You have until midnight to apply to be the next BBC Director General.

I’ve spent this morning morbidly watching the MTV channels close down and the final songs played were: MTV Music - Video Killed the Radio Star (Buggles) Club MTV - Don’t Stop the Music (Rihanna) MTV 90s - Goodbye (Spice Girls) MTV 80s - Together in Electric Dreams (Oakey and Moroder)

Talking about New Year TV on BBC Breakfast at 8.50am.

pour one out to an icon www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

To MBE, to you. (sorry, sorry, I'm trying to delete it).

“To MBE, to you” - you can have that one for free, splash subs

Breaking: One of the Chuckle Brothers has an MBE www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Breaking: Claudia Winkleman is to host her own chat show on the BBC, the broadcaster confirms. The Claudia Winkleman Show will be made by the same team behind Graham Norton. Out this Spring.

I’ll be on BBC News Channel at 8pm. Can’t say why yet.

A shorter list than I expected, as I’ve had a couple of months out, but here’s my favourite TV of 2025.

It is the Must Watch Review of 2025 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Must Watch on at 1pm on 5Live with our TV picks of the year, also airing on NYE. Podcast out on BBC Sounds later today.

They're all at it

Today is MONDAY

Must Watch will be out on Monday as usual with our TV PICKS OF THE YEAR. Podcast out on BBC Sounds, but it’ll also air on 5Live at 1pm as usual.

God we needed a Agatha Christie BBC adaptation where all the characters die horribly WHERE IS IT

OK, I know moaning about the Christmas TV schedule is a popular British pastime. But I've just been flipping through the Christmas Radio Times and noticed something alarming: neither BBC One nor ITV1 have done a big *new* drama for Christmas week. At all. That's not a good sign.

Here’s to 2026

FYI: it is a bit too early to say whether BBC Christmas TV ratings are “worst ever” as some shows, like Amandaland, were available on iPlayer prior to its BBC One airing and those figures are accounted later.

The sound you’re hearing is every gay boy silently climbing the family staircase to watch Heated Rivalry alone in their bedroom.

(daft punk One More Time voice) Auld Lang Syne

Yep Heated Rivalry coming to Sky and NOW.

I find it remarkable that on the day Netflix released a blockbuster (and expensive) set of episodes everyone is talking about a tiny show from Canada, which most people watched illegally, that cost a tiny % of that Netflix show.

To add my personal moment, the penultimate episode of Big Boys is hands down the most brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking thing I've seen all year. That door close.

I wrote about the TV moments of the year for the @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

BBC says Scarecrow’s Wedding had 4.3 million viewers on Xmas Day. Broadcaster had nine out of ten most watched shows. However, that’s way down on the 11.6 million who watched Gavin & Stacey on Xmas Day last year (which later rose above 20 million on catch-up.)

I’m not saying this is a vintage year of Christmas TV I am saying we’re watching The Madame Blanc Mysteries on Channel 5

personally I was surprised at the name drop

Unexpected message this year.

Happy 20 Years since Jackie Tyler was nearly killed by a Christmas Tree.

I think you should text your crush. Fuck it. It’s Christmas x

Unbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

Best lyric in any song ever

“Honestly I can’t be filled”

It’s a quite underwhelming Christmas on the TV this year. Even though this year was a tough act to follow after last year, it’s still lacking a bit of imagination.

This is the last week that Good Morning Britain, This Morning and Loose Women will be from Television Centre.

Bonus anniversary content: it’s ten years since this winning name/title combination on BBC News

I once ended a particularly fraught bulletin by just slumping down and collapsing onto the desk in relief. And the director reminded me I was still visible on the wide shot.

Arguing avidly with my Mum about when the Alan and Amanda Spanish TV special was filmed. They’re pretending it is December but some scenes scream July.

This is how I would end the news if I was reading the news.

Must Watch Christmas TV Special… … with special guests Russell Tovey and Danielle Galligan. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Big fan of a national fag

Must Watch Christmas Special on at 12.30pm today on 5Live, with a bumper podcast out later. Featuring Russell Tovey.

Jimmy Kimmel is to deliver Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas Message.

The David Dimbleby documentary on the Monarchy is top tier television.

I’ve been highlighting and recommending shows from the Christmas Radio Times ever since I was 10. To be still doing it 25 years later, but now also on TV and the radio, is a dream come true. Thank you for following and supporting my work.

By the way, the episode of Would I Lie To You? featuring the episode where David Walliams reportedly did two Nazi salutes (which the BBC edited out and said were unacceptable) will be on BBC One on Boxing Day at 7pm.

Viva Forever... well until it closed. #TOTP