Christmas Television 2023

[George 1978]

I believe that a lot of Christmas traditions in our family homes stem from the routine of what we watch on television over the festive season; I suppose it is used as a measurement for what we will be doing for the course of the day. I do remember Christmas Eve in 1988 staying up and even remembering one of the adverts which was on in the commercial break of the film that my family was watching - an advert for Ford cars where a flock of sheep could be seen. I know that it is on YouTube. Exactly 35 years later, the sherry is opened and one relaxes to the Midnight Mass.

I have had a look at the "goodies" (with a small G and not a capital G in that Bill Oddie sense), and there seems to be a "fair-but-firm" mixture of programmes to whet one's palate. I briefly made a stop at Portsmouth when I was doing my birthday tour of Hampshire in August, and their local Cathedral is the location for BBC One's Midnight Mass. I actually thought that in recent years, (mostly to save money on the Licence Fee) that the Midnight Mass and the Christmas Morning Service was at the same church or cathedral in the same town or city; this year the Christmas Morning Service will be in Manchester.

HM King Charles III does his second stint providing our traditional Christmas Day Message at 3.00 pm GMT (BBC Two and Sky One also joins BBC One and ITV at the same time). ITV's schedule just looks like an ordinary Monday morning, pre-midday, making comparisons with 30 years ago when they just stuck to their ordinary Saturday morning scheduling. One might as well have Panorama or Question Time on Christmas Day. Compare that with 1980 when Thames TV not only had a Christmas service on in the morning, but it was of higher profile than their BBC counterpart; Dr Robert Runcie, the then Archbishop of Canterbury live from Canterbury Cathedral! Now we have This Morning in that slot; a programme that wasn't even seen during school holidays.

Personally, I will be skimming through the Sky Movie channels for something there - Sky One has a couple of promising things on in the afternoon. Also, over the past few months I have been watching the mid 1990s episodes of Casualty on Drama - the episodes will run throughout Christmas week where they will be on Series 10 aka the 1995-1996 series. It pleases me as I think that they were some of the best episodes and therefore I would find it welcoming even on Christmas Day where they are either showing the episode Halfway House (where there is a gas explosion at a home for disabled people); or Compensation (an episode with cyclists in it - Ben Hull being one of them). I always enjoyed that Mike Barratt and Jude Korcanik era of Casualty just before the series reached its tenth anniversary - of course I would have to watch it on Plus 1 as the Christmas Morning Service doesn't end until around 11.15 am.

Strictly hasn't been the same without Brucie and even now that element will permanently be lost. Still, it has been the 21st century answer to the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show. Soap operas cannot be relied on too much, and neither can Doctor Who. EastEnders is a swearword in my household at Christmas time. At least the cost of the Licence Fee won't go up until next April.

My selected Christmas Day highlights would be something like this (with skimming through the other channels in between and eventually stopping on a worth-watching film or TV special):

9.00 AM CAROLS FROM KINGS (BBC TWO) - Repeat of Christmas Eve but it works better on Christmas Day.
10.15 AM CHRISTMAS MORNING SERVICE FROM MANCHESTER CATHEDAL (BBC ONE)
11.40 AM CLASSIC CASUALTY (DRAMA +1) - Not just Drama as 15 minutes of it overlaps with the Christmas Morning Service.
3.00 PM HM KING CHARLES III'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE (BBC ONE) - The Christmas dinner is in the oven and the sherry is on the table.
4.45 PM A BOY NAMED CHRISTMAS (SKY SHOWCASE)
6.50 PM THE HEIST BEFORE CHRISTMAS (SKY SHOWCASE)

Christmas seemed to be more exciting when we just had four channels to choose from, and game shows got 15 million viewers. I suppose that everyone has different choices when it comes to what they like to see...

[darren]

One thing ive noticed or is it just me but christmassy telly its shorter than it once was.

It starts much nearer christmas day a day or 2 before chritstmas telly gets going.

[George 1978]

I have my Christmas Total TV Guide and things get back to normal as soon as 2nd January arrives which must frustrate people in Scotland. I did notice that even Homes Under the Hammer and Bargain Hunt had made it to BBC Two on Christmas morning, albeit Christmas themed editions.

I take Darren's point - even in the 1990s we had films in the mornings from a week before the big day onwards and the regular BBC One schedules would pack up around 15th December. On BBC Two special schedules and films started the Monday after the schools programmes finished which was the second Monday in December and didn't come back until the second Monday in January or thereabouts.

[George 1978]

I was so annoyed at the fact that my recorder was not very Christian - every year I use it to tape the special programmes such as the church services, the King's message and all that, and what happened? I couldn't get the tape out, and when I eventually managed it, the tape was ruined and I had to throw it away. I was so angry that it happened on Christmas Day of all days, but apart from that, things almost went according to plan.

My Christmas Day television highlights was HM King Charles III at 3.00 pm, playing tribute to the coronation in May; Stephen Fry's Alternative Message on Channel 4 where Fry makes several points about the fact that being Jewish (which I didn't know he was until I watched it) and being homosexual doesn't mean that one can be too much of an outcast in society - over the past 30 years quite a few controversial characters have shared that slot, but Fry was certainly harmless enough. The Heist Before Christmas on Sky Showcase, set in Northern Ireland and starring James Nesbitt and Timothy Spall. Even Casualty on Drama had a load of cyclists in Holby such as Nick Harvey, and a lad with cerebral palsy taking the guest roles.

I hope to get my recorder replaced in time for New Year as it is obviously a time to wipe the slate clean, start again and move on from the past. I hope that I can do that after what had happened.