CAKE

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28 @ 9:00PM

Follow the trials and tribulations of passionate amateur bakers whose goal is to be named the U.K.’s best. Each week, the bakers tackle a different skill, the difficulty of which increases as the competition unfolds. Mary Berry, a leading cookbook writer, and Paul Hollywood, a top artisan baker, serve as judges. Together with hosts and comic foils Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, Berry and Hollywood search for the country’s best amateur baker by testing the competitors’ skills on cakes, breads, pastries and desserts, crowning a winner after 10 weeks of competition.

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WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26 @ 9:00PM

From ISIS to Ferguson; the midterm elections to the tumult in Ukraine; the rising stock market to falling gas prices…those are just some of the stories that dominated Washington and the world in 2014.

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HOLIDAY SPECIAL

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1 @ 7:30PM & 12:30AM

Rehearsals for the Sunday School Christmas concert are underway, creating inconvenience for the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House. Two unmarried patients are dispatched to York Lodge, a badly managed home for pregnant women. Chummy takes over running the facility after an outbreak of chicken pox there. Dr. Turner treats a destitute older couple, former residents of a mental hospital closed under the mental health reforms. As residents of Nonnatus welcome the new year, the question on everyone’s mind is, what will 1960 bring?

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WITH BRUCE FEILER

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23

Jerusalem: At a Glance @ 6:00pm & 11:00pm

The Hebrew Bible instructs all Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year: in spring for Passover, in summer for Shavuout, and in the fall for Sukkot. But the city is holy to more than just Jews: Christian pilgrims began coming to Jerusalem and the Holy Land within centuries of Jesus’ death, and the Al Aksa Mosque, located inside the walls of the Old City, is considered the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

The Hajj: At a Glance @ 7:00pm & 12:00am

One of the five pillars of Islam is that each believer is called, at least once in their lives, to make the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that starts and ends in the holy city of Mecca located in today’s Saudi Arabia. The journey recreates Muhammad’s own path as the native son returned to his tribal home as the leader of a vibrant new religion. Unlike other sacred sites, Mecca is closed off to believers of other faiths: only Muslims are permitted on the Hajj.

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DOWNTON ABBEY SEASON 4

EPISODE 7

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21 @ 8:00PM

Robert and Thomas return from America, Bates makes a surprise trip to York, Edith prepares to go abroad, and suitors flock to Mary. Branson helps someone move on, and Rose makes her move.

The much-loved cast of Downton Abbey Season 4 includes Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Penelope Wilton, and a host of others, with guest stars Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti. Written and created by Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey, Season 4 marks the return of one of television’s most beloved and anticipated drama series to MASTERPIECE on MCPTV 26.1.<p>

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30 @ 10:00PM

Lucy Worsley gets into bed with past monarchs to uncover the secrets of the royal bedchamber. She reveals that our obsession with royal bedrooms, births and succession is nothing new. In fact, the rise and fall of their magnificent beds reflects the changing fortunes of the monarchy itself. 

This program will reveal that while today some areas are intensely private spheres, the royal bedchamber was once a very public sphere with huge political consequence. Not only was it the site for royal marriage ceremonies, but royal births were also traditionally observed there by a crowd in order to verify the baby’s gender. As Lucy will reveal, since everyone felt that they had a stake in it, the process of creating royal babies also often took place in a semi-public context.

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WITH GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19 @ 9:00PM

President Obama’s action to restore diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba was the result of 18-months of secret negotiations with the communist regime that also included a prisoner exchange. Pope Francis played a crucial role in the talks that led to the release of American contractor Alan Gross, who was held in a Cuban prison for five years.

There was substantial push-back, mostly from Republicans to the president’s announcement. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, whose parents emigrated from Cuba, is among a group of bipartisan lawmakers vowing to block the deal and U.S. plans to establish an embassy in Havana.

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