Brendan O’Regan
The Bishop’s Wife
BBC 2 Saturday December 21, 9.15am
Family comedy drama about an angel who assumes human form to help a bishop repair his marriage and build his dream cathedral.
Angela’s Christmas Wish
RTÉ 2 Saturday December 21, 12.45pm
With her father working far away in Australia, a determined Angela plans to reunite her family. Charming Irish animation.
Film: Chariots of Fire
BBC 2 Sunday December 22, 12.30pm and RTÉ One Christmas Eve 8.10am
Oscar-winning drama. Two rival British runners push themselves to the limit in their quest to make the 1924 British Olympic team, but neither is prepared to compromise on his principles.
Film: SISTER ACT
Film 4 Saturday December 21, 4.40pm and Christmas Day 2.40pm
(1992) Whoopi Goldberg stars in Emile Ardolino’s comedy thriller as Deloris Van Cartier, a lounge singer in witness protection at a convent. Can the nuns protect her?
Sunday
BBC Radio 4 Sunday December 22, 7.10pm
Ethical and religious issues of the week.
Songs of Praise
BBC One Sunday December 22, 1.15pm
Aled Jones hosts an intimate candlelit celebration of favourite carols, with guests Katherine Jenkins and the BBC Young Choristers of the Year, from the village church of Croston.
CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT FROM KNOCK SHRINE
EWTN Sunday December 22, 8pm and RTÉ News Channel Christmas Eve 8pm
Experience the sights and sounds of Christmas from the Marian Shrine in Knock, Ireland. This beautiful concert of Christmas carols, sung by candlelight, will lift your spirits and bring joy to this wonderful season.
FOWLER SISTERS: CHRISTMAS GIFT
EWTN Monday December 23, 11.30am
The Fowler Sisters present a musical gift celebrating the birth of Christ.
It’s A Wonderful Life
RTÉ One Monday December 23, 3.15pm
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
The Way We Were at Christmas
RTÉ One Monday December 23, 10.15pm
The programmes casts a warm nostalgic eye over the themes of an Irish Christmas, asking how much has changed and how much has soothingly stayed the same.
G.K. CHESTERTON’S, ‘THE SURPRISE
EWTN Christmas Eve, 10am
EWTN’s original production of the G.K. Chesterton play, The Surprise: A fascinating story spun around a traveling playwright who creates a set of puppets to perform one of his plays.
Film: A Christmas Hero
RTÉ One Christmas Eve, 1.10pm
A guardian angel shows a disillusioned war veteran what he means to others and that his life makes a difference.
Give Up Yer Aul Sins
RTÉ One Christmas Eve, 2.50pm
The Birth of Jesus: The Christmas story of how Jesus was born in a stable because there was no room at the inn, told by inner city Dublin children.
Carols from Kings
BBC 2 Christmas Eve, 6pm and Christmas Day, 8am
A celebration of Christmas from the candlelit Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge. The music includes Henry Walford Davies’s setting of O Little Town of Bethlehem and Edvard Grieg’s Ave Maris Stella.
The Kilkenny Nativity
RTÉ One Christmas Eve, 9pm and Christmas Day, 4pm
St Luke’s account of the Christmas story told through the voices of the people of the city and county of Kilkenny. A follow-up to the multi award-winning Cork Nativity of 2020.
Midnight Mass
RTÉ One Christmas Eve, 11pm
Midnight Mass from St Mary’s Church, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, celebrated by the Very Rev Thomas Thomas Dalzell PP, with liturgical music from St Mary’s Parish Choir.
Our Divine Sparks at Christmas
RTÉ Radio 1 Christmas Day, 8am
Hear the most enchanting story in the world, as children share the wonder of a baby born in extraordinary circumstances. Dearbhail McDonald and guests also take us back over 2000 years, to offer an insight into life at that time, the reality of the events surrounding the nativity, and the timeless allure of the Christmas story.
The Cork Nativity
RTÉ One Christmas Day, 9.55am
The people of Cork give contemporary life and voice to the 2000-year-old Gospel Nativity story, in a hope-filled journey, celebrating the county’s diversity, culture, and places.
Christmas Day Mass
RTÉ One + Radio 1 Extra Christmas Day, 10am
Mass for Christmas Day from the newly restored Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, with commentary and translation by Lydia O’Kane.
Centuries of Christmas
RTÉ Lyric fm Christmas Day, 10 am
Vlad Smishkewych’s annual Christmas offering on RTÉ lyric fm with a millennium of music for this special festive day. He’ll explore the roots and branches of the heartwarming musical traditions around the Christmas-celebrating world, with a magnificent musical accompaniment to your Christmas celebrations. New releases of seasonal music interweave with beloved favourites in a glorious garland of melodies.
Urbi et Orbi
EWTN Christmas Day 11 am, RTÉ One 11.45am
‘To the City and the World’ from St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, with commentary and translation by Lydia O’Kane.
Archbishops’ Christmas Message
RTÉ One Christmas Day, 12.10pm
The Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, and his Church of Ireland counterpart, Dr John McDowell, deliver a message of peace in celebration of the birth of Christ.
RECLAIMING THE CAROL
EWTN Christmas Day, 9.30pm
The late Charles Dickens returns to find that A Christmas Carol, and the holiday it celebrates, has become overshadowed by glitz and commercialism in this touching story about the true meaning of Christmas.
Lady in the Van
BBC 2 Christmas Day, 10.20pm
The true story of Miss Shepherd, an eccentric woman of uncertain origins, who ‘temporarily’ parked her broken-down van in writer Alan Bennett’s London driveway for 15 years. Respectful attitude to religion.
On Christmas Night
BBC One Christmas Day, 11.55pm
As Christmas Day draws to a close, Kate Garraway tells the story of the first Christmas from Luke’s Gospel, when angels appeared before shepherds, proclaiming the news of Jesus’s birth.
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA’S CHRISTMAS CONCERT
EWTN Friday December 27, 6am
The annual Christmas concert presented by the Catholic University of America, featuring a brilliant blend of angelic voices and the wonderful sounds of the Christmas Season.
Heart and Soul – Rising from the ashes of Notre Dame
BBC World Service Friday December 27, 1.30pm
In this Heart and Soul Christmas special, as the doors of Notre Dame reopen, Colm Flynn travels to Paris to meet five people who say the symbolism of this Cathedral’s restoration has had a profound impact on their faith.
Film: The Mission
RTÉ 2 Saturday December 28, 11.30pm
The missionary work of Jesuit priests in 18th-century Brazil is threatened by crooked merchants and rival Church factions. Historical drama, with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons.
PURE IN HEART
EWTN Sunday December 29, 8am
The history and work of ‘Pure of Heart’: a Catholic apostolate that has since expanded from its foundation in Dublin, Ireland to spread the Catholic Church’s teachings on love, purity, chastity, and human sexuality to four other countries.
A Life in Ministry – We Did it Our Way
BBC Radio Ulster Sunday December 29, 9.03pm
From weddings to wakes, tragedies to triumphs – Presenter Audrey Carville hears from three very established members of the clergy about their lives in ministry. Would they do it all again? And, if so, would there be anything they’d do differently this time?
Songs of Praise
BBC One Sunday December 29, 1.15pm
Pam Rhodes and her fellow Songs of Praise presenters take a moment to pause and reflect on some of their favourite hymns and inspiring stories of faith and hope from 2024.
Father Brown
RTÉ One Monday December 30, 1.10pm
Fr Brown investigates when rivalries escalate to murderous heights at the Kembleston ‘Olimpicks’ (Ser 11, Ep 1). Series continues daily this week.
Film: HIDDEN FIGURES
Channel 4 Monday December 30, 5.10pm
(2016) Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe star in director Theodore Melfi’s Oscar-nominated fact-based drama about three extraordinary women, whose genius in mathematics and engineering made a significant contribution to the space race in the early 1960s. Religion portrayed positively.
Tommy Fleming: Live in Galway Cathedral
TG 4 Monday December 30, 7.15pm
This concert was recorded in Galway Cathedral filmed before a live audience. Tommy was joined by his band, a full orchestra on stage and each song was specially chosen to make this recording an inspirational and spiritual listening and viewing experience and one that can guarantee will have you going back for more time and time again.
QUEST FOR SHAKESPEARE
EWTN Tuesday December 31, 10pm
LIES, SPIES AND FISHMONGERS: Host Joseph Pearce discusses Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia, and examines the parallels between espionage in the play and the real life spy network by which England’s Catholics were besieged.
The Gospel According to Mica
BBC 4 Friday January 3, 11.20pm
British soul singer Mica Paris traces the origins of six famous gospel songs and finds out why some of her contemporaries have returned to their gospel roots.