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The Christmas Sunday Post: Festive Episodes

2016-12-25T11:00:00+00:00

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without... Christmas Night with the Stars? Dad's Army had already earned a place in the 1968 edition after one series

Television and radio schedulers have always given special attention to the festive period, and pull out the stops to come up with a range of programmes that will keep the family entertained when they settle down to watch the box, after the annual avalanche of turkey, sprouts, pigs in blankets, Christmas pudding and too many chocolates (not to mention more tiny oranges than you can shake a stick at).

There are a plethora of Christmas episodes to consider, from all periods of broadcasting and in all genres. Last year we picked out the schedule of fifty years ago for special attention, but one programme which was absent from the line-up that day was the variety show Christmas Night with the Stars. First seen in 1958, this was a successor to previous years' all-star pantomimes and Television Christmas Parties - one difference being that Christmas Night with the Stars featured pre-recorded sketches and short episodes of popular entertainment series rather than being a live, continuous show.

By 1958 pre-recording of inserts was more easily achieved, and so the necessity of getting all the performers together at the same time was avoided - the sketches might be recorded during the studio session for a normal episode in fact. Those appearing in Christmas Night with the Stars that first year included Tony Hancock in his Budgerigar sketch, Billy Cotton and his Band, Jimmy Edwards, Ted Ray, the George Mitchell Singers and the cast of Dixon of Dock Green - a regular presence in the show for the next few years since Dixon was made by the light entertainment department, not the drama department, at that time. With occasional breaks, Christmas Night with the Stars continued until 1972.

However, not all programmes shown at Christmas are stand-alone specials: sometimes the series in question was going on anyway, and there just happened to be an episode on Christmas Day or nearby, that acknowledged the event one way or another.

PC Jock Weir (Joseph Brady) auditions to join The Swinging Blue Jeans! The first Z Cars episode of Z Cars to be shown on Christmas Day, 1963

One example of that would be the Z Cars episode It Never Rains…, shown on Christmas Day 1963. The main plot is about a garage robbery, and there is a thief dressed as Father Christmas, but there is also a special guest appearance by the Merseybeat group The Swinging Blue Jeans (also appearing on the Light Programme the following day). Though Z Cars was usually live, a custom was established to prevent the cast and crew having to work through Christmas itself by pre-recording an episode about half way through the autumn on a scheduled transmission day, with that date covered by pre-recording another episode before the start of each season.

Z Cars, from its inception until the mid-1970s, was on for long periods of the year, so there were plenty of other episodes around Christmas time, although only one other on Christmas Day itself. The same applied to many other long-running series, though with shorter and shorter episode counts for all but the soap-operatic drama, it’s no longer so common now for series to co-incide with Christmas except by appointment.

Casualty is another drama series which has tackled the perils of Christmas time on a regular basis, and now tends to go on through most of the year, so there is no escape from Christmas editions. Since the early 90s there have been a series of notable Christmas adventures, with sister show Holby City joining in as well, sometimes even in a combined edition Casualty @ Holby City.

Another medical drama joining in the Christmas spirit was Dr Finlay’s Casebook, the 1920s set series originally adapted from the stories of A.J. Cronin. Fifty years ago to the day came the episode The Gifts of the Magi, in which Doctors Finlay and Cameron, and housekeeper Janet, are called on to perform their party pieces for the cottage hospital Christmas party. Other popular series however have generally eschewed the seasonal special, perhaps considering the festivities would get in the way or compromise their hard-hitting edge.

The Doctor and Rose battled robot Santas and the alien Sycorax in The Christmas Invasion, 2005, the first of a run of regular Christmas episodes of Doctor Who.

EastEnders has established a firm tradition of saving some of its more spectacular plot twists for Christmas Day, from the first event-episode in 1986 which saw Den serving Angie with divorce papers in one of the biggest rated episodes in the series’ history (anyone out there who doesn’t know who Den and Angie were, congratulations, you have now made me feel very old). There have been a number of high profile storylines at this time of year, and presumably 2016 will go out with a similar bombshell… But perhaps surprisingly, the first Christmas during the run of EastEnders, 1985, was comparatively low-key, and there wasn’t even an episode on 25 December itself.

For the last 11 years Doctor Who has also always had a Christmas episode, though they have not necessarily involved the series' most spectacular turning points. That said, David Tennant had his first full episode in that first modern era Christmas episode, and bowed out in 2009 in a two part Christmas and New Year double episode story.

As I discussed this time last year, the only time, before Doctor Who was revived, that there was a Christmas Day episode was in 1965, and in other years the programme went out of its way to avoid transmitting on the big day, even if that involved a big gap in the series, as in 1976. This year, 2016 having been without a full series, we will get in The Return of Doctor Mysterio the first new episode of the show since last Christmas Day.

Comedy too has its Christmas episodes, though given the shorter length of comedy series it is rarer for their yuletide editions to be an integral part of a series. In fact it is not unknown for a Christmas special to be the only outing in a given year for a particular programme – as with the 1976 Porridge special, or the Dad’s Army episodes in 1971 and 1976. As with The Good Life’s one and only Christmas special, these programmes are among those which are revived to fill out the Christmas schedules on a regular basis - which probably tells you something about how to make a comedy that stands the test of time.

Another series which became a Christmas fixture, was the 1980s monster hit Only Fools and Horses...., though it wasn't until its third series that the Christmas episode was seen on the big day itself, and then in a somewhat dark story about Del and Rodney's father turning up (but was he really Rodney's father...?) The 1990/1 series of Only Fools, of which the Christmas episode was an integral part, turned out to be the last full run of the show, with only Christmas episodes until 1996 when the series ended - or so it was to be at the time - with the Christmas trilogy that saw Del becoming a millionaire at last. A further three episodes were made, but they two were spread out over Christmas Days from 2001 to 2003 (on the same day, co-incidentally, as a one-off revival of Christmas Night with the Stars).

It’s Chriiiiiiiiiiiistmas!!! (to quote the song, written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea) The original caption to this photo pointed out helpfully that there were �� cameras in the shot. Really? Where???

Top of the Pops of course has now become a traditional part of the Christmas season, even though it stopped being broadcast as a weekly show ten years ago. The Christmas special has gone out every year since 1964, the first year of the programme’s existence, though at first at least it did not always go out on the Christmas Day itself. The Christmas edition is now the only chance for artists to say they have been on Top of the Pops.

Of necessity, the programme was always live, or recorded very close to transmission, and though there is now a little leeway with the Christmas edition, they are still taped fairly shortly before transmission. There was also a tradition for many years of having two editions at Christmas, so that the programme could become an in-depth look back at the whole year’s music, rather than just covering the Christmas chart and the (admittedly important) Christmas number one.

Radio is perhaps more prone to continuing existing series at Christmastime, as much of its output is generally very regular. Radios 1 and 2 tend to continue with the same programme slots, with occasional special programmes, and sometimes there are different presenters in the normal slots.

On Christmas Day 1967, the first under the new regime of Radio 1 and 2, when they still shared many programmes, regular shows like Tony Blackburn and Jimmy Young were interspersed with specials like Kenny and Cash with Kenny Everett and Dave Cash, and The D.J.s’ Christmas Party hosted by Pete Murray. Radio 2, when not sharing Radio 1’s programmes, had special editions like a Christmas episode of Round the Horne and Cotton’s Christmas Knees-Up starring Billy Cotton.

Ernie and Eric (unlike Ant and Dec, they don't always stand in alphabetical order) appear in their 1972 Christmas Show - the sketch featured a guest appearance by Bruce Forsyth

Of course, the concept of special Christmas episodes only really came to fruition once the actual concept of series of programmes gradually had developed in the early decades of broadcasting. The first Radio Times Christmas edition shows that the early programmes on offer for December 25th were modest enough.

Children’s Hour is one of the earliest regular programme strands, though there were different regional versions of it, often under different names, rather than one centralised networked edition. The London edition on 25/12/23 was mostly concerned with a play, On Christmas Eve. The evening schedule consisted of a programme of music played by the Wireless Orchestra (forerunner of all �� orchestras), the News, a talk on Wit and Humour and more dance music, this time by the Savoy Orpheans direct from the Savoy Hotel itself.

Of all the myriad seasonal shows that have been created since those early days, one institution that seems never to disappear is the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, one example of which always seems to be shown on or around Christmas Day. This has become the archetypal Christmas special, though to be fair in its day it was responsible for some of the highest ratings of any programme.

When Morecambe and Wise returned to the �� in 1968 after many years on ITV, it was partly due to the fact that the �� could offer them colour television, although it meant their programme would be on ��2 at first. Eric Morecambe was sadly victim to a heart attack after the first series aired, but had recovered enough by the end of the year that he and Ernie Wise were able to host the annual Christmas Night with the Stars. 1969 saw the series return with a new writer, Eddie Braben, and longer, 45-minute episodes which allowed them the room to expand their characterisations. The hour-long Christmas episode gradually became a showcase for even more elaborate staging and more impressive guest stars.

Given concerns for Eric’s health, the �� was careful not to overtax the duo by demanding too many shows, and eventually in 1977 the only programme they made was the Christmas show. Even so, it was Eric who took on the stress load, with his perfectionism meaning he worried about whether each year’s show would be good enough - if it wasn’t, he thought it might spoil people’s Christmas.

But they didn’t. The classic shows from 1971 (Shirley Bassey and the army boot, André Previn and 'all the wrong notes') to 1977 are full of classic moments and stand many many repeat showings. Angela Rippon dancing, South Pacific performed by a chorus of �� presenters and newsreaders, Glenda Jackson as Queen Victoria… and Ernie’s ‘dry’ version of Singin’ in the Rain – the list goes on…

John Noakes, Lesley Judd and Peter Purves, with schoolchildren and the Chalk Farm Salvation Army Band, look forward to Christmas 1974 in Blue Peter

In the field of current affairs, there was naturally less by way of Christmas editions, other than the Money Programme looking at its financial side, but the early evening magazine Nationwide contributed to the festivities from the mid-70s, until its demise in 1983, by organising a Christmas carol competition, which was carried on with afterwards by the likes of Breakfast Time and Pebble Mill at One. Carol competitions on the �� go back at least to one held by Children's Hour in 1936, and survived until the 1980s A Song for Christmas.

And who could forget the Blue Peter Christmas celebrations, in the 1970s especially, with the studio full of well-behaved kids singing carols, led by the band of the Chalk Farm branch of the Salvation Army? The run-up to the big day was also trailed with present-making ideas and the ceremonial lighting of the Advent Crown.

Other popular children's series have also done their bit for the cause of festive fun - from Jackanory to Crackerjack to the Rentaghost special Rentasanta (a programme that had the misfortune to miss its original transmission slot in 1978 due to industrial action and only turned up the following year).

So there you have it – some samples of the kind of fare available for our Christmas entertainment and edification. All it remains to do now is go off and enjoy (hey, why are you looking at your computer anyway – go and indulge in some festive frolics…!) A Merry Christmas from the Genome Blog - we'll be back next week (aka Next Year...)

Advent Calendar Day 24: Turkey Carving, Live!

2016-12-24T08:00:00+00:00

It's Christmas Day, 1936. Almost two months ago, the �� had officially launched the world's first high definition television service from its studios at Alexandra Palace in North London.

What better way to kick-start the Christmas Day programming for the few and lucky television viewers than... a live demonstration of turkey carving at 3:15pm, pictured above, followed by a newsreel and a talk by Edward Shackleton about his Lonely Christmas in the Arctic.

And with that depiction of life in 1936 we leave you, not without first wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Don't forget to unwrap our Christmas present and download a PDF version of the 1941 Christmas Radio Times by clicking on this link.

Advent Calendar Day 23: Watch Wogan on Christmas Day

2016-12-23T07:00:00+00:00

We're almost there! And what better way to get ready than by transporting yourself to 1984. The late Sir Terry Wogan's Christmas Day guests included Freddie Starr, Kiri Te Kanawa and Elton John, with a special satellite interview with Victoria Principal, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes in American soap opera Dallas.

You can watch the full programe here or, if you're in the middle of Christmas preparations, enjoy this short clip of Terry Wogan being offered an unusual role in Dallas...

Victoria Principal offers Terry Wogan a part of Dallas.

Don't forget you can find more �� archive content by running a search on Genome and filtering the results by Programme Available. If you're feeling adventurous, just run an empty search and click on Programme Available, or click here. There are more than 11,000 programmes you can watch or listen to on those dark December nights...

Advent Calendar Day 22: Christmas Safety

2016-12-22T07:00:00+00:00

Not sure our safety experts would approve of Kat and Mo's technique to defrost a Christmas turkey...

"To provide a party of children with a spread that will satisfy their keen sense of what is due at Christmas-time, without making them ill, is no mean feat."

And it is with this 1927 listing that we begin our collection of safety advice gathered from the �� listings - and found thanks to Genome's clever advanced search function. Food poisoning, as this 1997 festive episode of 999 Lifesavers reminds us, is a clear and present danger over Christmas. Even the halls of Holby City Hospital have been seen "inundated with policemen who have fallen prey to a dodgy batch of turkey sandwiches" one Christmas Eve.

Fear not: while the 1980's Food and Drink team will tell you all about how to avoid food poisoning during the festivities ("an important aspect of Christmas", they say), 1960's DIY guru Barry Bucknell is ready to help you with some advice on how to "keep accidents, draughts, and burglars well away from the family circle."

Failing that, you could always find solace on this episode of Radio 4's Misery Christmas:

"Did your turkey explode last year? Did the children have the mumps? Were you burgled, breathalysed, or stranded at an airport? That was a misery Christmas. A seasonal anthology for all those who sympathise with Scrooge, and have wished to see anyone who said " Merry Christmas " boiled alive with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.'"

Advent Calendar Day 21: Alternative Christmas Day viewing, 1969

2016-12-21T07:00:00+00:00

It's Christmas Day evening, 1969, presents unwrapped, turkey devoured, and family around the television. �� One offers the staple festive offerings of Christmas Night with the Stars, hosted by Val Doonican, and The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show.

�� Two, as usual, offered some alternative viewing. At a quarter past eight, you could take an aerial tour above the British seaside while listening to the rhyming narration of John Betjeman. Even better, you can still do so from your 2016 armchair by clicking here. You might still enjoy his depiction of that unavoidable element of the British seaside holiday...

"...All put your Macs on
Run for shelter fast
Crouch where you like until it's fine again
Holiday cheerfulness is unsurpassed
Why be put out by healthy English rain
Are we down-hearted? No, we’re happy still.
We came here to enjoy ourselves
And we will..."

Advent Calendar Day 20: Eight Days a Week

2016-12-20T08:00:00+00:00

Father Christmas 1954 meets Old Father Time, heralding New Year 1955

Before the advent of the Christmas and New Year double issue in 1969, it was only on the odd occasion that listings for December 25 and January 1 would be in the same issue of Radio Times. One such occasion came in 1954, where the cover artwork shows Father Christmas greeting Father Time to celebrate the event. At that time Radio Times normally covered the week from Sunday to Saturday, so including the preceding Saturday meant that that day appeared in two consecutive issues.

Christmas Day highlights in 1954 included Television's Christmas Party with Arthur Askey, Tommy Cooper, Petula Clark, Harry Secombe and Sooty, among others. Her Majesty the Queen's Christmas message was at 3pm but was only carried on radio at this time, and broadcast simultaneously on the �� Service and the Light Programme. The big variety show on Christmas night was On Stage, Coliseum, which was split into two parts, one on the �� Service with the second part on the Light - it was a programme commemorating the 50th anniversary of London's Coliseum theatre, pre-recorded at the venue. Its stars included actress Fay Compton, and comedians Bud Flanagan, Jewell and Warriss and Ted Ray.

An Early Christmas Present

2016-12-19T15:00:00+00:00

Here at �� Genome we've decided to give you an early Christmas present: the chance to download the 1941 Christmas issue of Radio Times. This slimmer magazine is a poignant reminder of life under World War II, as the Both Sides of the Microphone column on page 2 attests:

"No need to stress the obvious fact that Christmas 1941 will be, in a material sense, only a shadow of the Christmases most of us have known. The family table will not groan as of old under a weight of good fare. There will be vacant chairs at the table, more poignantly vacant on the great day of family festival than on any other day. Nevertheless, it is Christmas, and none can escape it, even if there were any Scrooges still around so foolish as to wish to. Christmas 1941 may be all too different from other Christmases: it will still be different from every other day in 1941."

But we'll let you discover this fascinating historical document by yourself. Download a PDF version of the 1941 Christmas Radio Times by clicking on this link. It's our way of saying thank you for your loyal following, for sharing your discoveries with us, for helping make �� Genome a better data source by editing it, and for being so patient with the latest technical problems. We hope you enjoy it!

(And yes, this would be Advent Calendar Day 19)

Advent Calendar Day 18: An Experiment with Time and Christmas

2016-12-18T19:00:00+00:00

A map illustrating the tour was featured on page 967.

Today's window is a real treat for those fans of the wireless.

Listeners on Christmas Day evening, 1931, were first treated to the traditional staple of a Christmas service from studio, panto and an appeal on behalf of the British Wireless for the Blind.

At 9:35pm, though, an "experiment with Time and Christmas" was announced and Half the World Away, a "one of those fascinating, highly technical programmes which someone devises every now and then to remind us that broadcasting and wireless telephony really are modern miracles' began.

The listeners would have started their journey "comfortably seated in one part or another of the British Isles having celebrated Christmas in as near the good old-fashioned way as finances have allowed." They would then be transported to Tower Hill, London, for a chat with Mr Smoker, the Yeoman Porter. From there they would "fly on telephonic wings to the wild coasts of the North" to listen to a light-keeper, next to Gibraltar, and on to Cape Town. The radiophonic waves would finally take them to Sydney (where there is now Boxing Day, the listing warned), Vancouver, Edmonton and the Niagara Falls:

"If luck is with us and the Falls are not frozen solid (fantastic thought), we shall hear, for the first time in this country, the voice of those titanic waters."

Finally, "In Montreal we shall find them finishing tea, and when, on our homeward flight across the Atlantic, we stop to talk to the liner Majestic, we shall interrupt someone at dinner. From the Majestic we pass to Dublin and, as Big Ben's hands are creeping towards 10.30, back to London."

Advent Calendar Day 17: A Christmas Carol

2016-12-17T08:00:00+00:00

From �� Arts - a taste of A Christmas Carol, an opera adaptation from 1962.

Today's window opens up this archive gem: a clip from the first operatic version of A Christmas Carol, broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1962.

The opera was specially commissioned for �� Television and starred Stephen Manton as Scrooge. The �� Arts website released if for your enjoyment - along with clips of the 1935 film, Scrooge.

Advent Calendar Day 16: Christmas on Rations

2016-12-16T12:00:00+00:00

The ad by the Ministry of Food suggested various Christmas recipes using the available ingredients.

The 1944 Christmas edition of Radio Times magazine included the usual Food Facts ad by the Ministry of Food about how to make the best out of what was available at the time to make "Christmas Fancies."

More advice was available on radio thanks to The Kitchen Front, a daily programme devised by the �� and the Ministry of Food to "talk about what to eat and where to get it" - the idea was to give wartime housewives hints and tips on the best and most resourceful ways of using their rations.

Browsing through the episodes provides a good glimpse into wartime daily life - suggestions on how to make mincemeat without suet, talks from women writers, guest appearances by "men in the kitchen" and, of course, some comedy to take the mind away from it all.

Frederick Grisewood on The Kitchen Front, March 1941.

Advent Calendar Day 14: A Poem

2016-12-14T07:00:00+00:00

Today's calendar window opens up to reveal a poem. It featured in the 1926 Christmas edition of the Radio Times magazine and then again in 1927 as part of a collection of poems about broadcasting. "It is not a strange thing", the introduction to the collection claimed, "that men have
made poems about broadcasting for this new magic, which pours the music of the concert room into the stillness of the cottage and brings the song of nightingales into the heart of Town, is of the very stuff of poetry."

BROADCASTING AT CHRISTMAS
by Katharine Tynan

What is it, fleeter than the bird,
That flies unfluttering far and near,
And is not seen, and is not heard,
Until it finds the listening ear?

It is the multitudinous voice,
That brings the good news far and wide,
And bids good people to rejoice
In town and in the countryside.

Of old, the angels bore the great
Tidings of joy from the high skies,
But here's a messenger of late
Bears Christmas tidings as he flies!

And through the speech and violin
There is a lovelier message swells,
And they have broadcast ChristmasE'en,
The voices of the Christmas bells.

Ever enamoured with the magic of the wireless, here at �� Genome we feel it's still magical. Do you agree?

Advent Calendar Day 12: The Hard Times

2016-12-12T08:00:00+00:00

John Hilton, a Professor of Industrial Relations, helped create clubs for the unemployed in the 1930s and broadcast a weekly talk for them.

On today's Advent Calendar window, a poignant look at the 1930s Great Depression.

Today John Hilton is going to talk about the little gadgets and fitments an unemployed man can make out of cheap materials with simple tools (in the craft room at the Club if he has no tools of his own) to make the house more cosy and to make things easier for the wife. If he starts at once he can have something ready and the paint nicely dry for Christmas; and what's nicer, Hilton asks, than to give your wife a Christmas present made with your own hands?

This was the Christmas edition of This and That, a programme set up in October 1934 by John Hilton, a professor of Industrial Relations, to be broadcast to listeners in Unemployed Clubs. Listeners said they looked forward to the 20-minutes-long talk "because it distracts as well as instructs. Minds are occupied and interested, and when life is difficult it is good to be able to forget for a moment one's own concerns."

Advent Calendar Day 11: Tinsel-Free and not-so Joyous

2016-12-11T07:00:00+00:00

Rick Wakeman on Grumpy Old Men At Christmas, 2003

"The children get tired and fractious, Grandpa goes to sleep, Auntie gets indigestion, Dad complains about the expense and I do the washing-up!" - things aren't always joyful, joyful in the holiday season and �� Genome listings reflect this.

Apart from the usual tragic EastEnders Christmas plots - which should by now be considered traditional, the reports about those having to work over the holidays, and the special programmes for the lonely, there's also the desire for a somewhat alternative celebration, either by slightly changing the menu or rethinking the decorations...

Radio DJs are also known to rebel against the festive overload. John Peel felt the need to declare his �� Truths programme a "tinsel-free zone": "no mistletoe, no fairy lights, just good wholesome fair". Tom Watts opted for an alternative collection of Christmas record that didn't include "Wizzard and Wham!, Slade and Spector", and Chris Moyles and his team offered seven hours of "their own sideways look at the world" on Christmas Day.

Grumpy famous men have also been offered the chance to vent against "pantos, nativity plays, false bonhomie and novelty socks", while grumpy women bemoaned "supermarket shopping" and "multi-tasking". Our favourite, though, is this Woman's Hour listing/song... no bitterness here...

Woman's Hour, Woman's Hour Women all the way.
Have a merry Christmas,
Don't work too hard today. Let him stuff the turkey, Let him fill your sack,
Stay in bed all morning, Let him break his back
With brussels sprouts and holly And artificial snow.
Let him change the fairy lights And buy the mistletoe.
So why not have a change of plan?
We've got the best solution,
Listen each day to Woman's Hour For your New Year's resolution.

Advent Calendar Day 10: Christmas banners

2016-12-10T07:00:00+00:00

Today's window opens up a small collection of the banners that graced the festive programmes in the 1950s. If you want to learn more about the artists that illustrated the pages of the Radio Times magazine, you can listen to this Radio 4 programme about The Art of Radio Times.

Christmas Eve, 1953. By Norman Mansbridge.

Christmas Day morning and afternoon, 1956. By James Hart.

Christmas Evening, 1955. By Eric Fraser.

Boxing Day, 1955. By Mervyn Wilson.

Advent Calendar Day 9: Soap-powder Packet, Wrapping Paper and Glue...

2016-12-09T07:00:00+00:00

Janet Ellis demonstrating how to do Christmas Tree Cards in 1985.

Prunella and Peter's cupboard bore
No food or presents anywhere,
But a box, a newt and a tube of glue
Make Peter Piper's dreams come true.

No Advent Calendar can be considered complete without a mention of Blue Peter's DIY craft projects in the run-up to Christmas. Christmas cards, tree decorations, a top secret gift for grandparents using only "a soap-powder packet, wrapping paper and glue" (if anyone remembers what this was please let us know), and of course the Advent Crown, dangerously made from wire coat hangers, tinsel and real candles.

You could even use the magazine itself to build a reindeer...

Do you remember any more of Blue Peter's Christmas DIY projects? Even better... do you have a picture?

John Noakes lighting a candle of the iconic DIY Advent Crown

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