Boxing Day: A feast of television and turkey sandwiches

Today is a day to be savoured, to wallow in the cosy harmony of a turkey coma, because come tomorrow, those horrible dreary, dog days until the new year will begin - a limbo period known as ‘Twixtmas’, when we can’t remember what day it is and it is not unseemly to wear one’s pyjamas from morning till night.

For many of us, Boxing Day this year will look a lot different.

Covid-19 has resulted in a truly terrible year. Those of us enjoying today with our nearest and dearest, will be feeling blessed we can do so as from tomorrow we are back to lockdown and all that that entails.

So, what to do today? As little as possible - unless, of course, a colleague has ‘baggsied’ the day off, and you have to work, whether that be in front of a screen or in an actual office building...remember those?

After yesterday’s gargantuan feasting, eating is liking to continue today as we snaffle up the Christmas Day leftovers, which will invariably be plentiful, as tradition dictates catering requirements will have, yet again, been misjudged.

Boxing Day dinner always tastes better than the actual ‘Big Day’s’ and even as a non-meat eater of some 30 years, I can remember there is nothing more sublime than watching Only Fools and Horses with a plate of turkey sandwiches (Nutty Krust bread is essential) and a mug of tea.

Thankfully, today, the most exercise we need to do involves reaching for the remote control and switching between some great programmes.

Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2020 (C4, 9.05pm), hosted by Jimmy Carr, is a stalwart of the seasonal schedules and,once again, features some superstar question-setters, including Charles Dance and Jon Snow, as well as pupils from Mitchell Brook Primary School.

The Repair Shop at Christmas (BBC1, 6.45pm) is sure to be top of many viewers’ list today and if you think the regular programmes are tear-jerkers, wait until you get a hold of this.

There’s the usual mix of nostalgia and moving tales, but throwing some good old-fashioned festive season sentimentality into the mix is enough to push even the hardest of hearts over the edge.

First up, Vicar Steve and his wife Amanda hope the experts can revive the rocking horse they bought for their daughter when she was five years old; tragically she passed away just two years later, but the couple are hoping the sister she never met will be able to play with it in the future.

Then siblings want to breathe new life into a battered stereogram that was once at the heart of their family Christmas.

A toy truck made by engineers during the Second World War and a vintage musical ornament from the US are also in need of some TLC.

It was one of the most jaw-dropping, bonkers series of 2020, and now The Masked Singer (ITV, 7PM) is back for a new run – how the second series can top the first is anybody’s guess, but what we do know is that Ken Jeong won’t be a part of the celebrity panel this time around due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. His place alongside Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall and Rita Ora will be taken by Mo Gilligan, while Joel Dommett returns as host.

Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts – in the guise of Queen Bee – is the reigning champion, having beaten the likes of Jason Manford, Jake Shears and Teddy Sheringham. But who will follow in her footsteps?

Or you may be feasting on the new Netflix period drama Bridgerton, which started yesterday and features Derry Girl’s actress Nicola Coughlan as sharp-witted, book-loving Penelope Featherington.

Daring, witty, sexy – Bridgerton is one of the most anticipated series of the year. It follows debutante Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) – one of eight Bridgerton siblings – as she searches for a husband in Regency London.

The scandalous Netflix original is not traditional or conservative, as we might expect, in fact the show has a distinct “swagger” and “style”, as creator Chris Van Dusen puts it.

There is also the sharp, snappy, fast-paced dialogue; ballroom scenes soundtracked to classical reinterpretations of pop songs (including Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift); a fresh, youthful, and effervescent look, thanks to the vibrant set and costumes (the prime filming location was Bath).

Undoubtedly a Christmas movie will feature among your televisual treats. Whereas yesterday we may have opted for sentimental slush (It’s a Wonderful Life is practically de-rigueur), today a mindless, screwball comedy might be more appropriate, something, say, like Home Alone, Elf or Scrooged, with Bill Murray as a vile TV exec and modern-day Ebenezer.

Or why not go retro and re-live Christmases past, with something like the darts-based gameshow Bullseye? Let’s face it, everybody loves a bit of Bully and host Jim Bowen’s sound advice to ‘stay out of the black and into the red, nothing in this game for two in a bed’ still surely rings true in our ears.

Bullseye was an unsophisticated mix of darts, rudimentary questions and shoddy household goods.

What could be better on Boxing Day than watching the crestfallen expressions of contestants Julie and Gary when Bowen declares ‘this is what you would have won’...usually a speedboat or a Talbot Samba with economic motoring and electronic ignition’? Not much.

Someone in your bubble may have received a board game from the bearded one, so there’s always a Scrabble dust-up to look forward to as an unscrupulous relative argues that ‘Qzaxxt’ is “definitely a word’’.

Whether it’s Scrabble, Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders, Operation or Pie Face, board games can be a source of tears, frustration and recrimination, causing even the most placid to lose their (Kerplunk) marbles and resort to the use of coarse Anglo Saxon.

There’s also the chance someone will have to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on a sherry-infused granny after she mistakes a small plastic Monopoly hotel for a Quality Street, but, medical dramas aside, board games are great fun, offering an opportunity for friendly family warfare.

However you decide to spend today, whether it be drinking gallons of eggnog, reading a good book, playing charades or going for a walk, we will undoubtedly be hoping that any dramas over next year’s festive period will be confined to the television schedules and not played out for real in our lives and that Covid-19 remains the horrible ghost of Christmas past.