A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (BBC One, 7.10pm)

AFTER mauling JM Barrie’s classic Peter Pan last year, disaster-prone am-dram troupe the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society has been blacklisted by the BBC. The group resolves to force itself back on to the screen by hijacking the jewel in the corporation’s Christmas crown – a live production of A Christmas Carol. What follows is an anarchic hour of television in which the performers quickly find themselves out of their depth, with no idea how to direct a live studio, or handle the special effects necessary to bring Dickens’ perennial festive favourite to life.

Spiral (BBC Four, 9pm)

A NEW run of the acclaimed French detective series. In the opening double bill, Laure returns early from maternity leave to help the team put a name to a murder victim identifiable only through his dismembered torso. A high-profile criminal trial tempts a jaded Josephine, and magistrate Roban grows distracted.