Black Mirror 'White Christmas' special trailer teases festive misery

Special episode will weave together three stories

Amid grinning ITV marathons of Ant & Dec playing Christmas turkeys like bagpipes for charity, there will be a much-needed dose of "Yuletide technoparanoia" on 16 December when Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror returns for a feature-length special.

Channel 4 released a trailer for it today, which gives glimpses of the three interwoven stories: Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall sitting down to a bleak, dystopian Christmas dinner, the arrival of a prosaic form of technological romantic guidance and a future in which there is the ability to block people Facebook-style in real life.

The latter follows in Black Mirror's Borgesian tradition of taking advancements in technology and culture to their extremes, with a woman seen clicking a button during a heated row with her boyfriend to simply delete him from the room.

"I always enjoy a good ghost story at Christmas, and I'm a sucker for the Amicus’ compendium horror movies of the 70s," creator Brooker said of the special episode. "Our aim is to create the Black Mirror equivalent of that."

Mad Men's Jon Hamm joins the show on this occasion, a "massive fan" of the first two series.

"I am beyond thrilled to be a part of the Black Mirror Christmas Special," he previously said in a statement. "I have been a massive fan of the show since its inception.

"Its dark humour and intelligent observation of our society and values hooked me deeply as a viewer and I'm honoured that Charlie and the rest of the creative team have asked me to participate in wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas."

Black Mirror: White Christmas airs on 16 December at 9pm on Channel 4.