Focusing on the World War II years and told through Churchill's own words, the documentary avoids the fictionalizing and compressing of Oscar-winner Gary Oldman's biopic "The Darkest Hour." With bowler hats and bombers, cigars and historic conclaves with world leaders, the series weaves archival footage, dramatizations with Christian McKay ("Rivals") stepping in the big man's shoes, and preeminent talking heads including former British P.M. Boris Johnson. The result is to patch together Churchill's outsize contribution to the Allies' victory over the Nazis. "Never, never, never give in."
Feeling more Santa than Sir Winston? Check out the many other options coming this week.
1. For the kids, and "Star Wars" completists, "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" premieres on Disney+ Monday. The pre-teens' lost-in-space adventure follows a gaggle of kids who go joyriding into the universe in a parent's starship. The quartet learns about each other, and the great, gooey beyond, on their unsupervised meet-the-aliens experience, encountering space daredevil Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) along the way. As a tart YouTube commenter wrote, "I never thought I'd see the Star Wars version of the goonies but here we are."
2. This Wednesday is among the worst days to be in midtown Manhattan. It marks the annual lighting of the mammoth Rockefeller Center tree, a tourist trainwreck of epic proportions. As an alternative, drink up that toddy and enjoy the event on television when NBC and Peacock air "Christmas in Rockefeller Center" live at 8 p.m. Kelly Clarkson will host for the second year, ushering in singers The Backstreet Boys and Jennifer Hudson, among others, as well as the Radio City Rockettes. This year's tree has Massachusetts roots. The 74-foot tall, 11-ton Norway spruce from West Stockbridge has already been cut and primed for the big day.
3. "Black Doves" is a "Love, Actually" for the espionage set. The spy drama, set in London during the run-up to Christmas, pairs Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw. The Netflix series dropping Thursday joins the current rush of political thrillers "The Day of the Jackal" (already renewed for season 2), "The Diplomat," and "The Agency." Helen Webb (Knightley) gathers intel for the clandestine consortium Black Doves, selling the info to the highest bidder regardless of national loyalties. A posh London mother and wife, Webb is in deep cover, married for a decade to a rising British political star (Andrew Buchan) now on the prime minister short list. As the holiday nears and her neighbors rejoice, her nest is threatened. Desperate, she turns to her old spy friend Sam (Ben Whishaw). Now an assassin's assassin, the gun-wielding guy comes to her rescue, pulling her out of tree-trimming-and-tinsel and into the deadly game. She's scared. And thrilled.
4. On Saturday, Margo Martindale joins the growing army of actresses over 50 assuming lead roles in television. Prime Video's six-episode heist comedy "The Sticky" casts the "The Americans" Emmy-winner as Ruth Landry, a Canadian maple syrup sugar-maker. Aggravated over the state of her one-time homegrown industry, the impoverished Landry assembles a crew and takes on Big Maple, tapping into her inner criminal, while targeting her nation's multimillion-dollar syrup surplus.
5. Sunday, PBS airs the BBC docuseries "Lucy Worsley's Holmes vs. Doyle." I'm a big Sherlock fan. At one point my cat and dog were named Sherlock and Mycroft. I've read the books, and seen everyone from Basil Rathbone to Benedict Cumberbatch to my favorite, Jeremy Brett, play Holmes. In an insatiable thirst for more sleuth arcana, I'm anticipating Oxford-educated historian Worsley's latest deep dive into the past. In the three-part series, the O.B.E. unravels the mystery of how 19th-century author Arthur Conan Doyle came to loathe his greatest creation, the detective Sherlock Holmes. To quote the violin-playing, cocaine-shooting detective: "The game's afoot."