Julian Fellowes bowed out swathing every scene with even more cascading violins than usual and enough sentimentality to make the most devoted fan gag. Downton's finale, by Jim Shelley. read
A former KGB major has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the bombing of Metrojet 9268 on October 31 to garner sympathy for Russia among the international community. read
The Government’s new Bill of Rights will seek to avoid a repeat of the Abu Qatada farce by introducing a system to ensure terror suspects can be kicked out on a ruling from the British courts. read
Big package holiday companies are battling for bookings and are now are pushing alternative long-haul destinations such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Sri Lanka. read
When I started work as a junior doctor, I used to peer out of the window before Christmas, praying for snow, writes DR MAX PEMBERTON. read
Looking back, Cameron's decision to bomb in 2011 looks as fatally misguided as Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq. PETER OBORNE visits Benghazi, Libya, to see the legacy of David Cameron's action. read
The state of a royal marriage is, all too often, rather precisely mirrored by the choice of Christmas card the couple send. read
The Queen used her Christmas Day message to highlight the 'moments of darkness' the world has confronted - stressing the Christian message that light always triumphs over the dark. read
The 89-year-old royal looked stylish in a vintage fur coat as she stepped out for a private family service on the Sandringham estate, in Norfolk. Hours later, she was seen in a vibrant red coat and hat. read
The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall beamed as they arrived for the traditional Christmas Day church service on the Sandringham estate - but there was no sign of their two young children. read
Ant said: 'I think he may have had a few issues with my accent. I would ask him a question and sometimes he would just smile. Then Dec would ask the same question and get a full answer!' read
Christmas, as any newly divorced couple will tell you, is a particularly harrowing time. Just ask Emma Rathbone and James Ord-Hume for the reasons their marriage broke down. read
On BBC1, Sister Monica Joan elbowed her way to the centre of the stage while on ITV, Edith was bemused by the events of the Downton finale, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS. read
After the Abbey doors closed for good at 10:45pm, emotional viewers flooded Twitter with praise for the surprisingly cheerful end. read
Suppose you were asked to drive to an unfamiliar destination. Would you set off in what you guessed might be the right direction and hope for the best? Here is a self-help tool that can guide you... read
It's Boxing Day and there is barely a fridge in the land that isn't groaning with leftovers. But how long can you safely keep them for? read
Former valet Mike Hewitson is among a number who have departed Sir Elton's sphere - apparently due to the influence of the singer’s much-younger husband, David Furnish. read
Indrajeet Bhuyan, 18, described the issue in a post on Hackatrick.com. He claimed that he alerted WhatsApp to the problem. read
The best time of day to make love is 3pm. According to our hormones, women are more alert and energetic, and men are ‘more emotionally present’ in the afternoon. read
NHS England is also advising families to keep homes properly heated and to watch out for elderly relatives and neighbours. Also alcohol-related injuries and reduced GP services are increasing demand. read
Foreign drivers are routinely being let off speeding fines because police say it is too difficult to trace them. Nearly 1,700 offenders broke the limit on just one road in Kent. read
The unnamed man was seen preparing to allegedly jump when Recep Erdogan's motorcade was passing over the 211ft-tall bridge, which links Europe with Asia, after Friday prayers. read
Freedom of Information requests revealed that in 2014-2015 there were 199 Disclosure and Barring Service checks on church bell ringers, 726 on choristers and 23 on flower arrangers read
Kirsty Reed (right), 30, was watching Cinderella with her husband Matthew (left) at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth when her contractions began. By the time she got to the hospital, her water broke. read
Insurers are rushing to exclude the toys from policies and experts have said that even those who buy the remote controlled drones (file photo) as gifts could be liable over privacy and injury claims read
Rodney, Derek, Donald and Ian are the top men's names facing extinction. The monikers Derek and Rodney gained worldwide fame as the characters in classic BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. read
The 15-year-old who has accompanied his mother for much of the tour across the US and Canada, where he worked backstage is said to have grown upset with being on the road for two months. read
The Most Reverend Justin Welby (pictured) branded Islamic extremists as the 'Herod of today', a reference to the despot King at the time of Jesus's birth in his speech at Canterbury Cathedral. read
Children from countries which Pope Francis (pictured) has visited as Pontiff were invited to watch him speak inside the grand 16th Century church - one of the largest in the world read
Ministers were accused of ‘astounding hypocrisy’ yesterday for failing to end the Boxing Day rail shutdown, which is set to cause travel chaos for millions. read
Doctors have warned that children and teenagers are risking severe damage to their health by consuming high volumes of these sugar-packed products (file photo of boy drinking Red Bull) read
Retail analysts believe the fact that December 26 falls on a Saturday means shopper numbers will be up by 3 per cent on a year ago. Tourists are expected to be at the head of the queue for designer labels. read
Around £2.9bn could be spent in the annual bargain frenzy, with more than 14 million people expected to take part in the sales, as hundreds of products are discounted by up to 75 per cent. read
The Hello singer’s (pictured) latest collection was the most popular gift, topping not only the Amazon album chart but the bestsellers list, which includes all other kinds of product. read
Hoverboards and drones have been banned from the Queen's Windsor Great Park over safety fears. read
Samantha Thomas was last seen at 10.30am on Thursday when she set out to buy clothes from a Tesco on the Isle of Sheppey. Police said she was found safe on Christmas Day. read
Catherine MacDiarmid, centre, pictured with her children Suzi, left, Zach and Marcus, right have been forced to move to her mother's home in Kendal, but have vowed not to allow the floods ruin Christmas. read
For hundreds of families in Cumbria and Lancashire, Christmas was cancelled when flood waters swept through their homes but thanks to generous Mail readers, many will now get some respite. read
Forget Christmas pudding - some Brits were going for ice cream (pictured in Somerset) as temperatures were within touching distance of the record for the hottest Christmas Day ever. read
Sinitta in a silly hat, Jeremy Kyle in regrettable shorts, potty-mouthed reality star Danielle Lloyd posing on any yacht that will have her - Barbados has transformed into a circus of reality TV stars. read
Lead singer Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea (who jointly wrote Merry Xmas Everybody) net an average £250,000 each in annual royalties from their most famous song while the others get nothing. read
As Christmas Day fairy tales go, Disney would struggle to produce one as heartwarming, even if they filled it with puppies and Dickensian street urchins with an NHS song beating Bieber to number one. read
In a new series Sir David ventures beneath the waves of Queensland attempting dives that have never been attempted before in a quest to unearth incredible marine life. read
Biologist Patrick Aryee gets up close to lions and tigers. The two-part show also charts their 11-million-year history. Big Cats: An Amazing Animal Family starts on Monday, 8pm, Sky1. read
Walk down Oxford’s bustling High Street and it’s easy to miss the statue of Cecil John Rhodes that adorns the historic facade of Oriel College. read
Frequent ambulance callers who have in some cases each made hundreds of 999 calls a year are costing the NHS millions, NHS trusts claim. read
The new type of gastric balloon, which has just been approved for use in the UK, is designed to help those who find it impossible to lose weight through normal diets. read
Cameron is said to be considering a compromise on the measure after French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested a counter offer of a three year ban read
First time buyers are expected to face a tougher task of stepping on the housing ladder as buy-to-let investors race into the market in an effort to beat George Osborne's stamp duty tax hike. read
The findings of the Centre for Economics and Business Research will be seized on by Tory Eurosceptics in the run-up to the referendum on British membership of the EU expected next year. read
Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Tracey Crouch, said Parliament had 'better things to be concerned with' than fulfilling the Tory pledge to hold a vote on scrapping the Hunting Act (file photo of fox hunting) read
A former denim factory in West London was turned into 33 houses and shops from Dickens' most beloved novels for the ambitious 20-part BBC series, 'Dickensian', which aired tonight. read
The link between wealth and health in Britain is well established, with the richest of us living up to eight years longer than the poorest. read
Theresa May (pictured) says new surveillance powers - unveiled under the Investigatory Powers Bill last month - will help police and spooks to track down and identify anonymous cyberbullies read
Middle-aged men and women who ate a portion of fish several times a week slept for longer and had less broken sleep than those eating smaller amounts, according to research. read
The craze, started by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, has boosted sales of cosmetics by £59.3million in the past year to a total of £816.4million. read
Anita Harris (pictured) said angels have looked after her since her childhood and despite financial disasters, two cancer scares and the pain of never having children after several miscarriages read
Firefighters are now being called on to treat the injured and dying in Wales because they can respond quicker to a 999 call than paramedics. read
Bel Mooney also talks to a reader who believes his wife has a racy past after receiving messages from a woman claiming to know her, and how the best Christmas gift this year is fun. read
The 87-year-old TV legend was forced to miss the festive episode, pulling out due to his ongoing recovery from keyhole surgery on an abdominal aortic aneurysm in November. read
Detectives from the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Team today sealed off the scene in Slough as forensic specialists combed the house for clues to the killing. read
Jen Chervin of Oregon who was abandoned on the steps of a California hospital 44 years ago has located her biological parents just in time for Christmas. read
Pueraria lobate (also known as kudzu),the world's most aggressive and invasive plant species, is the subject of a photo-series by Swedish photographer Helene Schmitz. read
British astronaut Major Tim Peake apologised to a woman on Twitter after he mistakenly called her from space and asked her 'hello is this planet earth?' after dialling the wrong number. read
Nick Gordon continued to protest his love for late girlfriend Bobbi Kristina Brown as he shared a controversial Christmas card of the two to his Twitter page on Tuesday. read
British tennis number one Andy Murray revealed his sense of humour at Christmas after the BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner was pictured in festive snaps alongside brother Jamie. read
People have taken to the secret-sharing app to reveal their true feelings about the festive season, bemoaning having to put up decorations, buy presents and spend time with their relatives. read
The new Colossus of Rhodes statue will stand at a massive 500ft tall - five times higher than the original - and will act as a lighthouse that can be seen from 35 miles away on the Turkish coast read
Jenna Folland and Kellie Campbell posed for a photo aged six clutching boy and girl dolls and the friends later gave birth on the same day to the girl and boy they predicted at that young age. read
The fierce storm touched down in Jefferson County and piled through south west Birmingham, a city of more than 200,000 people. read
The fire at the William J Clinton Birthplace, a National Historic Site, in Hope, Arkansas, began at about 3.20am, and authorities believe that the fire was not an accident. read
Around 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Thai embassy in Yangon, Myanmar, to demand the release of two migrant workers, sentenced to death for the murders of two British backpackers. read
Witnesses reported seeing dozens of burned bodies littering the gas plant following the blaze, which erupted as people waited in line for fuel at the Inter Corp Oil Limited gas plant in Nnewi city. read
Nineteen people, including six children, have drowned off the coast of the Turkish city of Izmir after their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea. read
Zahran Alloush, the head of Jaysh al Islam, one of the strongest insurgent faction in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, was killed in an air raid that targeted his group's headquarters. read
The ruling by the terrorist group's scholars was discovered in documents which U.S. special forces found in a raid in Eastern Syria in May and raise concerns that ISIS is trafficking body parts. read
More than 6,000 people now live in the desolate migrant camp in northern France, including orphaned children, the elderly and disabled. Families tried to make the best of their Christmas. read
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Moadamiyeh was the site of a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-held areas outside Damascus that killed hundreds of people. read
Sarah Corell, 36, from Liverpool, has a dog named Louis (pictured together) who has chewed through her £600 Louis Vuitton bag and torn the heels off her £850 Louboutin shoes. read
Arthur Boyt from Cornwall has spent years dining out on dead animals he salvages from the side of the road and today he will be tucking into a dead dolphin for this Christmas lunch. read
The edible edifice, decorated with colorful candy and white frosting, was created by friends of the billionaire Facebook CEO and his wife, Priscilla Chan. read
Several people have taken to Twitter to joke about Costa Coffee opening a drive through after a car ploughed into a coffee shop in Kent, killing a 70-year-old woman and injuring five others. read
The good news is you don't need to starve yourself because one of the A-lister's favourite health gurus has shared his tips for beating the bloat in just four days. read
From 1961 until 1977, Madame Claude provided the A-list of prostitutes for the ultimate A-list of clients including John F Kennedy and Marlon Brando, and once tried to recruit Joan Collins (pictured) read
She may not be the focus of the highly anticipated Suffragette movie, but Melbourne woman Vida Goldstein was the poster girl for the suffragist movement in Australia and across the world. read
A leading professor of human co-operation at Oxford University argues that fear of God, or gods, enforced moral rules that allowed our ancestors to co-operate and set them apart from other animals. read
Lee Garrett, 33, manager of the pub in the Breacon Beacons, Wales, said Facebook 'lacked common sense' after his page for the Blackcock Inn was banned for use of racist or offensive language. read
The teenager was a passenger in a blue Fiat Punto when it collided with a white Mini Cooper near Cockermouth, between Tallentire and Gilcrux, in Cumbria last night. Her family have been told. read
Dr. Richard O’Connor of Montana claims he captured photos of two UFOs on November 4 of this year. He says his photos are real and that he wants people to know the truth. read
The X Factor winner, 17, failed to bag the coveted Christmas number one spot, with the NHS Choir's A Bridge Over You out-selling superstar Justin Bieber's Love Yourself by 31,000 copies. read
A woman who was mauled by a bear that crashed into her home was killed by a bullet fired by her husband as he tried to defend her, Claudia Huber was attacked by the bear in Canada, in October 2014. read
Irqa Mohamed, 20, of Finsbury Park, London, said she feared for her life during an alleged racist rant from another passenger on a bus in Islington last Sunday. read
The girl, known as Grace and believed to be from Ireland, is thought to have received the Christmas greeting which her mother posted on Facebook in a bid to shame the bullies who sent it. read
Judy and Jerry Sheindlin's 8,550-square-foot condo in Naples, Florida, comes with four bedrooms, six bathrooms, two private elevators, wraparound windows overlooking the bay and a sauna. read
Workers who are seen as the company rock have a higher workload and worry more about succeeding than if they slacked off. They are also likely to be anxious about maintaining their reputation. read
Simmone Laval, 37, pictured, from Bagshot in Surrey was jailed for 20 months after she was found guilty in Guildford Crown Court of stealing more than £200,000 from two employers. read
An unemployed Senegalese man who was rescued from an overcrowded boat by the Spanish coast guard in 2007 has won hundreds of thousands of euros in Spain's biggest lottery. read
Modi (right) phoned Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif (left) just hours before jetting off to ask if he could make an impromptu stop. Sharif replied: 'Please come and have tea with me' read
Brazen Marie Buchan, 33 (pictured), who is dubbed 'Octo-mum' for her huge brood, will be able to sleep on her own for the first time since having her children after moving into a new house in Birmingham. read
EXCLUSIVE: After winning the jackpot in February, truck driver Paul Lawton, 57, and his care worker wife Debbie, 50, realised they could finally afford to give Tracey, 29, the care she needs. read
This singer is usually the one doing the inspiriting, but this time she was the one being inspired. read
A dramatic helicopter rescue has saved the lives of five fisherman who desperately clung to the hull of their sinking boat off the coast of Batemans Bay in southern NSW for five hours on Christmas day. read
Aer Lingus picked five families to send home to Ireland from the US to give their families 'the best Christmas surprise ever' and documented their journeys in a tearjerker video on YouTube. read
Ex-Chelsea and Man City midfielder Frank Lampard appears to have been spotted shopping for bargains in Poundland. A football fan is adamant the star was in the discount store in Fulham. read
This map, created by a university student, offers a rare visualisation of the London attractions and areas that are snapped the most. The brightest spots are along the Thames in central London. read
The 53 Americans taken hostage in Iran in 1979 will finally get financial compensation that had eluded them for decades. They will be given restitution of up to $4.4million each. read
FEMAIL chatted to four of Britain's top health and fitness gurus to find out what they'll be eating over Christmas - and, yes, it does include chocolate and booze. read
The champion of the BBC show's eighth series, which sees working chefs battle it out in the kitchen, has revealed his time honoured recipe for using up all of his Christmas Day leftovers. read
A Florida couple say presents have piled up for their year-old son, Jaxon Bell, whose Christmas card with Santa captivated readers nationwide. read
Karina and Craig Waters from Perth in Western Australia purchased the Chateau de Gudanes in the south of France back in 2013 and immediately began restoring the sprawling property. read
Jeweller Giedre Duoble and photographer Ugne Henriko, from Lithuania, looked at the relationship between the generations and documented the poignant presents. read
At the start of the video, the deer has trouble climbing out of the water and onto tarp. Soon, a man in the water approaches the young animal and grabs it with both hands. read
From a 'goblin' running across a kitchen floor to a girl knocked over by a 'ghost' - these are the weirdest and wackiest videos seen on MailOnline in 2015. read
Here MailOnline Travel takes a look back at the tourist incidents of 2015 - from New Zealand to the US - that will be remembered for years to come. read
An Adelaide man is in hospital with 'extensive' burns after a LPG tank in his Ford 4WD caught fire, causing the vehicle to explode dramatically into a ball of flames at 10am on Christmas day. read
A rare cosmic event provided a thrilling site for stargazers overnight as the Full Cold Moon (pictured) coincided with Christmas Day for the first time in 34 years. read
A little girl was so thrilled to have received the Frozen dolls she wanted for Christmas she could barely contain her excitement - squealing in an adorable video captured by her father. read
Girls took to Bondi beach in bikinis to top up their tans in Australia, while others attended mass, came together for concerts and tucked their excited children into bed in anticipation of Santa's visit. read