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nights in

Screen Watch: Your guide to the best TV movies over Christmas week

Here are our picks of TV movies over the festive season.

WE’VE BEEN SIFTING through the movie options available to watch on TV and streaming services over Christmas week.

Your Spy Comedy Pick

Kingsman: The Secret Service

  • Filmfour today at 9pm

20th Century Studios / YouTube

A secret spy organisation recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into its competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.

Your Fantasy Adventure Pick

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

  • Channel 4 today at 11.05pm

Movieclips Trailers / YouTube

The much-loved superhero team of turtles rise from the sewers to free New York City from the control of Shredder and a group of criminals called the Foot Clan.

Your Festive Dark Comedy Pick

Bad Santa 2

  • Virgin Media Two tomorrow at 9pm

**Adult content in trailer**

Movieclips Trailers / YouTube

13 years after we first met Willie Soke, he’s as unhappy as he ever was. He teams up with Marcus, who has just got out of prison and has a deal that can potentially bag them millions. 

Your Christmas Rom-Com Pick

The Holiday

  • RTÉ One Wednesday at 9.30pm

Movieclips Classic Trailers / YouTube

Look, it’s not the best film anyone ever made, sometimes this is just what you need to switch off. Two single women decided to swap homes for the holidays.

One is a glamorous movie producer who recently ended her relationship, the other is a journalist, in love with a co-worker who just got engaged. Spoiler: They both find love in the end. 

Your Post-Apocalyptic Pick

The Midnight Sky

  • Netflix from 23 December

Netflix / YouTube

A scientist in the Arctic (played by George Clooney) races to stop a group of astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe.

Your Sports Documentary Pick

Laochra Thar Lear

  • TG4 23 December at 9.30pm

unnamed Pat O'Callaghan was the first athlete from Ireland to win an Olympic medal under the Irish flag. TG4 TG4

As we look forward to the next Olympic games which are due to be held a year late in Tokyo in summer 2021, this documentary celebrates Ireland’s Olympic heroes. The programme tells the stories of champions during the first sixty years of the modern games, from John Pious Boland’s two gold medals in Athens in 1896 to Ronnie Delaney’s record-breaking win in Melbourne in 1956.

Your Family-Friendly Action Pick

We Can be Heroes

  • Netflix from Christmas Day

Netflix / YouTube

When alien invaders kidnap Earth’s superheroes, their kids, who also have superpowers, set out to save their parents. They have to work together using their individual powers, from elasticity to time control to predicting the future.

Your Jazzy Rom-Com Pick

Sylvie’s Love

  • Amazon Prime from Christmas Day

Amazon Prime Video / YouTube

Set in 1957, Sylvie dreams of a career in television. She spends her summer working in her father’s record store as she waits for her fiancé to return from the war.

When talented jazz musician Robert takes a part-time job at the store, the two form a friendship that soon becomes something more.

As the summer winds down life takes them on different paths, but when they meet years later their feelings for each other have not changed.

Your Perfect Stephen’s Day Adventure Pick

Raiders of the Lost Ark

  • RTÉ 2 26 December at 6.05pm

Movieclips Classic Trailers / YouTube

Stay in your PJs, park yourself in front of the tin of Roses and enjoy this action throwback. Indiana Jones is off to Egypt in search of the Ark of the Covenant. There he comes up against the Nazis who are planning to use the Ark to help Hitler in his bid for world domination. 

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