Editor's Note: As an alternative to the usual reporting on Christmas being ruined because a council in the Midlands forgot to put the lights on the city centre tree or which supermarket makes the best Leach of Almonds, I thought I'd aggregate the international cinema on UK terrestrial TV as featured in this year's Christmas Radio Times (£6.50? How much?).
Various research projects I've undertaken across the year have led me to look enviously through the old Christmas schedules and the rich pickings available. The results for this year are disappointing with some incredibly safe programming across the linear channels and only the following which could be described meaningfully as "world cinema".
Saturday 20th December
"The Marquis d’Urfé finds refuge in the home of a strange family after becoming lost in a hostile forest while working as an emissary for the King of France."
Boxing Day
"As a patriarchal family yearns for the birth of a son to continue their family line, their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for its transgender starlet."
Sunday 28th December
"The chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is."
Friday 2nd January 2026
"Fatima-Zahra and her teenage son Selim move from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she’s caught up in. When Selim discovers the truth about their past, Fatima-Zahra vows to make a fresh start. In Tangier, new opportunities promise the legitimacy they each crave but not without pushing the volatile mother-son relationship to the breaking point."
Of course times have changed and streaming offers access to a near infinite amount of content from across the globe via the likes of MUBI, the BFI Player and Criterion. All of the UK channels would argue that they do show films made outside of the UK and US during the rest of the year and have some available via their own streaming services.
But it still feels very insular that during the festive period English language films should predominate with the vast majority originating from Hollywood and it poorly serves those of us who can't afford all of those services or to rent films on a rental basis and want an alternative Love Fucking Actually.
At the very least there could be presentations of festive favourites from elsewhere at a reasonable time of the day. If we were still a proper country, BBC Four would be showing My Night at Maud's (1969) at Christmas with Malmkrog (2020) seeing us into the New Year.
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