Digging out the gems among the dross on Christmas television

By that I mean I have a major obsession that manifests itself once a year, thereby rendering it minor. At least as far as I'm concerned.

My obsession – I prefer to label it an inconsequential annual attack of zeal – is to habitually trawl through the pages of the bumper edition of the Radio Times, armed with a pen and circle whatever takes my fancy.

Inevitably that means re-runs of Jaws, The Great Escape (yes, I know...), Star Wars and anything that is remotely associated with Orson Welles.

Imagine my delight last year when some of the arts channels devoted several hours to Orson Welles. There was his 1950s Sketchbook, the classic Arena two-parter, some (much overlooked) films and a new documentary from actor-turned-biographer Simon Callow.

Alas, not much jumps out this year. It's funny, but as the sheer number of satellite channels has mushroomed, so the amount of intelligent programming has noticeably diminished.

Latterly it seems like the satellite companies have opted for a drip-drip approach, scattering what decent offerings they have throughout the length of the year, and at decidedly odd times.

Thus only insomniacs, night owls and vampires catch the juicy stuff given that it's often buried away midweek and in the wee small hours of the morning.

Yet it's there if one cares to look. It just takes some digging out. I did manage to locate a contemporary re-telling of MR James's exemplary chiller Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad. The Radio Times' reviewer was a bit sniffy ("a very sparse, slow tale") but it stars John Hurt, so that's all right.

There's also a BBC4 profile of Simon Russell Beale, the phenomenal theatre actor who has managed to avoid being corrupted by televsision and film, as well as documentaries on Ronnie Corbett and Sir Peter Hall. Now there's a kooky double-bill...

Christmas telly used to be about festive fare combined with great epic films of yesteryear. True, 2010 does offer up Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, The Conversation, Stand by Me, Into the Wild and the teeth-rattling yarn that is The Fugitive.

But against those classics, there are also out and out turkeys like Steven Spielberg's ill-judged remake of The War of the Worlds and rather too many Steven Seagal flicks for my liking. It all smacks of lazy programming.

Back when we were spoiled by five terrestrial channels, the Christmas TV schedule was something to plot, chart and savour.

These days it's like trying to navigate the violent rush of the Strid.

However, no need to despair just yet. I'm convinced that the treasure lies in the small print and if you look hard enough it is possible to unearth some gems.

My star choice for Yuletide fun? Carry On Screaming, arguably the best of the series and a pitch-perfect spoof of those lurid old Hammer shockers.

The hulking Oddbod mews, Fenella Fielding comes across all misty ("Do you mind if I smoke...?") and it's got Kenneth Williams as Dr Watt, Harry H Corbett as Detective Sergeant Bung and Charles Hawtrey as Dan Dann (the Toilet Man).

As the saying goes, they don't make 'em like that anymore...