by Mark Lewis Jones, Uncle Huw by Steve Speirs and Uncle Gorwel by Paul Kaye.

A Child's Christmases In Wales is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC's High Definition channel, available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.

AF2