A Very JLS Christmas | Strictly Come Dancing | The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song | Merlin | Arena: Screen Goddesses | Hemingway & Gellhorn | The Descendants | Rare Exports: a Christmas Tale
*A Very JLS Christmas
6pm, Sky1*
Ninety-minute festive special hosted by the titular boyband. Likely to be watched by equal parts enthralled acolytes and alcoholically insulated parents wistfully anticipating their pre-teen offspring's imminent arrival in adolescence, when they will self-righteously disown such childish things as talent-show pop. JLS invite viewers into their own Winter Wonderland, where they will perform a special Yuletide show, and submit to exclusive backstage interviews, as if the world was presently plagued by a shortage of information about the 2008 X Factor runners-up. Andrew Mueller
*Strictly Come Dancing
6.30pm, BBC1*
Strictly has waltzed away with the Saturday night viewing figures this year, leaving that rival karaoke show flapping in its wake. So here comes the final, and it's a perfect piece of cross-generational comfort telly. There have been some brilliant moments this series, from Kimberley Walsh's cha-cha/tango mash-up to Lisa Riley's determination to dance her way out of the Ann Widdecombe role and become a real contender. With three couples left in the final, the competition's still wide open and standards will be high. Tess and Brucie provide the lightest of banter and wheel out a superstar or two. Hannah Verdier
*The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song
6.30pm, ITV1*
It's Fairytale of New York!![ext]()
Well, if it isn't, then this is a deeply flawed look at the business of the Christmas single. But you shall have to wait and see. Of course, the perennial names feature here, from Wizzard to Wham! via Johnny Mathis. But chances are - it having been the soundtrack to panic-buying in the days preceding broadcast – by this stage you may be a little scarred by jingling bells and Brummies bellowing "It's Christmas!" into your psyche. Ben Arnold
*Merlin
7.55pm, BBC1*
After five series imagining the early days of the Arthurian legend characters, it's almost time for Merlin to put his spells away for good, though there is talk that a possible spin-off series is in gestation. In the first of a final two-parter (which concludes Monday), it all kicks off, as Morgana wages war on Camelot, with Mordred on-side as an ally. No doubt the responsibility for the kingdom's salvation will fall on Merlin, while the ancient prophecies play out and his destiny starts bothering him as well. Martin Skegg
*Arena: Screen Goddesses
9pm, BBC4*
Almost from the off, Tinseltown recognised the power of the female star. So much so, argues this documentary composed of film clips and archive interviews, that its most favoured daughters during the studio era became goddesses; actors around whom movies were crafted. First to get this treatment was vampish Theda Bara. Lillian Gish and Clara Bow followed, after which we can start to talk in surnames only: Garbo, Hayworth and more. A primer on how to read cinema that grapples with the strange alchemy of why the camera favours certain faces. Jonathan Wright
*Hemingway & Gellhorn
9pm, Sky Atlantic*
Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman star as lovers Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn in this literary raunch-fest. It's not a great script, and Kidman's ageing makeup (as the older Gellhorn) gives the curious effect of a wrinkled face that doesn't move at all. Owen gives it his all as the misanthropic writer, but with Kidman's "gottle of geer" performance and the often naff dialogue, things fall a bit flat. Gellhorn is given a conscience so she seems less of a bitch; really she needed to be a force of nature. A limp handshake. Julia Raeside
*The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011)
10.15pm, 2.30am, Sky Movies Premiere*
Movie-life often looks so easy for the effortlessly suave George Clooney, but in Payne's complex, bittersweet adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel, he's drowning in problems. Clooney is a lawyer and patriarch of a leading family in Hawaii, and when his wife (Patricia Hastie) suffers a speedboat accident, he has to deal with precocious daughters, greedy relations, his responsibility to the islands and, not least, the revelation that his wife was cheating on him: another exceptional and compelling comedy from the writer-director of Sideways. Paul Howlett
*Rare Exports: a Christmas Tale (Jalmari Helander, 2010)
1am, Channel 4*
Here's a real Christmas surprise: a Santa Claus movie crossed with John Carpenter's The Thing. According to Finnish legend, Santa is more demon than do-gooder, and in this witty, suspenseful horror story, American drillers blast the creature out of its frozen Arctic slumber. Only young reindeer herder Pietari (Onni Tommila) and his pals can save the day: a real original, this. Paul Howlett Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
*A Very JLS Christmas
6pm, Sky1*
Ninety-minute festive special hosted by the titular boyband. Likely to be watched by equal parts enthralled acolytes and alcoholically insulated parents wistfully anticipating their pre-teen offspring's imminent arrival in adolescence, when they will self-righteously disown such childish things as talent-show pop. JLS invite viewers into their own Winter Wonderland, where they will perform a special Yuletide show, and submit to exclusive backstage interviews, as if the world was presently plagued by a shortage of information about the 2008 X Factor runners-up. Andrew Mueller
*Strictly Come Dancing
6.30pm, BBC1*
Strictly has waltzed away with the Saturday night viewing figures this year, leaving that rival karaoke show flapping in its wake. So here comes the final, and it's a perfect piece of cross-generational comfort telly. There have been some brilliant moments this series, from Kimberley Walsh's cha-cha/tango mash-up to Lisa Riley's determination to dance her way out of the Ann Widdecombe role and become a real contender. With three couples left in the final, the competition's still wide open and standards will be high. Tess and Brucie provide the lightest of banter and wheel out a superstar or two. Hannah Verdier
*The Nation's Favourite Christmas Song
6.30pm, ITV1*
It's Fairytale of New York!
Well, if it isn't, then this is a deeply flawed look at the business of the Christmas single. But you shall have to wait and see. Of course, the perennial names feature here, from Wizzard to Wham! via Johnny Mathis. But chances are - it having been the soundtrack to panic-buying in the days preceding broadcast – by this stage you may be a little scarred by jingling bells and Brummies bellowing "It's Christmas!" into your psyche. Ben Arnold*Merlin
7.55pm, BBC1*
After five series imagining the early days of the Arthurian legend characters, it's almost time for Merlin to put his spells away for good, though there is talk that a possible spin-off series is in gestation. In the first of a final two-parter (which concludes Monday), it all kicks off, as Morgana wages war on Camelot, with Mordred on-side as an ally. No doubt the responsibility for the kingdom's salvation will fall on Merlin, while the ancient prophecies play out and his destiny starts bothering him as well. Martin Skegg
*Arena: Screen Goddesses
9pm, BBC4*
Almost from the off, Tinseltown recognised the power of the female star. So much so, argues this documentary composed of film clips and archive interviews, that its most favoured daughters during the studio era became goddesses; actors around whom movies were crafted. First to get this treatment was vampish Theda Bara. Lillian Gish and Clara Bow followed, after which we can start to talk in surnames only: Garbo, Hayworth and more. A primer on how to read cinema that grapples with the strange alchemy of why the camera favours certain faces. Jonathan Wright
*Hemingway & Gellhorn
9pm, Sky Atlantic*
Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman star as lovers Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn in this literary raunch-fest. It's not a great script, and Kidman's ageing makeup (as the older Gellhorn) gives the curious effect of a wrinkled face that doesn't move at all. Owen gives it his all as the misanthropic writer, but with Kidman's "gottle of geer" performance and the often naff dialogue, things fall a bit flat. Gellhorn is given a conscience so she seems less of a bitch; really she needed to be a force of nature. A limp handshake. Julia Raeside
*The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011)
10.15pm, 2.30am, Sky Movies Premiere*
Movie-life often looks so easy for the effortlessly suave George Clooney, but in Payne's complex, bittersweet adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel, he's drowning in problems. Clooney is a lawyer and patriarch of a leading family in Hawaii, and when his wife (Patricia Hastie) suffers a speedboat accident, he has to deal with precocious daughters, greedy relations, his responsibility to the islands and, not least, the revelation that his wife was cheating on him: another exceptional and compelling comedy from the writer-director of Sideways. Paul Howlett
*Rare Exports: a Christmas Tale (Jalmari Helander, 2010)
1am, Channel 4*
Here's a real Christmas surprise: a Santa Claus movie crossed with John Carpenter's The Thing. According to Finnish legend, Santa is more demon than do-gooder, and in this witty, suspenseful horror story, American drillers blast the creature out of its frozen Arctic slumber. Only young reindeer herder Pietari (Onni Tommila) and his pals can save the day: a real original, this. Paul Howlett Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.