What's worth watching on Boxing Day?

The big day might be over, but there's plenty more festive fun to be had before the year is out, with more seasonal programming and film premieres to look forward to today.

Whatever your Boxing Day plans are, expect fun for all ages from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, an acclaimed spin-off focusing on Antonio Banderas's feline hero, which should leave you suitably excited for 2027's long-awaited Shrek 5.

We also get the concluding chapter of Call the Midwife's two-part festive storyline, which finds Sister Julienne and Sister Hilda in perhaps their most dangerous situation yet.

And if that gives you a taste for more quality drama, don't miss the jaw-dropping finale of All Her Fault; the Sky thriller starring Succession's Sarah Snook actually sticks the landing, which makes a refreshing change.

Here's more details on what to watch on TV on Boxing Day 2025, courtesy of the team here at Radio Times.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (BBC One, 3:20pm / 5:25pm in Wales)

This swashbuckling, visually dazzling 2022 animated adventure follows daring feline hero Puss (voiced by Antonio Banderas) as he confronts his mortality while hunting the mythical Last Wish. True to DreamWorks’ mischievous style, the film sprinkles each scene with playful Easter eggs.

Notable examples include the tally marks and sketches that reveal Puss’s nine lives, “wanted” posters and memorabilia that hint at his past escapades, and references to Humpty Dumpty’s betrayal cleverly suggested through broken eggshells and framed clippings. Even Pinocchio pops up briefly in the storybook sequences. –Ifra Khan

Fawlty Towers: The Play (U&Gold, 6pm)

So branded onto our brains are Basil Fawlty’s meltdowns that a strange thing happens to the theatre audience here. Not only do they laugh at the re-creations of his deranged disasters, but also at the mere prospect of catastrophe.

Take, for instance, the German guests, who are mentioned early on as being due to arrive. This is an hour before they actually show up, but the crowd is already cracking up as they conjure memories of attempts to avoid mention of the war.

In that sense, this production (first broadcast in September) isn’t really a play at all, but an exercise in collective nostalgia. Still, there’s no denying that the farce is as well suited to the stage as it ever was to a TV studio. – David Brown

Call the Midwife (BBC One, 8:30pm)

Those who think nuns lead sheltered lives clearly haven’t followed the career of Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter). For someone devoted to prayer and religious service, she hasn’t half found herself in some fraught situations.

It wasn’t so long ago that she narrowly survived a train crash, and now we find her and Sister Hilda (Fenella Woolgar) staring down the barrel of a gun wielded by a Hong Kong gangster.

He’s demanding that they hand over the keys to the premises that the Order has secured — but as we’ve seen over the years, the sisters don’t tend to back down easily. – David Brown

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All Her Fault finale (Sky Atlantic, 9pm)

Many twisty psychological thrillers collapse like matchstick houses in their final episode, but this kidnapped-child drama continues to impress. Repeating its signature trick of surprising you with early revelations, everything you can think of happens in the first 10 minutes — so what could be next?

The answer is what it’s always been, which is that the Irvines know things about each other, deep down, that they will ultimately have to confront. One glaring plot hole aside (watch for the moment where a character quickly glosses over it), it’s a perfect ending, as inevitable as it is unpredictable. – Jack Seale

The Great Escaper (BBC Two, 9:30pm)

Second World War veteran Bernard Jordan hit headlines around the world in June 2014 when, without the knowledge of staff at the Hove care home where he lived, he headed to Normandy to attend a D-Day commemoration ceremony. His carers thought the 89-year-old was off to meet friends in Portsmouth — but he was heading further afield. The home’s manager was quoted as saying: “He left his home and did what he wanted to do, just the same as you and I.”

It was a story just begging to be made into a movie, and here it is, with Michael Caine as Bernard and fellow British cinema titan Glenda Jackson making her final screen appearance as his wife Irene. The 2023 film is a fitting tribute to the real-life couple, who died just days apart in December 2014 and January 2015. The Great Escape (1963), the true-life war drama that inspired this film’s title, is also airing today, at 4:45pm on BBC Two (5:15pm in Wales). – Ellie Porter

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