The first of two Christmas special from gentleman chef Rory O'Connell; a chance to revisit Oasis-mania, one of the great action flicks ever; and a fond farewell to Inside No. 9; and and a spectacular Alpine train journey - here's your festive five for Sunday
Rory O’Connell is back with two new Christmas specials in which he shares festive recipes and creative cooking tips to help make cooking over the holiday period a stress free and enjoyable experience.
In this first episode, he prepares salad of roast butternut squash with chickpeas and salmoriglio, an Italian lemon and herb sauce. He follows this with savoury turkey and ham bread and butter pudding, and Rory completes this first menu with chocolate and pear flan.
"The ritual around eating and meals is about so much more than just the food itself," he says. "And I suppose that’s never more true, really, than at Christmas.
"It’s the time of the year when you pull out some of those dishes that you only use once a year, and most of the preparations can be done before your guests arrive, allowing you, the cook, to enjoy the event as much as everyone else."
Oasis - Live at Barrowlands Glasgow, TG4, 11.25pm
Back in August when chuckle brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher announced that they were getting the old band together, it sparked the Great Oasis Ticket Goldrush of 2024. The demand for the band’s reunion tour, which includes two show at Croke Park next August, was mental and thousands of Irish fans were left angry and disappointed when the joys of "dynamic pricing" left them ticketless. Liveline and every hack in the country did brisk business over the next few days. Our favourite comment during the whole farrago came from one wag who said, "Don’t be sad. You can create your own live Oasis experience at home. Simply stand two immobile action figurines at the end of your garden, drink some warm beer, play literally any Slade single at 33rpm, and set fire to £150." How we laughed and how Liam and Noel laughed even harder on the way to the bank. Tonight, on that late-night sanctuary of neato scheduling choices TG4, you can see what all the fuss is about with this concert at Glasgow’s wonderfully rough and tumble venue Barrowlands. Filmed in 200, Oasis perform a set of their songs, including Morning Glory, Supersonic and Champagne Supernova. There’s also a special guest appearance by Johnny Marr. So, there is that.
Die Hard, Channel 4, 9.00pm
Might as well get it out of the way early. Any debate over whether this action movie classic from 1988 starring Bruce Willis is a Christmas movie should have ended years ago - and here’s why. Anyway, the charismatic Willis plays New York cop John McClane, who visits his estranged wife in LA only to find that her office in the Nakatomi Plaza skyscraper has been taken over by terrorists led by a villainously great Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber. What follows is one of the greatest action flicks ever as McClane singlehandedly takes on the baddies with ingenious resourcefulness and killer quips - and in his bare feet.
Inside No 9: The Party’s Over, BBC Two, 9.00pm
Sadly, the Beeb’s surreal and hugely inventive drama series Inside No 9 has come to an end after nine seasons but in this special, the cast and creators talk about what made it so very weird and wonderful. In Inside No 9: The Party’s Over we follow creators Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith as they and shoot the final ever season of the show, which included the episodes Boo to a Goose, The Trolley Problem, Mulberry Close, CTRL ALT ESC, The Curse of The Ninth and Plodding On. The show's production team and cast also appear in interviews to give their take on the scripts, why they decided to appear on Inside No. 9, and what were their favourite moments.
Alpine Train at Christmas, Channel 4, 7.00pm
In this seasonal special voiced by Hugh Bonneville, we book a ticket on the illustrious Bernina Express and experience some festive magic along the way. We follow the journey as the train travels from Chur, Switzerland's oldest town, through some of the most spectacular, steep and stunning Alpine landscapes in Europe, ending in the beautiful town of Tirano in Italy. En route, we visit some of the people who live and work with the mountains of the Alps as their backdrop.
Full TV listings here
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