BBC Christmas line-up 2023 includes musicals and theatre, Plus Sky Arts Christmas line-up [Updated]

The BBC has revealed its Christmas 2023 TV schedule, and the line-up features a number of stagey and musicals related telly.

Christmas TV highlights include a number of filmed live-performances of shows, plus musical episodes of current TV shows, documentaries, and specials.

BBC – Live from the stage

Rambert Dance – Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby: Inspired by the TV series and specially filmed on the Birmingham Hippodrome stage, Rambert’s exhilarating performance of their hit stage show Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby comes to BBC Four this Christmas, with an iconic soundtrack including Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Radiohead, Anna Calvi, The Last Shadow Puppets, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty: Bourne’s reimagining of Sleeping Beauty has become a Christmas classic, with Tchaikovsky’s score played live by the New Adventures orchestra, plus Bourne’s masterful storytelling and sumptuous sets and costumes.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles: Mark Gatiss (The Motive and the Cue) stars as Sherlock Holmes and Sanjeev Bhaskar as Dr Watson in a theatrical reading of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic, recorded on the stage of the Barbican Theatre in London. The story is accompanied by a new musical score by dramatist and composer Neil Brand, played on stage by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Also from Mark Gatiss this Christmas is his adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle short story Lot No. 249, which comes to BBC Two starring Kit Harington and Freddie Fox.

Dawn French is a huge TW*T : Dawn French’s sell-out standup show, which played multiple nights at the London Palladium, is coming to the BBC, filmed at the Palladium. Also this Christmas there is a documentary about Dawn and Jennifer Saunders, who is currently starring in Peter Pan at the London Palladium, with imagine… French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter exploring their fabulous comedy.

BBC – Documentaries

Mad About The Boy – The Noel Coward Story: The acclaimed documentary, which had a successful cinema release, is shown on TV for the first time, exploring the life and work of Noël Coward (Hayfever, Private Lives). The film is narrated by Alan Cumming, and features actor Rupert Everett as the voice of Noel Coward. Talking heads include Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Harold Pinter, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Michael Caine and Lucille Ball.

The Hills Are Alive With The Kanneh-Masons: Nottingham’s Kanneh-Masons family visit Salzburg to walk in the footsteps of Austria’s most famous musical family, the Von Trapps from The Sound of Music. The Kanneh-Mason siblings are all talented musicians, and more than half are internationally renowned classical soloists. Cellist Sheku (who won the 2016 Young Musician of the Year), violinist Braimah and pianist Isata all performed at this year’s BBC Proms, and the whole family performed Carnival Of The Animals at the 2019 Proms.

BBC – TV shows with musical episodes

Strictly Come Dancing: Saturday 2 December 2023 is Musicals Weeks on Strictly Come Dancing, with the line-up including: Layton and Nikita – Backstage Romance from Moulin Rouge! The Musical – dancing the Paso Doble; Bobby and Dianne – “I’ve Had (The Time of My Life)” from Dirty Dancing – dancing the Salsa; Annabel and Johannes – “For Good” from Wicked – dancing the Foxtrot; Nigel and Katya – “Step in Time” from Mary Poppins – dancing the Charleston; and Ellie and Vito – “Belle” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – dancing the Quickstep. Plus there will be a Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special on Christmas Day.

Bad Education: A musical themed episode of the hit BBC comedy drama, starring Strictly’s Layton Williams, Mathew Horne, who is currently starring in Noises Off at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Charlie Wernham, Vicki Pepperdine, and Jack Whitehall.

BBC – Movie Musicals

Disney’s The Lion King: Disney’s live-action remake of its animated classic, on which the hit West End musical Disney’s The Lion King is based.

Also the live action Cinderella, starring Lilly Allen (25 December 11.15am, BBC One);

More Movie Musicals to be added to this list as the schedule is released

Sky Arts – Christmas Schedule

Sky Arts has also revealed its theatre content for Christmas 2023, including stage shows and musicals.

Highlights include a live recording of West End stage hit Les Misérables: The Staged Concert (26 December, 6pm); George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (24 December, 7am); NBC’s Peter Pan Live (26 December 8.10am); The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (27 December 8pm & 29 December 1.10pm); Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games (30 December 10.15am); ballet La Bayadere (31 December 6.10am); The Wind in the Willows (31 December 8.30am); the Theatre Royal Drury Lane production of 42nd Street (20 December 9pm & 30 December 8am); Joseph and the Amaxing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2 January 6.20am); and English National Opera’s production of HMS Pinafore starring Les Dennis (3 January 6am).

Movie musicals range from classics such as Jesus Christ Superstar (23 December 11.30am), to Kinky Boots (26 December, 10.40am).

Movie Musicals on ITV and Channel 5

Highlights include The Wizard of Oz (25 December, 3.10pm, Channel 5); and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (26 December, 3pm, ITV1).

Not musicals, but West End related, include the original Matilda (31 December, 2.55pm, ITV1), sadly not the new movie musical – which is on Netflix; and the original movie of The Witches (1 January 2024, 5.55pm, BBC One), not the new National Theatre musical, but still a great movie!

Also see: Christmas 2023 in the West End

UPDATES: First published 29 November 2023; Updated 19 December 2023 with Sky Arts info.

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Main photo: BBC Christmas 2023: L-R Dawn French (Photo by Marc Brenner); Peaky Blinders The Redemption of Thomas Shelby (Photo BBC/Rambert); The Hills Are Alive With The Kanneh-Masons (Image: BBC/MacLarty Brown Media & Wag Entertainment/Len Brown); Sleeping Beauty (Photo Johan Persson)