Christmas TV: Barbie and Cillian head movie feast

When blockbuster films Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day in July, 2023, critics labelled the great cultural event as ‘Barbenheimer’.

Both did great at the box office, the latter landing an Oscar for Cork’s Cillian Murphy - and both now make their TV premieres as part of the Christmas slate of films.

Murphy’s take on theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose work ushered in nuclear bombs, is on RTÉ1 on St Stephen’s Day at 9.20pm.

Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, in which the doll and her beau Ken get to experience life with humans, airs on RTÉ1 on Christmas Day at 9.40pm.

Also this Christmas, Irish blockbuster tragicomedy The Banshees Of Inisherin, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, is on RTÉ1 on Saturday, December 27 at 9.40pm.

The big movie on TG4 on Christmas Day is the premiere of Irish language hit Fidil Ghorm at 8.30pm. The story of a 10-year-old girl called Molly who believes that if she learns to play the fiddle, she can wake her dad from a coma.

Kids seeking a Santa distraction on Christmas Eve can catch Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse on BBC1 at 2.55pm. Brooklyn teen Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) struggles to disclose his web-slinging secret identity to his parents, and tensions coincide with the emergence of a blundering villain called The Spot.

The Great Escaper on BBC2 at 9.30pm on St Stephen’s Day stars Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson, about a former Royal Navy officer desperate to go to France to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-day landings.

The usual festive hits are shown too - It’s A Wonderful Life is on RTÉ1 on Christmas Eve at 1.10pm, and Meet Me In St Louis is on BBC2 that day at 1.25pm.