Channel 4's Christmas schedule will include a Green Wing special and the debut of US smash hit, Ugly Betty.

The Green Wing one-off special sees Caroline (Tamsin Greig) now engaged to Guy (Stephen Mangun), while Mac (Julian Rhind-Tuut) has very little time to live. Gripped by desperation and paranoia, dwarf-killing duo Statham (Mark Heap) and Joanna (Pippa Haywood) are on the run, jumping relentlessly out of frying pans and into fires (not quite literally). With no-one left in charge, the admin girls let their basic instincts run wild, while something very strange has happened to Karen (Lucinda Raikes) after her fall from the window. Boyce (Oli Chris) discovers life without Statham, Sue White (Michelle Gomez) spots a job opportunity and Martin (Karl Theobald) feels utterly helpless. Again. Still, at least it all ends happily ever after. Or does it?

Ugly Betty was the big new show in America this autumn. Based on the hugely popular Columbian soap opera Betty La Fea, the quirky comedy drama follows Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), a seemingly plain, but smart secretary at fashion magazine ‘Mode’. It also stars Ashley Jenson (Extras) in her first US TV role.

Elsewhere, Ricky Gervais gets to meet Christopher Guest and Garry Shandling, whilst a one-hour special documents the solo careers of the Pythons following the break-up of their Flying Circus. The film offers an insight into their complicated and often strained relationships and follows their solo careers from 1974 to the final Python venture in 1983 with the cinematic release of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. The programme features rare archive footage as well as interviews with those who worked with Cleese et al, including Neil Innes and Andrew Sachs.

Channel Four will also be showing an hour-long documentary about Life of Brian, one of the most controversial films ever produced. It will examine how the movie caused a global furore amongst religious groups, who saw it as blasphemous, disgusting and ‘made in hell’. The Pythons reflect on the concept and making of the film and discuss the obstacles they had to overcome. EMI withdrew funding, local councils in Britain banned cinemas from showing the film and Mary Whitehouse lobbied the BBFC to refuse the film a certificate. Featuring archive footage from Life of Brian and behind-the-scenes footage on location, The Secret Life of Brian includes exclusive interviews with John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and John Mortimer. It also poses the question; could this film have been made in today’s political climate?

There will also be an hour-long documentary that grapples with Benny Hill’s saucy seaside humour and then puts it to the ultimate test of time with a screening of his best moments to a group of kids who’ve never even heard his name. In the 60s and 70s he was possibly Britain’s most successful comic – but what will today’s critical youth think of his humour? The programme charts the rise and fall of this comedy icon – including interviews with his family, friends, colleagues, critics and fans – as well as offering the chance to revisit some of Hill’s classic comedy sketches from his long career.