Jules Verne’s evergreen adventure story has attracted numerous adaptations. Partly, this is due to the winning simplicity of the plot: a bored Victorian gentleman-adventurer undertakes a bet to circumnavigate the globe in less than, well, 80 days. But also it’s because in Phileas Fogg – enthusiast, idealist, slightly scatty inventor – Verne created such a charming hero. So this big-budget version, with the erstwhile Time Lord David Tennant as Fogg, and none other than Hans Zimmer scoring, should be a treat.
12. Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard/The Wonder of Song, BBC One, 30 December, 8pm
The hardest working nonagenarian in television, David Attenborough has two series out this Christmas. The first is a more personal project – an exploration of a British gravel quarry which, through a geological quirk, is one of the best-preserved sites of mammoth bones and Neanderthal life in the world. In The Wonder of Song, meanwhile, the great naturalist selects his favourites tunes and melodies (from nature, of course).
