Christmas TV

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Thursday 22nd December 1983

BBC1

6.00am Ceefax AM
6.30am Breakfast Time
9.00am The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
9.20am Battle of the Planets
9.45am Blue Peter Special Assignment
10.30am Play School
10.55am Cartoons
11.10am Emit and the Detectives
12.00 Look Back with Noakes
12.30pm News After Noon
Weather
12.57pm Regional News
Financial Report, and News Headlines (London and SE only)
1.00pm Pebble Mill at One
1.45pm Postman Pat
2.00pm Country Lines
2.30pm Star Movie
Film : Bing Crosby in Birth of the Blues (1941)
3.53pm Regional News (excluding London)
3.55pm Play School
4.20pm The Adventures of Bullwinkle and Rocky
4.25pm Jackanory
4.40pm Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends
5.05pm Newsround
5.10pm Blue Peter
5.40pm Sixty Minutes includes
The News
5.53pm Regional Magazines
6.15pm Weather
6.38pm Closing headlines
6.40pm Angels
7.05pm Tomorrow's World
7.30pm Top of the Pops
8.05pm Wildlife on One
8.30pm Only Fools and Horses
9.00pm Nine O'Clock News
Weatherman
9.25pm The Crazy Gang: A Celebration
10.25pm Film 83
11.00pm The Rockford Files
11.50pm News Headlines; Weatherman

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Wednesday 21st December 1983

BBC1

6.00am Ceefax AM
6.30am Breakfast Time
9.00am The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
9.20am Battle of the Planets
9.45am Blue Peter Special Assignment
10.30am Play School
10.55am Gharbar
11.20am Emil and the Detectives
12.05pm Look Back with Noakes
12.30pm News After Noon
Weather
12.57pm Regional News
Financial Report, and News Headlines (London and SE only)
1.00pm Pebble Mill at One
1.45pm Hokey Cokey
2.00pm Bank Holiday Fair
2.25pm Star Movie
Film : Bing Crosby in East Side of Heaven(1939)
3.53pm Regional News (excluding London)
3.55pm Play School
4.20pm The Adventures of Bullwinkle and Rocky
4.25pm Jackanory
4.40pm Screen Test
5.05pm Newsround
5.10pm Carrie's War
5.40pm Sixty Minutes includes
The News
5.53pm Regional Magazines
6.15pm Weather
6.38pm Closing headlines
6.40pm Harty
7.15pm Film : Something Big (1971)
9.00pm Nine O'Clock News
Weatherman
9.25pm Q.E.D.
9.55pm Film : The Fog (1980) Première
11.23pm News Headlines
11.25pm Barbara Mandrell
12.00 Weatherman

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Tuesday 20th December 1983

BBC1

6.00am Ceefax AM
6.30am Breakfast Time
9.00am Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way
9.25am Arthur Negus at 80
10.15am Tom and Jerry
10.30am Play School
10.55am Closedown
12.30pm News After Noon
Weather
12.57pm Regional News
Financial Report, and News Headlines (London and SE only)
1.00pm Pebble Mill at One
1.45pm Gran
1.50pm Stop-Go!
2.00pm Day Out
2.30pm Lucky Luke
3.40pm Goldilocks and the Three Bears
3.53pm Regional News (excuding London)
3.55pm Play School
4.20pm The Adventures of Bullwinkle and Rocky
4.25pm Jackanory
4.40pm Wuffer
5.05pm Newsround
5.10pm Record Breakers
5.40pm Sixty Minutes includes
The News
5.53pm Regional Magazines
6.15pm Weather
6.38pm Closing headlines
6.40pm Angels
7.05pm Harty
7.40pm No Place Like Home
8.10pm Dallas
9.00pm Nine O'Clock News
Weatherman
9.25pm TV Film : Orwell on Jura (1983)
10.55pm Perry Como's French-Canadian Christmas Special
11.45pm News Headlines, Weatherman

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Monday 19th December 1983

BBC1

6.00am Ceefax AM
6.30am Breakfast Time
9.00am RAF Scampton
9.30am Songs of Praise
10.06am Closedown
10.30am Play School
10.55am Closedown
12.30pm News After Noon
12.57pm Regional News
Financial Report, and News Headlines (London and SE)
1.00pm Pebble Mill at One
1.45pm Pigeon Street
2.00pm See Hearl
2.50pm International Show Jumping
3.53pm Regional News (excluding London)
3.55pm Play School
4.15pm Mighty Mouse
4.20pm Jackanory
4.35pm Playhouse
5.05pm Newsround
5.10pm Blue Peter
5.40pm Sixty Minutes includes
The News
5.53pm Regional Magazines
6.15pm Weather
6.38pm Closing headlines
6.40pm Tom and Jerry
6.50pm Christmas with Terry and June
7.20pm Europe's Strongest Man
8.10pm Panorama
9.00pm Nine O'Clock News
Weatherman
9.25pm Hollywood Superstars
Film : Lee Marvin In Point Blank (1967)
10.55pm International Show Jumping
12.00 News Headlines, Weatherman

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas TV

Belmont can be very patchy in Nottingham, and only people in the east and north of the city have the best chance of receiving it, although there was a block of flats which was built in the same direction of the signal, and that didn't help much of course.

Back in the mid 1990s before I got cable and satellite, I used to buy various indoor aerials and signal boosters mostly from Argos for my bedroom TV set so that I could pick up Yorkshire as well as Central. I received Central via Waltham, and so I used to rotate the aerial 90 degrees to the left - this meant that one of the Waltham channels, possibly Channel 4 went out of focus as a result. I used to do this so that I could see what Yorkshire was showing on Tuesday evenings against EastEnders. It was around 1995-1996 when Sophie Raworth was a presenter on Look North, and Mike "TV-am" Morris with Calendar.

BBC 1 North had the best signal, and Yorkshire was the next best - it wasn't perfect but it was watchable. BBC 2 and Channel 4's were a bit worse, but then again it was the schedule was the same as the East Midlands, so I didn't need to bother about them of course. It was also when Yorkshire had a different nighttime schedule because of Bruce Gyngell being in charge at the station.

I have since moved a few miles north of Nottingham (but still within the Greater Nottingham area), and my chances of getting Belmont is now slightly increased, although Sutton Coldfield seems to the strongest where I am. I retuned my Freeview in the front room via an aerial plugged in the wall, and I got ITV Yorkshire, but not BBC 1, while retuning my set in the back room with a portable aerial, it was vice-versa. Mind you, now that I have Sky with all the BBC variations, and ITV variations manually, I almost laugh at myself for doing that over 20 years ago.

[Arran]

Re: Christmas TV

That's an interesting explanation. Is the Belmont transmitter in Lincolnshire easily receivable in Nottingham? Yorkshire was the ITV company that covered the north coast of Norfolk as it received a stronger signal from Belmont than Tacolneston which broadcast Anglia.

The place where people wanted Yorkshire TV was the northern half of North Yorkshire that was served by the Bilsdale transmitter which broadcast Tyne Tees. Real Yorkshiremen watch Yorkshire TV !!!

There was a proposal to combine Anglia, Yorkshire, and Tyne Tees into one company called Trident Television but it was blocked because it would be too big and domineering.

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas TV

Why? I read somewhere that in overlap regions between Central and Granada, Yorkshire, and Anglia, Central was overwhelmingly preferred. Only in the south where Central overlapped with HTV West, TVS, and Thames / LWT was Central disfavoured because viewers didn’t want news from Birmingham. This resulted in the creation of a Central South region in 1989 with its own news.

Because Yorkshire was a more "traditional" ITV company than Central was - YTV had been on the air a lot longer for start. Central felt like a modern version that had its own ideas - very different from Yorkshire's laid back approach. Also, Yorkshire would more likely stick to a networked schedule than Central would. I am not referring to regional news, but I am referring to the fact that Central wasn't a traditional ITV company as Yorkshire was.

I have always like Yorkshire's region - they covered a good part of the East Coast, while Central was almost landlocked. I am also saying that it would have been very useful to have Yorkshire to watch a networked programme that Central was not showing.

Back in the 1980s, most viewers would have needed to pick up at least two ITV regions to get the right balance of programmes that were available, and Thames and LWT didn't count as two of them together.

[Arran]

Re: Christmas TV

I can understand Ulster, Scottish and Grampian opting out but not TSW

TSW was a fiercely independent, individualistic, and sometimes wayward company that regarded itself as a local TV company in its own right rather than part of ITV. This explains why TSW refused to use the generic ITV ident and how they moved the schedule around (in some cases by months) to suit their own desires plus had all sorts of opt-outs that nobody else had. There are cynical theories that this resulted in them losing in the 1991 franchise auction.

TSW was also unique in broadcasting a shipping forecast before closedown.

I just wished that I lived just over ten miles north of where I lived, and get Yorkshire Television instead.

Why? I read somewhere that in overlap regions between Central and Granada, Yorkshire, and Anglia, Central was overwhelmingly preferred. Only in the south where Central overlapped with HTV West, TVS, and Thames / LWT was Central disfavoured because viewers didn’t want news from Birmingham. This resulted in the creation of a Central South region in 1989 with its own news.

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Sunday 18th December 1983

BBC1

9.00am Heads and Tails
9.15am Sunday Worship: Jesus - His Life and Teaching
10.00am Asian Magazine
10.30am Let's Go
10.40am Maths Help
10.55am iDigame!
11.20am People First
11.45am Business Club
12.10pm See Hear!
1.00pm Farming
1.30pm Discovering Birds
1.55pm News Headlines
2.00pm Film Matinée : The Man in the Santa Claus Suit (1979) Première
3.30pm Mickey and Donald
3.55pm International Show Jumping
4.50pm The Flight of the Condor
5.45pm News, Weatherman
5.55pm Jane Eyre
6.25pm Mind How You Go : You Can Save Lives
6.35pm Pauline Collins
6.40pm Songs of Praise
7.15pm Hi-de-Hi!
7.45pm By the Sword Divided
8.40pm The Sunday Thriller
TV Film : Studio Murders (1982) Première
10.15pm News, Weatherman
10.30pm Omnibus
11.20pm The Weekenders
11.55pm Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko
12.20am Weather

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Saturday 17th December 1983

BBC1

8.35am Inch High Private Eye
9.00am Saturday Superstore
12.12pm Weather
12.15pm Grandstand
5.10pm News, Weatherman
5.20pm Sport/Regional News
5.25pm The Little and Large Show
6.00pm The Saturday Film : Can't Stop the Music (1980) Première
8.00pm The Two Ronnies
8.50pm Bergerac
9.45pm News and Sport
10.00pm International Show Jumping
11.00pm Late Night Horror
Film : The Devil Rides Out (1968)
12.35am Weather

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas TV

Regarding christmas sunday not being boxing day altho to me it still is.
Whats the idea behind monday then being boxing day.

Ill see if i can find the tsw channel regional variations i always like to fin the most complete listings.

Cheers. I suppose that you would need newspapers with regional variations to get those regions. UK Press Online has them, but you need to pay, or have library membership.

Boxing Day = 26th December. Full Stop.

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

CHANNEL 4

Boxing Day Monday 27th December 1982

3.00pm Film : Hans Christian Anderson (1952)
starring Danny Kaye
Musical based on the life of one of Denmark's most famous sons, the fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen

5.00pm Madam
The Story of Rake's Progress
First of five films about the work of Britain's grand lady of ballet, Dame Ninette de Valois.
Last year, both the Royal Ballet and Sadler's Wells Theatre celebrated their 50th anniversary.
For the golden anniversary of the company she started, Dame Ninette re-staged her classic
ballet, The Rake's Progress. This first programme tells the story of the ballet. Appearing are
members of Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, directed by Peter Wright, Sir Robert Helpmann,
Sir Anton Dolin, Pamela May, June Brae, Peter Wright and Barry Wordsworth

5.45pm Preview 4

6.00pm Fifties to the Fore (until 10.00pm)
Fifties nostalgia comes to Channel Four in this selection of top ITV programmes from the period.
Comedy, drama, vintage rock n' roll — it's all here for your enjoyment.
All programmes were made in black and white
The Arthur Haynes Show
Re-run of one of the most popular variety shows. This one from 1959 shows 'the large
as life and twice as sly' Arthur outwitting authority. Also appearing: Aileen Cochrane,
Nicholas Parsons, Kept Morris, Leslie Noyes, Diana French, and Jessie Ball

7.00pm Oh Boy!
Jimmy Henney, Tony Hall
Relive the days when beat music exploded live from the Hackney Empire.
Vintage rock rolls again with Marty Wilde, Cliff Richard and the Drifters, The Dallas Boys,
Cherry Wainer, Don Lang, Cuddly Dudley, The Vernons Girls, Lord Rockingham's XI,
Rod Price, Billy Fury, Dickie Pride, Mike Preston, Bill - Forbes, Peter Elliott, Neville Taylor and His Cutters and Lorie Mann

7.30pm The Larkins
Ale and Farewell
In this episode of the classic sitcom, first shown in 1958, Ada is on the warpath

8.00pm Armchair Theatre
Hot Summer Night
starring John Slater
Jacko believes everyone's equal on the factory floor, but not at home, especially when his daughter acquires a new boyfriend

9.30pm Fifty Paces
Catch the flavour of the Fifties in this selection of documentary material

10.00pm Whatever You Want
Tansey Lambert is Dead, OK?
A seasonal greeting is despatched from his cell by a youngster called Tansey

11.00pm Johnny Cash in Scotland
Join singers Johnny Cash and Andy Williams, June Carter Cash, John Carter Cash, Carlene Carter

12.00 Closedown

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

CHANNEL 4
Christmas Sunday 26th December 1982

11.45am Los Villancicos
Luis Alvarez
A series of lively, dramatic cantatas by 18th-century Spanish composer Antonio Soler (1729-83). The work is set in Spain, 1760.
A choirboy, a priest and a poet stand on the altar steps of the village church arguing about the form the annual Christmas entertainment should take.
These cantatas, consigned to a dusty corner for centuries, have been rediscovered and restored to new life by musicologist Alice Pole.
With Luis Alvarez (baritone); the Choir of Escolania Di Santa Cruz Del Valle De Los Caidos, directed by Laurentino Saez De Buruaga;
and the Arthur Haas Ensemble, music director Arthur Haas

1.20pm International Film Season : Sholay (Flames of the Sun) (1975)
This epic action film from India has been described as a curry western. It tells of Thakur, a retired policeman living in an isolated mountain village.
He hires two criminals, Jai and Veeru, as gunmen to protect the village from the ravages of a marauding gang

4.30pm Film : A Night at the Opera (1935)
One of the Marx Brothers' most famous comedy films. Otis B Driftwood is an opportunist who is wooing wealthy Mrs Claypool who is,
in turn, being persuaded to invest some of her millions in the New York Opera Company by its untrustworthy chief, Gottlieb.
Driftwood tries to out-manoeuvre Gottlieb by signing his protégé, Lasparri, but, through the chicanery of an Italian called Fiorello, finds himself
saddled with an unknown young singer from the company's chorus. Everyone sets sail for New York, but Driftwood discovers that his tiny cabin
is beset by stowaways and unwelcome visitors... (b&w)

6.15pm The Snowman
By Raymond Briggs
An animated version, produced to appeal to audiences of all ages, of the well-known children's story.
It's Christmas Eve and the snow is falling. A time for magic. A little boy races outside to build a snowman.
Later when everyone's asleep, the snowman comes alive and after a spin or two on a motorbike the snowman and the boy fly off
to the North Pole to meet a Very Important Person

6.45pm Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up at the 10th Street Car Wash
Hilarious, simple tale of a middle-aged lady who takes her car to the car wash only to find herself in a strange fantasy world

7.00pm The Love of Three Oranges
Prokofiev's opera is set in a fantasy world of magic, pantomime and knockabout humour. The Prince can be cured of his illness only if he
is made to laugh. The outstanding success of the 1982 Glyndebourne season, this lavish production features the Glyndebourne Chorus,
director Jane Glover; the London Philharmonic Orchestra, leader David Nolan, conductor Bernard Haitink.
Designed by Maurice Sendak, the opera includes special animated sequences

9.15pm News Headlines followed by
Bob Hope's Double Bill
Film : The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
Bob Hope, Virginia Mayo, Walter Brennan, Victor McLaglen
Aboard the good ship Mary Ann, Sylvester the Great, an actor who is his own biggest fan, keeps bragging to Margaret Warbrook,
a princess in disguise fleeing to the West Indies after a royal row with her father. Sylvester's veneer of courage soon breaks down
when the ship is captured by The Hook, a villainous pirate who intends to hold the princess to ransom

11.00pm Film : They Got Me Covered (1943)
Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Otto Preminger
The Bob Hope double bill concludes with this spy spoof which casts Hope as a newsman fired from his news syndicate for muffing a story.
Seeking consolation with Christine, the head of his bureau's office in Washington, he runs across a confidential report on spy activities in
America and becomes involved with a spy ring who have lethal plans for his future....

12.45am Closedown

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

CHANNEL 4

Christmas Day Saturday 25th December 1982

10.30am Film : Captain Stirrick (1982)
musical starring Freddie Jones, Roger Sloman, Ronnie Stevens
This is the first production of the newly-formed Children's Film Unit, a unique organisation which gives , children the opportunity to make films.
With music by Richard Brett it tells the story of the teenage leader of a gang of Victorian child pickpockets.
They rule the streets of Smithfield, until their attempt to rob a lord leads to murder

12.10pm The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin
animated version of the pantomime story in which the characters are played by Penguins

12.20pm Film : Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
starring Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains
George Bernard Shaw's comedy about Julius Caesar's years in Alexandria. Caesar guides the young Egyptian queen
Cleopatra from wilful girl to powerful monarch

2.40pm Preview 4
Holiday viewing highlights with Paul Coia, Keith Harrison, Olga Hubicka, and David Stranks

3.00pm Magic of China
Mark Wilson, Nani Wilson, Greg Wilson, The People of China, Top American illusionist Mark Wilson takes his wife Nani and
son Greg on a wondrous trip. Magic has a special meaning in China. For hundreds of years magicians have been known as
'men who confuse vision'. Wilson's magic is as spellbinding to the Chinese as his trip is to European eyes. Narrator: Steve Allen

4.00pm Buster Keaton Film : The Navigator (1924)
Rollo Treadway catches the wrong boat to Hawaii and becomes involved with a gang of spies trying to sink the ship. With the love
of his life, he lands up on an island and is chased by cannibal (b&w)

5.05pm Brookside
Lucy and Karen escape their families to enjoy the festivities and Heather gets some unexpected attention at the Law Society dance.
Christmas Day dawns peacefully at Brookside for everyone except Bobby Grant and his union committee. And what with Barry's injury,
Karen's hangover and Damon's school report, Sheila's wondering what she's supposed to be celebrating(Repeat)

6.00pm The Queen's Christmas Message
The Queen speaks to the Commonwealth

6.05pm St Mark's Gospel
When Alec McCowen performed his one-man version of St Mark's Gospel in New York last year, it was hailed as a prodigious feat of memory, an act
of faith and a virtuoso performance. McCowen tells the Gospel story as if it was hot news and becomes a multitude of characters: Pharisees and disciples,
the lame and the blind., Salome, Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ

8.00pm News Headlinesfollowed by
Upstairs, Downstairs
The Key of the Door
In November 1908, Elizabeth Bellamy comes under the influence of a woman with radical views(Repeat)

9.00pm Film : Richard III (1955)
starring Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud
Olivier's classic interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most evil characters — Richard Crookback, the Medieval prince whose accumulation of treacherous
deeds eventually brought him the crown of England, led to the Battle of Bosworth Field and the Tudor era

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

CHANNEL 4'S 1ST EVER CHRISTMAS


Christmas Eve Friday 24th December 1982

4.45pm Buster Keaton Film : Cops (1920)
A series of mishaps manages to make a young man get chased by a big city's entire police force (b&w)

5.15pm The Tube
Christmas Eve - live in Studio Five with Paula Yates, Jools Holland

7.00pm Channel Four News
Peter Sissons, Trevor McDonald, Sarah Hogg, Godfrey Hodgson

7.30pm The Friday Alternative
The 'other' news seen not by newscasters or reporters but by the public

8.00pm In the Spirit
gospel Christmas celebration featuring Natalie Cole, Rev James Cleveland, Marion Williams, Dorothy Norwood
Southern California Community Choir (Repeat)

9.00pm The Sixties : Swingeing
Photographers like David Bailey, pop stars like The Beatles, and film stars like Michael Caine appeared to herald a new
age of classlessness and sexual freedom. The Pill, abortion on demand and homosexual rights, contributed
to a feeling that the Sixties were a liberal, permissive age. Inevitably, there was a backlash. Mary Whitehouse
tried to clean up TV, the police raided Andy Warhol's film 'Flesh' and Mick Jagger was arrested on drugs charges.
Narrated by James Bolam

10.00pm The Curious Case of Santa Claus
starring James Coco, Jon Pertwee
Santa Claus has an identity crisis. Is he really Santa Claus?
Why do people call him Father Christmas?
He goes to a psychiatrist, Dr Merryweather who in a hilarious travelogue, takes Santa from his birth in Turkey,
through sleigh rides in Siberia, miracles in italy and pageants in Holland to our hearth in 1982.
It is a blend of seasonal comedy and fascinating history -St Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas?
Who is he? Who cares? 'Even if we don't believe in him forever' says Dr Merryweather, 'we all believe for a time'

11.00pm Norman Gunston at Christmas
It's the little Aussie bleeder himself. Comedian Norman Gunston - he of the blood soaked shaving technique and creeping
sycophancy and startling interview technique - tonight fills out the role of Father Christmas. Or tries to but his
attempt is even more inept than his surreal encounters with Hollywood celebrities like Lee Marvin, Elliot Gould,
Karen Black, Zsa Zsa Gabor and the Bee Gees

12.00 Closedown