From a show so bananas it could blind people to a classic cartoon that guarantees tears – stars behind the best festive treats on telly reveal what they tune into without fail

Christmas is a time steeped in traditions. And one big tradition that exists in many of our homes over the period revolves around TV: rewatching old favourites, hunkering down for that special you’ve been dying to see or sitting in a post-lunch fugue with a beloved family film. And, as we published last week, there’s a bounty of Christmas telly to get stuck into this year.

But what about people involved in making TV? What do their Christmas viewing habits look like? Here, a variety of actors, writers, directors and comedians – many of whom may be popping up on your screens this year – share their Christmas TV favourites.

Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein thought ‘zero hour’ had finally arrived until undercover operative thwarted them

When Walid Saadaoui recruited Amar Hussein to join him in a pogrom on the streets of Greater Manchester, Hussein wept with joy.

For years, the two men had been sleeper agents for the Islamic State terrorist group. Each had lived quietly in Britain for years, waiting for the right moment to stage an attack, and for the right person to give them the support to make it happen.

She won an Emmy for her electric performance in the Netflix smash hit, but the casting process wasn’t exactly hiccup-free. The actor opens up about a year of success, struggle – and how she nearly became a footballer

For a while, Erin Doherty ignored Stephen Graham’s calls. Not deliberately, she stresses with a laugh. “I’m just really bad at my phone. I’m such a technophobe, and he knew that,” she says. They had made the Disney+ show A Thousand Blows together, in which Doherty plays an East End crime boss in Victorian London, and Graham had talked about an idea he wanted to dramatise, about a teenage boy who is catastrophically radicalised by online misogyny. A couple of months after they’d wrapped A Thousand Blows, Graham and his wife and producing partner, Hannah Walters, kept trying to get in touch. “I was getting voice notes from him and Hannah being like, ‘Erin, pick up your phone!’” Doherty’s girlfriend told her to ring him back and Graham offered her the role in Adolescence. She said yes on the spot, without reading the script.

Since it was screened on Netflix in March, Adolescence has had nearly 150m views. It sparked a huge cultural conversation; it was shown in secondary schools and its creators were invited to Downing Street. Did they have any idea it would become such a phenomenon? “No, and I’m not sure you’re supposed to,” says Doherty when we speak. She is chatty and down-to-earth, even in the year her career went stellar. As well as starring in A Thousand Blows, her role in Adolescence – as Briony Ariston, a psychologist – won her an Emmy for best supporting actress. “But you do know when you’re a part of something that’s good and deserves to be seen, and we knew that about it. I think because it came from such a genuine place, a place of real purity and rawness, it [fed into] the making of it. From day one, it had that electricity.”

A long-promised tram network has been pushed back to the late 2030s – unless we build local, northern growth will be snuffed out

‘As an unabashed socialist, I am concerned with the distribution of wealth, but if you don’t create any in the first place it is a bit of an empty discussion.” For a decade I’ve repeated those words of Richard Leese, who was for 25 years the leader of Manchester city council, in policy discussions across northern England. I have never slammed them down while shouting, “This is what we believe” as Margaret Thatcher did with Friedrich Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty, but I might start.

Greater Manchester, a city region with a population of nearly three million people, generates far too little wealth to make its redistribution a meaningful discussion. Unusually for a rich country, the taxes raised in Greater Manchester, just as in other city regions such as West Yorkshire, Merseyside and the West Midlands, do not meet the cost of providing local public services. Taxes raised in the south-east of England cover the gap.

Thomas Forth is a co-founder and the CTO of The Data City, a 35 person tech company in central Leeds

Worried about cost, planning – or whether anyone will show up? We asked experts how to bring back parties

Several months ago, staring down another empty weekend, a friend texted me. “Why is no one having parties?” she fumed.

Some people were, we agreed, but not nearly enough. Indeed, in January, the Atlantic’s Ellen Cushing declared that “America is in a party deficit”, quoting a 2023 Bureau of Labor Statistics report that found only 4.1% of Americans attended or hosted a social event on an average holiday weekend. That figure was down a whopping 35% since 2004.

Timing: Daytime or night-time? How long will it last?

Menu: Will there be food? If so, does that mean a sit-down dinner, only appetizers or a buffet? Will you have caterers? “Less is more when it comes to food,” Rhinehart says. “Keeping the menu simple yet delicious goes a long way.”

Bar: If serving alcohol, which kinds? Which non-alcoholic beverages will you have available? Don’t skimp on ice, says Rhinehart: “You can never have enough!”

Kids: Are they invited, or is it an adults-only affair?

The 1997 creature feature gets a self-referential redo that works best when it allows its two stars to lean into silliness

Anyone rightly suspicious of comedies that try to make sure they have plenty of “heart” will rightly get their hackles up during the opening section of Anaconda, which sheds the skin of its 1997 horror-adventure namesake to reveal a self-referential goof on unnecessary reboots. After an absolutely woeful attempt at a horror-movie cold open where it becomes clear that director/co-writer Tom Gormican hasn’t the merest glimmer of talent for establishing mood, building suspense or even properly unveiling a crazy creature, the movie settles in for the true mission of any great broad comedy: uh, building pathos? After years as an aspiring film-maker, Doug (Jack Black) is succeeding-yet-languishing in his compromised hometown job as a wedding videographer. Meanwhile, his childhood bestie, Griff (Paul Rudd), is following the dream by working as an actor out in Los Angeles, but only just barely. We see him fired from a one-line role on a medical show because of his nerves, in a scene written for nagging sympathy first and comedy a distant second.

When the pair reunites for Doug’s birthday, Griff springs a post-party surprise: he has supposedly come into possession of remake rights to Anaconda, an eclectically cast creature feature that they loved as teenagers. Why not seize the opportunity by shooting their own version on a shoestring, and finally make movies together like they always dreamed? Despite a nagging feeling of responsibility to his family, Doug eventually warms to Griff’s idea, and their fellow friends Kenny (Steve Zahn) and Claire (Thandiwe Newton) join the crew. Soon they’re on a boat in the Amazon, dealing with eccentric snake handler Santiago (Selton Mello) and mysterious boat captain Ana (Daniela Melchior).

Files also include details about Epstein’s relationship with Larry Summers and a letter apparently sent to Larry Nassar

• US politics live – latest updates

A newly released batch of the so-called Epstein files on Tuesday includes many references to Donald Trump, including a claim by a senior US attorney that the US president was on a flight in the 1990s with the now-deceased convicted child sex offender and a 20-year-old woman.

There is no indication of whether the woman was a victim of any crime, and being included in the files does not indicate any criminal wrongdoing.

Top Democrat Chuck Schumer says justice department should release more information on ‘at least ten Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirators’

• Newly released Epstein files include references to Donald Trump

In another released email exchange from November 2001, Ghislaine Maxwell appears to be organizing an instructor for Epstein who “has to be female youngish and attractive otherwise he will lose interest rapidly”.

Maxwell emails someone called “Gibby”, saying: “JE is looking for an exercise instructor to work out with. He is looking for someone who can tone, flex and stretch.” “I am counting on you,” she adds.

He likes, well you know what he likes.

Epstein files reveal messages between his accomplice and a man who appears to be Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

• US politics live – latest updates

A man identified as “A” who appears to be Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed facilitating meetings with “inappropriate friends” with Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Among the latest tranche of Epstein files are email exchanges in 2001 and 2002 between Maxwell and a correspondent who appears as “The Invisible Man” in the email thread and says he is writing from Balmoral, the royal residence in the Scottish Highlands.

Documents released in relation to Jeffrey Epstein contain emails between Maxwell and an individual signing off as ‘A’ and ‘The Invisible Man’

Emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and an individual signing off as “A” are among the largest dump yet of documents released by the US Department of Justice in relation to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

While “A” – who also refers to themselves as “The Invisible Man” – is not explicitly identified in the emails, they include key details that corroborate the suggestion that they are Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was then still a working royal known as Prince Andrew.