The Fabulously debauched twosome Eddy and Patsy. Photo / Supplied
Tonight's line-up includes two belated seasonal offerings from two British telly institutions.
Two 20th-anniversary Absolutely Fabulous episodes screened in Britain on Christmas Day and New Year's Day and Dr Who returned for a one-off yuletide sci-fi panto. And next month we're getting two Downton Abbey Christmas special episodes.
Ab Fab
returns, even though Jennifer Saunders has declared over the years that there will be no more Eddy (Edina Monsoon). But since the original early-90s series, then its 2001 to 2003 revival, there have been regular one-off specials and there are plans later this year for a London Olympics-themed episode.
The latest episodes, tonight's Identity and next week's Job, have Eddy and long-suffering daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha) still at loggerheads. Saffy is just out of jail for innocently supplying asylum-seekers with passports and has brought her cellmate to stay, all of which has connections with Patsy (Joanna Lumley) facing a crippling drug debt and the truth about her age. Both Mother (June Whitfield) and Bubble (Jane Horrocks) are back, too.
Across on Prime, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe is the seventh Christmas special since the franchise's revival in 2005. The episode is partly inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia. It's largely set in England during World War II where the Doctor (Matt Smith) and an evacuated family find themselves going through a portal to a snow-covered enchanted forest.
