BBC announces further stage show and musical broadcasts over Christmas – as well as its festive schedule

The BBC has given more details about a series of musical and stage celebrations running across the winter period.

In an hour-long special, the BBC will pick out the best numbers from its Big Night of Musicals to run in a Biggest Night of Musicals, featuring performances from Wicked, Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, The Bodyguard, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical, The Phantom of the Opera and Back to the Future: The Musical – as well as star performances from Alfie Boe and Beverley Knight. This will air on Saturday 27 December at 6.45pm.

The Barbican production of Kiss Me, Kate, starring Adrian Dunbar and Broadway royalty Stephanie J Block, will be broadcast on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, airing on Wednesday 31 December at 3.35pm. You can read our review of that production here.

That day will be a musical bonanza on BBC Two with the Funny Girl movie playing at 10.50am, followed by West Side Story at 1.10pm.

On Christmas Day, the Matilda the Musical film will air at 1pm. Midnight on 28 December will bring the film version of Shakespeare in Love, penned by the late Tom Stoppard, and on New Year’s Day will be the film version of The Sound of Music at 3.15pm.

BBC Two will also show the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof film with Elizabeth Taylor at 3.15pm on 18 December, The Rocky Horror Picture Show on 19 December at 11.05pm, High Society on Sunday 21 December at 11.30am, and Meet Me in St Louis at 1.25pm on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is another musical bonanza on BBC Two, with Calamity Jane at 4.05pm, while Christmas Day brings White Christmas at 1pm.

BBC Four will also air Mark Gatiss’ stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol, showing at 9.45pm on 21 December.

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