Bake Off, Briggs and Mrs Brown: BBC's festive offerings

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The Great Christmas Bake Off
Image caption,

Paul Hollywood, Sue Perkins, Mary Berry and Mel Giedroyc - together for the final time in the tent

Two Bake Off specials, a Raymond Briggs film and Mrs Brown's Boys are among the BBC's festive offerings.

The Great Christmas Bake Off episodes will be the last time the show is on the BBC before it moves to Channel 4.

Outnumbered also returns with the Brockman children all grown up, while Dame Shirley Bassey will star in a special alongside David Walliams.

Charlotte Moore, director of BBC content, said: "We've pulled out all the stops this Christmas."

Image caption,

The last series of Outnumbered finished in 2014

Walliams will also host a sketch show where he will be joined by the likes of Hugh Bonneville.

David Jason returns in the first of a new series of Still Open All Hours, while the stars of Call the Midwife find themselves transported to South Africa as they fight to save a tiny mission hospital.

Anne Reid, Derek Jacobi and Sarah Lancashire reunite for a two-part Last Tango in Halifax special.

The episodes are set two years after the death of Kate, the wife of Lancashire's character Caroline.

Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes will be brought to life by a cast including Tamsin Greig, Dominic West and Rob Brydon.

Image caption,

The midwives are out of their comfort zone away from Nonnatus House

Briggs' film Ethel and Ernest, which was released in cinemas last month, is voiced by Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent.

Other highlights include the return of Sherlock and a 60-minute episode of Doctor Who called The Return of Doctor Mysterio.

The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special will be head judge Len Goodman's last outing on the show.

Kim Cattrall, Andrea Riseborough, Toby Jones and David Haig star in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution.

There will also be documentaries on Dame Judi Dench and Sir Lenny Henry.

Image caption,

Revolting Rhymes features Dahl's re-writes of some of the world's best-known fairytales

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton return with another Inside No 9, while US jazz star Gregory Porter, singer Beverley Knight, Strictly's Bruno Tonioli and broadcaster Suzi Klein will present West Side Stories, a celebration of the musical ahead of its 60th anniversary.

Christmas worship will include Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve from St Chad's Roman Catholic cathedral in Birmingham and the Christmas Day Service from Bristol Cathedral.

Arts offerings include a look back at the career of Margot Fonteyn by Darcey Bussell, the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker and author Alan Bennett revealing his diaries in a new film about his life.

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