TV: Damien Love reveals his pick of the week's TV

Sammy Davis Jr: The Kid In The Middle

9pm, BBC Four

There's more material, and more complexity, in Sammy Davis Jr's life than there's room for in an hour-long profile, but this is a brilliant attempt at capturing the man, his talent and his troubles, and is packed with detail.

At heart lies the story of a super-talented black man caught in the impossible position of being one of America's most beloved entertainers when the society was wearing its racism on its sleeve.

His relationships with white women earned death threats from one side; his position in The Rat Pack heard cries of "Uncle Tom" from certain factions on the other - even though he was one of the most visible civil rights campaigners.

There's a wealth of archive, running all the way back to his extraordinary film debut as a seven-year-old hoofer in Rufus Jones For President, a short made in 1932.

He never gave less than 100%. It's complemented with An Evening With Sammy Davis Jr (10pm) compiling performances recorded for the BBC across the 1960s.

Monday, December 22

The Wrong Mans

9pm, BBC Two

I wasn't hoping for much when the first series of James Corden's The Wrong Mans arrived in 2013, but it proved much better than expected.

A comedy-thriller that delivered on both fronts, it proved Corden is best when he finds the right people to work with, in this case co-star and co-writer Mathew Baynton, and director Jim Field Smith, who brought a lively visual sensibility to their story about council office workers caught up in kidnapping, murder and murky international intrigue.

This two-part sequel is another globetrotting escapade: Sam (Baynton) and Phil (Corden) are hiding in Texas under new names, with the latter loser relishing the chance to reinvent himself.

But news from home sees them setting out to make it back to Bracknell in time for Christmas - with only jail, Mexican drug gangs and Russian killers in their way. Concludes tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 23

Len Goodman's Big Band Bonanza

9pm, BBC Four

In pretty much exactly the same way as Leland Palmer did when he began losing it in Twin Peaks, the splendid Len Goodman has big band music blasting in his mind all the time.

It's why he can't stop moving, and why he bursts into laughter at the end of every second sentence.

He lets loose about the sound that torments him in this cheeky-chummy, toe-tapping documentary on the music's rise, wartime boom and post-war battle for survival, as rock 'n' roll and pop came along to claim a new generation of young swingers.

The best section focuses on the music's morale-boosting role during the war and the birth of "propaganda swing", when, seeking to fight fire with fire, the Nazis created their own goose-stepping big band to depress the Allies with ditties like Let's Go Bombing: "Let's go shelling/ where they're dwelling/ let's shell Churchill's women and children too…"

Christmas Eve

Your mission, should you accept it, is to get as relaxed and Christmassy as possible tonight, without having a drink before 5pm. Best to ease yourself in with some festive animation.

On Angel Wings (4.15pm, BBC One) is a new adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's retelling of the Nativity, with Michael Gambon providing the voice of the old shepherd who once witnessed a birth in a Bethlehem stable.

The animation is a little saccharine, though: it's a shame they didn't keep the style of Quentin Blake's original illustrations for the book.

A more faithful job is done by the pulsing pencilwork of The Snowman And The Snowdog (7.55pm, Channel 4), the unexpectedly good 2012 sequel to the 1982 classic based on Raymond Briggs's story (itself showing Christmas Day, 12.45pm, Channel 4).

Be warned, though, it will have you weeping after roughly two minutes. Unless you are evil.

The arrival of Carols From Kings (5.25pm, BBC Two) is like sniffing concentrated Christmas Eve Atmosphere straight from Santa's exhaust pipe, a moment of warming, calming pause which not only signals the true start of the season, but also means you can now open the first bottle and keep your self-respect.

In that spirit, the night's true highlight is Happy Holidays With Bing And Frank (8pm, BBC Four), a 1957 TV special filmed in eye-popping colours, which begins with Frank trimming his tree in his pad, before Bing pops around to swap presents and gags, sing appropriate tunes and drink: "A little toddy for the body might take the chill off!" Sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes.

It finishes in time for The Incredible Adventures Of Professor Branestawm (8.30pm, BBC One), based on Norman Hunter's beloved books. Harry Hill, without big collar, has a blast as the absent-minded inventor causing hair-brained, Heath-Robinson style havoc in a picturebook 1950s village.

Imagine a live-action Wallace And Gromit, with more robot dads.

Christmas Day

December 25 has come to mean only one thing. It is time, once again, for The Traditionally Rubbish Doctor Who Christmas Special (6.15pm, BBC One).

But, wait. Hold on, now. What's this? Could it be true? Could it really be that The Traditionally Rubbish Doctor Who Christmas Special isn't entirely rubbish this year? Well, yes. Believe. It's true.

Don't get me wrong. It still doesn't make a lick of sense and, as is too often the case, writer Steven Moffat seems to think we should spend a large chunk of time weeping into our emotionally roasted chestnuts.

But, for large swathes, this is good fun and, with snowy rooftops, It's A Wonderful Life-style what-ifs, and Nick Frost as an unimpressed Santa, Christmassy as you please.

Best of all, stuck in the middle like a gold coin buried in pudding, there's a brisk old-Who style story about a small team in peril at an isolated facility.

Briefly reunited after their last downbeat parting, The Doctor and Clara pitch up at an Arctic base whose scientists are under attack from "dream crabs", creatures that do things to people which younger children WILL NOT LIKE AT ALL. Just as it should be.

Capaldi is great, Moffat gets away with outrageously cheeky steals from Alien, there's a Son Of The Doctor (guest star Michael Troughton) … and, in case you're wondering, we finally learn whether Clara has taken her last trip in The Tardis.

Meanwhile, there's no will-she-won't-she about whether or not Miranda (7.15pm, BBC One) will return, because Miranda Hart has made it very clear that this seasonal two-parter will be the last hurrah for her bright and daft throwback sitcom.

The show should really have ended after its tremendous first series, to be honest.

But it's hard to begrudge a final bout of falling over, catchphrases and stupid dancing, as Miranda tries to decide whether to marry Gary or Mike.

All will be revealed in the final episode, on New Year's Day.

It's hard to fathom the BBC's logic in putting Miranda on immediately before the festive Call The Midwife special, which also stars Hart as chummy nurse Chummy.

Surely having the same actor in two such different programmes back-to-back bursts the hard realism of Midwife? That was a joke, by the way.

This year's Christmas episode is, essentially, like every other Christmas Midwife, except with the babies, comfy nuns, nostalgic photogenic poverty and carol singing mixed in a slightly different ratio. Plus a disconcerting flashforward to 2005, featuring

Vanessa Redgrave as the elderly version of the narrator, Jenny.

Against the BBC's festive triple-whammy, ITV is sending out the juggernaut that is the Christmas Downton Abbey (9pm, STV).

However, in the spirit of the season, ITV refused to let me see a preview, because it was only to be shown to "a very limited and strict" list of people, and, reading between the lines, I wasn't special enough to be on it.

So I can't say whether it's the usual load of creaky, cobbled-together, coma-inducing boredom, or not.

What I can say, though, is that, if you missed it first time around, you should do what you can to catch the repeat of Marvellous (11pm, BBC Two), a smart, playful and uplifting drama by writer Peter Bowker, celebrating the unlikely real-life story of Neil Baldwin. Detectorist Toby Jones turns in yet another great performance as Baldwin, helped, here and there, by the real man himself.

It was one of the joys of the year.