Christmas Television 2022

[Victoria O'Keefe]

I like Yellow Pages - Mistletoe. I'm kind of surprised that the girl has never surfaced. BBC Radio tried to trace her for a live interview a couple of years ago but couldn't locate her. Very puzzling.

[George 1978]

ITV might think Yellow Pages: Mistletoe would be an anachronism to show as the Yellow Pages no longer have a print edition, for one.

Just like the Argos catalogue (Christmas edition excepted).

[Victoria O'Keefe]

I don't blame you - I wonder whether TV stations are still showing that advert at Christmas? There was an American Kellogg's Corn Flakes Christmas advert which was made around the same time and was still be seen at Christmas in the 2010s.

ITV might think Yellow Pages: Mistletoe would be an anachronism to show as the Yellow Pages no longer have a print edition, for one.

The Kellog's one would be ripe for mockery by modern viewers as the dialogue sounds ridiculous coming from that little girl: "I don't know, this seems very unorthodox!"

[George 1978]

Sorry, George, that advert was part of British Christmases for so long that i felt moved to post it.

I don't blame you - I wonder whether TV stations are still showing that advert at Christmas? There was an American Kellogg's Corn Flakes Christmas advert which was made around the same time and was still be seen at Christmas in the 2010s.

[George 1978]

After watching the Midnight Mass before bed, I will be having a lie in and getting up at around 9.00 am - (back in the 1980s it would have been more like 6.00 am when I could get out of bed and explore the wrapped up boxes at the foot of the bed).

In 2022, in a provisional way, I would choose something like this:

10.00 AM - CHRISTMAS DAY EUCHARIST (BBC ONE - SKY 974/101)
Live from Blackburn Cathedral. Saves me from going to church myself.

11.00 AM - SONGS OF PRAISE (BBC ONE - SKY 974/101)
Because Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year.

11.35 AM - CHRISTMAS MUSIC (NOW 70s/80s/90s - SKY 361, 362 AND 363)
Some Christmas music while I wait for the next programme.

12.00 PM - FILM: ANNIE (MORE 4+1 - SKY 236)
The sub-Ashleigh and Pudsey double-act consisting of lovable young orphan Annie and her dog, giving us the aah factor. Song about Boxing Day, i.e. Tomorrow.

2.35 PM - BULLSEYE (CHALLENGE - SKY 160)
A bit of Bully as a warm-up for the King. Probably not a Christmas edition.

3.00 PM - HM THE KING'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE (BBC TWO - SKY 972/102)
King Charles III with the first (of hopefully many) Christmas Day messages.

3.10 PM - FILM: GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (BBC TWO - SKY 972/102)
Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee. Great choice for the post-King movie slot.

4.40 PM - FILM: SOME LIKE IT HOT (BBC TWO - SKY 972/102)
Marilyn Monroe again, this time as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, which to me sounds like the name of a boxer.

6.45 PM - FILM: GREASE (FILM 4 - SKY 313)
A reminder as to how talented the late Dame Olivia Newton-John was. I could watch this a million times and not get fed up with it. A well-deserved Christmas Day slot.

9.00 PM - FILM: MAMMA MIA! - HERE WE GO AGAIN (ITV2+1 - SKY 218)
Another film to round off the evening - worth watching to avoid depressing EastEnders. Has one of those five-minute "things" an hour into it..

11.15 PM - ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT (BBC ONE - SKY 974/101)
The Christmas Day epilogue as it was many years ago.

[Victoria O'Keefe]

Sorry, George, that advert was part of British Christmases for so long that i felt moved to post it.

[George 1978]

Just in case it happens to be blocked wherever this is seen, the YouTube video above is of the classic Yellow Pages advert, first shown circa 1992-1993 where the young boy isn't tall enough to kiss the girl, so he gets an edition of the Yellow Pages, probably a Central London-type area edition so that it has more pages inside the book so that he can stand on it and reach what he needs. I don't need to explain as everyone remembers it.

And no, it wasn't Robbie Williams as the young boy in the advert (in the same way that it wasn't Bob Holness who played saxophone on Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street either).

[Victoria O'Keefe]

http://www.youtube.com/v/ywjfSVrCqnk

[George 1978]

As Christmas Day is on a Sunday this year, the Keep Sunday Special campaign probably would have more support than usual. I have been looking at the Digiguide website and also the BBC schedules page to see what treats we (the Licence Free payers) have to look forward to this Christmas. Things will not be the same again of course - not only will we not see Elizabeth II doing her message at 3.00 pm on Christmas Day (the end of an era), but Top of the Pops is absent as well. It does feel like the end of an era in more ways than one.

I have to admit that I am looking forward to watching King Charles III do his first Christmas Day message at 3.00 pm. Being loyal to Elizabeth II over 20 years at least, I bet that this will increase the number of viewers tuning in for curiosity's sake more than anything. I know that the number of viewers tuning in for the late Queen had dwindled in recent years - I thought that her 2002 message was poignant by virtue to her Golden Jubilee and the deaths of her mother and sister. I believe that her 1987 message had got the most viewers during her reign.

As it will be a Sunday, a Songs of Praise will be on after the Christmas morning service. Apart from that, the BBC One schedule seems to be biased towards the kids' side of things with the animated stuff they have on. It gets slightly better with Strictly and Michael McIntyre, but there isn't much I would get too excited about. Last year's was a bit better.

To be honest for a Christmas Day to fall on a Sunday, ITV (or ITV1) ironically enough looks like an ordinary weekday, what with Good Morning Britain, Lorraine and This Morning - I can remember when This Morning wasn't even on weekdays during the summer school holidays, and now it's on Christmas Day for three years in a row. No film following The King, and soaps in the evening. It doesn't even look like a Sunday schedule, never mind a Christmas Day one. The sales adverts would get me more excited to be honest.

However, one interesting bit of scheduling is that for the first time since 1976, BBC Two will also show King Charles III's first Christmas message at 3.00 pm - the same time as BBC One! I suppose that the fact that both channels scheduled Queen Elizabeth II's funeral back in September was an inspiration for this, as well as the death of an old monarch and the start of a new monarch's reign - a new generation.

I will probably stick to BBC Two's schedule in the afternoon, watching the King's Christmas message on there (which I believe has sign language on there, but that won't bother me), and staying on for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes which sounds like a great choice for a post-3.00 pm Royal message on Christmas Day - a great way of building up an audience. One cannot go wrong with musicals, and Marilyn Monroe comes into her own, especially when she happens to be Lorelei Lee in that courtroom, sitting down while wearing that brown mink coat! I suppose that because Monroe died so young, we always think of her as someone who never got old. (BBC Two Wales doesn't have GPB on the BBC Schedules website, but Digiguide does have it listed). That is followed by the second half of the Monroe double bill with Some Like it Hot which will do for me.

Outside Christmas Day, and highlights for me are the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which I believe are about forensic science and are presented by Professor Sue Black - this is why I don't want BBC Four to be internet only. And there are the New Year programmes yet to come as well.

Pity that Brucie or Morecambe and Wise are no longer around - Christmas television ain't what it used to be... Anyone else agree?

I am writing a review of 2022 which I will be posting on this part of the forum at some point just before Christmas.