From football’s top flight to darts’ top throwers, Santa’s sack is again bulging with a feast of festive sporting TV.
One of the most welcome deliveries from Amazon this Christmas will be the return of the Premier League. Six weeks since Alejandro Garnacho’s late effort at Craven Cottage sealed a 2-1 win for Manchester United over Fulham and brought the top-flight season to a halt, we are finally able to begin again.
Jeff Bezos’ juggernaut will be showing all ten games throughout the festive week, culminating in Manchester City’s trip to Leeds on Wednesday night.
We start, however, where we left off, back in the capital with a lunchtime kick-off as Brentford host Tottenham [Prime Video, Boxing Day, 12.30pm].
All eyes will no doubt be on Harry Kane in his first run-out since his uncharacteristic penalty miss against France in Qatar. However, if the England skipper is offered another chance from 12 yards in west London do not be at all surprised if normal service is resumed.
Another Boxing Day tradition as familiar as turkey leftovers and in-laws finds us on the turf as Kempton Park opens its doors for one of the highlights of the jumps racing calendar – the King George VI Chase.
ITV1 [12.30pm], led by the excellent Ed Chamberlin, will be our hosts for another lunchtime feast in a packed programme that will include the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle, a first-time event at the Surrey track after frost saw it turfed out of its usual Ascot home earlier this month.
The day’s big race is at 2.30pm when Bryony Frost should be fit enough to climb back aboard Frodon having overcome the broken collarbone she suffered in a fall at Bognor last month.
Christmas would not be Christmas without a good movie but while schedules are awash with all-action blockbusters, a top sporting film is a scarce as a pre-Xmas parking space. However, Sky Premiere offering Der Kaiser proves something of a rarity in an enjoyable portrayal of one of football’s finest, West Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer.
Taking its title from the great man’s nickname, the biopic follows Beckenbauer from his early days though a stellar career that saw him claim just about all there is to win with both Bayern Munich and his national side. Few players graced a stadium quite like ‘The Emperor’ – one of a rare breed to have won a World Cup both as a player and a manager. Klaus Steinbacher makes a fine job of playing the man who made defending an artform.
Pity any clueless parents fruitlessly searching high and low for a ‘Bazball’ this Christmas. However, a fine documentary on a man who helped bring the term into English cricketing folklore, Ben Stokes, may help explain the error of their ways – Captain Stokes: England’s Glorious Summer [Sky Cricket, Dec 24, 5pm].
Proving you can never have too much of a good thing, Sky Documentaries are the gift that keeps on giving this yuletide. Christmas Day brings a 12-hour feast of footballing films featuring everything and everyone from Italia 90 and Geoff Hurst to Terry Venables and Kenny Dalglish.
The Lionesses’ glorious summer is revisited in When Football Came Home [Dec 27, 9pm]. While later in the week we take to the track for a new portrait of three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jackie Stewart [Dec 30]. A powerful and emotional tale from the man who made tartan a familiar sight in the pitlane.
The PDC World Darts Championship is already closing in on its Christmas break. However, don’t worry if you’ve missed the action so far as the cameras will soon return to the Alexandra Palace in London for the start of the third round [Sky Darts, Dec 27]. Few events are as entertaining or colourful as this regular Xmas showpiece which we can rely on to accompany us into the start of 2023 with the final and its £500,000 bounty set for January 3.
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