Television Time: What’s On BBC (December 2022)

Wrap up the year with the festive collection of shows from BBC Studios to put you in the mood for a whole month of merry-making and festivities this December.

Meet the real Christmas elves working behind the scenes to bring some of our favourite Christmas items in BBC Earth’s Inside The Christmas Factory. The best part of any holiday is always the food and BBC Lifestyle is ready to help you whet your appetite or get creative in the kitchen for all the feasting to come with The Great British Bake Off: Christmas Special.

Soak up the holiday spirit from the comfort of your couch and cosy up at home with your loved ones as BBC First returns with all new popular favourites like Call The Midwife Christmas Special 2022, Death In Paradise Christmas Special 2022, All Creatures Great and Small S3, and many more. Whichever channel you’re on, there’s plenty to please the whole family this festive season. 

BBC Earth

Inside The Christmas Factory (2021)
Premieres 11th December, Sunday at 8:05pm, on StarHub channel 407, Singtel channel 203 and BBC Player

Discover the skill, scale and technology involved in the creation of your favourite foods and goods. The hosts visit some of the biggest factory production units in Britain and share details about the various processes that take place inside these factories. Family is power – more dramatic than any work of fiction, the world of growing families, power struggles and feuding rivals, is back.

Lion: The Rise and Fall of the Marsh Pride
Premiere 14th December,  Wednesday at 8:05pm, on StarHub channel 407, Singtel channel 203 and BBC Player

This ground-breaking film tells the epic saga of Kenya’s Marsh Pride, the most filmed lions on Earth, as they battle for survival.

Filmed for over 30 years this is a tale of shifting loyalties, bloody take-overs and sheer resilience. Told by those who filmed them, those who try to protect them and those who have to live alongside them. Habitat loss and huge population growth have driven Africa’s lions to the brink. The Marsh Pride have survived, but the threat is growing. While Kenya attempts to conserve them, the future for these apex predators hangs in the balance…

Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood
Premiere 3rd Dec,  Saturday at 7:10pm, on StarHub channel 407, Singtel channel 203 and BBC Player  

Health and fitness guru Joe Wicks explores his family’s struggles with mental illness – and the connection between physical and mental wellbeing. Joe Wicks has gone from being a popular health and fitness coach to a national treasure, drawing millions to his online PE sessions during lockdown. But behind the positivity is a poignant story: Joe was brought up by parents who struggled with their mental health. Joe revisits his childhood, talks with family and friends, and reveals how his experiences have motivated him to keep healthy. He meets children in similar situations, and investigates what can be done to improve the mental health of the nation’s families.

Inside The Factory S7
Premieres 18th December, Sunday at 8:05pm, on StarHub channel 407, Singtel channel 203 and BBC Player  

Discover the skill, scale and technology involved in the creation of your favourite foods and goods.

Gregg Wallace visits some of the largest factories in Europe to reveal the astonishing processes and machinery behind high-volume manufacturing. Outside the factory, Cherry Healey investigates the science and innovation behind each product, while historian Ruth Goodman reveals how it was invented and popularised.

BBC Lifestyle

The Great British Bake Off: Christmas Specials 2021
Premieres 5th December, Monday at 8:20pm, on StarHub channel 432, Singtel channel 255 and BBC Player

The stars of It’s A Sin will take to the tent to show off their baking skills to judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.

Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Matt Lucas and Tom Allen are joined by past bakers to celebrate New Year.

Gino’s Italian Family Adventure S1
Premieres 21st December, Wednesday at  7:00pm, on StarHub channel 432, Singtel channel 255 and BBC Player

Gino D’Acampo is back in his beloved Italy, but this time he’s taking his family to explore the hidden gems of Sardinia and the very best of Southern Italy.

CBeebies

JoJo & Gran Gran Sr 02 Set 02
Premieres 5th December, Monday to Friday at 6:25pm, on StarHub channel 303, Singtel channel 236 and BBC Player

JoJo and Gran Gran return to their bustling London neighbourhood with fun new characters. JoJo adores spending time with her energetic Gran Gran, who is always ready with a ‘Gran Gran Plan’ when JoJo comes to visit. Gran Gran moved to the UK from Saint Lucia when she was a young girl and the culture of Saint Lucia is woven across the show. This is a ground-breaking series about love, family, community and the special relationship between an inquisitive girl and her vibrant grandmother.

BBC First

Call The Midwife Christmas Special 2022
Premieres Friday, 26th December, on StarHub channel 502, Singtel channel 308 and BBC Player

It’s Christmas 1967 and life in Poplar is slowly returning to normal after the terrible train crash. December 1967. Life in Poplar is returning to normal after the terrible train crash. The midwives move the maternity clinic into new premises and one of their first patients is Rhoda Mullocks, who the team know well after her last baby was affected by Thalidomide. Nurse Crane cares for a pregnant single mother, recently released from prison, while Sister Frances attends a delivery in a garment factory. Elsewhere, Fred decides to raise money for the families affected by the train crash and suggests a festive talent show – Poplartunity Knocks!

Death In Paradise: Christmas Special 2022

A true-crime podcaster is murdered while on the hunt for a child who disappeared on Christmas Eve 1977 – and Selwyn’s past comes back to haunt him. There’s just one case that Selwyn has never solved – and this Christmas it will return to haunt him. As the inhabitants of Saint Marie prepare for the festive season, true-crime podcaster Jennifer Langan is found shot dead. Langan had been investigating the strange disappearance of a nine-year old boy on Christmas Eve in 1977. When recordings from the night of the murder are uncovered, the team are left with a chilling question. Are supernatural forces at work? And, in the biggest shock of them all, will Neville find love just in time for Christmas?

All Creatures Great & Small S3
Premieres Friday, 23rd December, on StarHub channel 502, Singtel channel 308 and BBC Player

Following James as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales’ village of Darrowby, Series 3 will pick up in the spring of 1939. Some big changes are happening at Skeldale and everyone has to learn how to adjust. Tristan is now a qualified vet while James enters into a new stage of his life with Helen and at the practice. After being made joint business partner by Siegfried, James pushes to take on more responsibility via the Ministry of Agriculture’s new bovine TB testing scheme, but its unexpected challenges risk pushing him to breaking point. As a potential Second World War looms, all of our Skeldale family have to consider their purpose in Darrowby and beyond.

The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe
Premieres Friday, 2nd December, on StarHub channel 502, Singtel channel 308 and BBC Player

An unbelievably true crime drama based on the extraordinary story of how prison officer John Darwin faked his own death to claim life insurance and avoid bankruptcy – unbeknownst to his two sons. Anne Darwin played the grieving widow whilst police investigated his disappearance. Yet all along John Darwin was living in an apartment in the house next door to his wife, regularly visiting her through an interconnecting passage. This gripping and surprising true crime series is told through Anne Darwin’s eyes. We delve deep into a woman who appears to be under her husband’s control and who argued at trial she had been coerced to go along with it all. Was she to blame for her part in her husband’s absurd scheme?

Murder in Provence
Premieres Friday, 9th December, on StarHub channel 502, Singtel channel 308 and BBC Player

With its pale Provençal stone, faded grey shutters and cafés spilling onto pavements, serving glasses of rosé as temperatures rise, Aix-en-Provence presents a blissful scene. But, as Investigating Judge Antoine Verlaque and his romantic partner, Criminal Psychology Professor Marine Bonnet, know only too well, beneath even the most picture-postcard city there’s a hidden underbelly of dark secrets and disturbing misdeeds.From local intrigues and professional jealousies to family feuds and murder – when wrongdoings occur in Aix, Antoine is the man they call. Follow this witty, sparky duo as they unpick mysteries that lay bare humanity in all its complexity, under the seemingly benign Provençal sun.

Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators S4 Ep10
Premieres Friday, 25th December, on StarHub channel 502, Singtel channel 308 and BBC Player

The oddball, oddly-matched Stratford-upon-Avon-based sleuths return for more picturesque and whimsical mysteries brimming with wit and rural charm. There’s a Christmas crisis at the town as someone threatens to humiliate the festival.

BBC Brit

Ghost Sr4
Premieres Monday, 5th December on BBC Player

The BAFTA-nominated supernatural sitcom returns, following the comedy chaos of an unlikely house shared between the struggling living and the restless dead. Written and created by the stars of Horrible Histories and the creators, writers and stars of fantasy comedy Yonderland and feature film Bill, this fourth series sees resident ghosts and cash-strapped couple Alison and Mike face life-changing events. Alison and Mike are determined to get the best reviews from their guests after transforming Button House – a crumbling, haunted stately home – into a luxury B&B. However, buried secrets, booking mix-ups and open war with neighbours all collide to create a chaotic series of events which threatens to derail their dreams.

Top Gear Sr33
Available Now on BBC Player

More motoring mayhem from the hugely popular car show, presented by Freddie Flintoff, Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness.

Freddie, Chris and Paddy are back with Top Gear series 33, and the global celebration of all things automotive shows no signs of slowing down. Highlights include a pick-up truck pilgrimage across Thailand, a supercar showdown in the Alps, a test of the latest affordable electric microcars in Paris and a thorough – and thoroughly outrageous – look at the best way to get into the delivery driver game on a budget. The series also features some of the most eagerly-awaited supercars in the shape of the F1-engined Mercedes AMG One and the 2000hp all-electric Rimac Nevera, and shines a spotlight on budding young racers without the means to compete in the high-stakes world of motorsport, giving them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.