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(I have just managed to find the old thread that I started at Christmas courtesy of http://webcache.googleusercontent.com, and so I am reconstructing the opening post, along with the responses I made on it. Hope this will be alright with the powers that be on here...)
After The Queen has done her seven or eight minute stint at 3.00 pm, (going on about the latest Royal birth, wedding, jubilee, or Annus Horribilis), in a lot of years, BBC 1 and ITV have had quite a few films on to take us into the early evening, and also to allow the family to help digest the turkey before wondering whether there would be room for both the pudding and the biscuits for cheese.
I have been looking at a website that lists old television schedules from the 1930s to the present day, and just like the films seen on ITV during the afternoons, there seemed to be an interesting choice over the years. Not every year this had happened, but they started at around 3.10 pm to 3.15 pm and were mostly family films, some for the children while others for more older people.
On ITV, different regions had various films during the 1960s, and it wasn't until 1971 that they were networked (although Scottish and Ulster still shown their own films for another couple of years after that). King Solomon's Mines was the film that year. The Please Sir! film was networked in that post-Queen slot in 1976, and the newly released George and Mildred film was first seen in 1980, although Yootha Joyce never got to see it herself. James Bond was an ITV favourite in this slot with Thunderball making it on here in both 1985 and 1990 respectively, as long as you don't mind the MFI, Texas Homecare and Queensway adverts every 25 minutes. The oldest Bond film, Dr No got the 1981 slot.
Mary Poppins premiered here on BBC 1 in 1984 (a film which I had already seen just before Christmas at Infant School), and ITV (sans Ulster) had showed it 10 years later to the very moment. Dumbo premiered in the same slot in 1986, 45 years after Walt Disney made the film. Superman was rewarded the slot in 1983 (ad breaks on YT) providing the warm up to Bullseye. Some films have been seen more than once such as the Disney film Tangled, and the odd Harry Potter film. Thames had opted out of Clark Kent's female counterpart Supergirl in 1992, throwing one of their "we're going off the air very soon so we don't care" tantrums by repeating the BFG in the slot immediately after the Annus Horribilis speech, and it also meant that Londoners didn't get to see on that occasion, Helen Slater as a female superhero or official product placement on behalf of Lee Jeans courtesy of the derriere of Ethan (Hart Bochner) either. No connection with the recent Sky series of course.
The Never-Ending Story was seen on ITV in 1993 when they decided to not bother with Christmas that year and just show films back to back (at least Carlton couldn't be blamed for that as their first Christmas Day wasn't until 1995). The Muppet Christmas Carol (Kermit's voice changed an octave or three because of Henson's death two years before the film was made) was seen on ITV in 1997. And The Great Escape (who many people think was seen every Christmas since the Year Dot) was on in 2001.
There were years when films didn't follow the Queen - ITV had Blind Date on in 1988, and for many years, BBC 1 had Noel's Christmas Presents on in the 1990s and a circus event 20 years or so before that. BBC 1 still shows the same CGI animation in that slot now, although they do feel the same every year now. There were others and I could make a list of them, but they are the main examples.
OK, Mary Poppins is still being seen at Christmas (BBC 1 has it on Christmas Eve this year, and they had it on Boxing Day last year), but there is something quite comforting about having it mid-afternoon after the Queen to allow the dinner (rather than the medicine) go down.
We still get films after the Queen but they seem to be mostly children's animated ones rather than live action than we used to in the 1980s and 1990s. Do you remember any of the films in that slot?
After The Queen has done her seven or eight minute stint at 3.00 pm, (going on about the latest Royal birth, wedding, jubilee, or Annus Horribilis), in a lot of years, BBC 1 and ITV have had quite a few films on to take us into the early evening, and also to allow the family to help digest the turkey before wondering whether there would be room for both the pudding and the biscuits for cheese.
I have been looking at a website that lists old television schedules from the 1930s to the present day, and just like the films seen on ITV during the afternoons, there seemed to be an interesting choice over the years. Not every year this had happened, but they started at around 3.10 pm to 3.15 pm and were mostly family films, some for the children while others for more older people.
On ITV, different regions had various films during the 1960s, and it wasn't until 1971 that they were networked (although Scottish and Ulster still shown their own films for another couple of years after that). King Solomon's Mines was the film that year. The Please Sir! film was networked in that post-Queen slot in 1976, and the newly released George and Mildred film was first seen in 1980, although Yootha Joyce never got to see it herself. James Bond was an ITV favourite in this slot with Thunderball making it on here in both 1985 and 1990 respectively, as long as you don't mind the MFI, Texas Homecare and Queensway adverts every 25 minutes. The oldest Bond film, Dr No got the 1981 slot.
Mary Poppins premiered here on BBC 1 in 1984 (a film which I had already seen just before Christmas at Infant School), and ITV (sans Ulster) had showed it 10 years later to the very moment. Dumbo premiered in the same slot in 1986, 45 years after Walt Disney made the film. Superman was rewarded the slot in 1983 (ad breaks on YT) providing the warm up to Bullseye. Some films have been seen more than once such as the Disney film Tangled, and the odd Harry Potter film. Thames had opted out of Clark Kent's female counterpart Supergirl in 1992, throwing one of their "we're going off the air very soon so we don't care" tantrums by repeating the BFG in the slot immediately after the Annus Horribilis speech, and it also meant that Londoners didn't get to see on that occasion, Helen Slater as a female superhero or official product placement on behalf of Lee Jeans courtesy of the derriere of Ethan (Hart Bochner) either. No connection with the recent Sky series of course.
The Never-Ending Story was seen on ITV in 1993 when they decided to not bother with Christmas that year and just show films back to back (at least Carlton couldn't be blamed for that as their first Christmas Day wasn't until 1995). The Muppet Christmas Carol (Kermit's voice changed an octave or three because of Henson's death two years before the film was made) was seen on ITV in 1997. And The Great Escape (who many people think was seen every Christmas since the Year Dot) was on in 2001.
There were years when films didn't follow the Queen - ITV had Blind Date on in 1988, and for many years, BBC 1 had Noel's Christmas Presents on in the 1990s and a circus event 20 years or so before that. BBC 1 still shows the same CGI animation in that slot now, although they do feel the same every year now. There were others and I could make a list of them, but they are the main examples.
OK, Mary Poppins is still being seen at Christmas (BBC 1 has it on Christmas Eve this year, and they had it on Boxing Day last year), but there is something quite comforting about having it mid-afternoon after the Queen to allow the dinner (rather than the medicine) go down.
We still get films after the Queen but they seem to be mostly children's animated ones rather than live action than we used to in the 1980s and 1990s. Do you remember any of the films in that slot?
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