Christmas TV

[Richard1978]

Re: Christmas TV

Christmas TV these days revolve around soaps and reality shows. No variety at all. I haven't even looked through the Christmas issue of Radio Times. All I saw was the Christmas Day schedule of 3 hours of soaps and Strictly Come Dancing and lost the will to liveThe only thing I fancy is the musical 'Elf' on 23rd Dec, Channel 5. You're so right, akb48fan, I used to love the festive morning screenings of Harold Lloyd, Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, and later Charlie Chase and Thelma Todd/Zasu Pitts shorts. Also, gone are the Christmas morning Morecambe & Wise and Two Ronnies. I have happy memories of opening my presents while those were on TV. Then, later, enjoying Christmas specials of Larry Grayson's Generation Game and Blanketey Blank before snouts in the trough with the family and more than a few drinks! Just not the same now. I find Christmas very boring and depressing now, or is it my age (54) and pining for the past?I just buy special DVDs to watch. Films or my old favourites. Hardly watch any TV over Christmas now.

While I'm no fan of soaps I've been enjoying the current series Strictly Come Dancing.

Most old films are too niche for the mainstream channels these days unless they are outright classics.

[Arran]

Re: Christmas TV

Regional variations were both fascinating and yet frustrating because of the fact that we couldn't pick all of these stations up on our TV - if only we had today's Sky Digital technology back in the 1970s and 1980s - it would be better than the extra channels that we have now!

I'm probably part of the last generation that remembers regional ITV although I'm too young to remember Thames, TVS, TSW, and TV-AM whilst they were broadcasting. Most of the regional variations had gone by the second half of the 1990s apart from an awesome film shown everywhere except Scotland on Boxing day.

[Richard1978]

Re: Christmas TV

I was lucky to pick up Welsh TV at home so could enjoy some variations from BBC Wales, HTV & S4C through the snow.

[Danniella]

Re: Christmas TV

We picked up S4C too, very snowy picture but watchable. Wonder if that channel is still available.

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas TV

While I'm no fan of soaps I've been enjoying the current series Strictly Come Dancing.

Most old films are too niche for the mainstream channels these days unless they are outright classics.

Strictly has never been the same without Brucie, and how he has passed away, it feels almost like a different show. I hope that they will do another tribute to him on the Christmas Day show.

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas TV

I'm probably part of the last generation that remembers regional ITV although I'm too young to remember Thames, TVS, TSW, and TV-AM whilst they were broadcasting. Most of the regional variations had gone by the second half of the 1990s apart from an awesome film shown everywhere except Scotland on Boxing day.

I am the same regarding the previous decade. I remember wet playtimes at school in the mid to late 1980s and seeing old editions of Look In in a box that were around six or seven years old, and finding names like Southern and Westward on the TV page.

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Saturday 17th December 1983

BBC2

10.35am Open University
2.45pm The Sky at Night
3.05pm Play Away
3.25pm The Emigrants
5.50pm Greek - Language and People
6.15pm Whistle Test - On the Road
6.55pm Newsnight December
7.45pm News and Sport
8.00pm Zubin Mehta Masterclass
8.50pm Film ; Cary Grant In Night and Day (1946)
10.58pm News Summary Weather
11.00pm The New Land

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Sunday 18th December 1983

BBC2

11.25am Open University
Caring for Older People: Voluntary Workers
11.50am Maths: The Alvey Report 3: Software Engineering
12.15pm Towards One Force of Nature
2.25pm Horizon
3.15pm Beethoven Piano Sonatas
3.45pm The Great Palace: The Story of Parliament
4.35pm Rugby Special
5.25pm Ski Sunday
6.00pm News Review
6.30pm The Money Programme
7.15pm Russell Harty : The Nativity
7.45pm The Natural World : Pelican Delta
8.40pm News on Two, Weather
8.45pm Did You See...?
9.35pm Pranks
10.15pm TV Film : Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Monday 19th December 1983

BBC2

3.55pm Film : Cary Grant In Bringing Up Baby (1938)
5.35pm News Summary, Weather
5.40pm Eureka
6.10pm International Show Jumping
6.55pm Schoolgirl Chums
8.00pm Food and Drink
8.30pm The Bob Monkhouse Show
9.25pm A Talent for Murder
10.55am Frank Delaney

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Tuesday 20th December 1983

BBC2

4.00pm Film : Cary Grant In Mr Lucky (1943)
5.35pm News Summary
Weather
5.40pm Rockschool
6.05pm Gymnastics
7.05pm St Ursula's In Danger
8.10pm Bookmark
9.00pm Film : Rollerball (1975) Première
11.00pm Out of Court
11.30pm News on Two, Weather
11.35pm Greek-Language and People

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Wednesday 21st December 1983

BBC2

4.15pm Film : Cary Grant In Every Girl Should be Married (1948) Première
5.35pm News Summary, Weather
5.40pm A Waltons Special : A Wedding on Waltons' Mountain
7.15pm Championship Darts Special
8.30pm Nature
9.00pm Entertainment USA
9.25pm My Music for Christmas
9.55pm Barry at Blenheim
10.40pm News on Two, Weather
10.45pm TV Film : The Roads of Exile (1978) (Part One) Première

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV











Thursday 22nd December 1983

BBC2

3.30pm Film : Cary Grant In Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House (1948)
5.00pm The World Chess Championships
5.35pm News Summary, Weather
5.40pm Sports Review of 1983
7.25pm Callas An International Celebration
9.25pm The Great Palace: The Story of Parliament
10.15pm Christmas at Cromore
11.05pm News on Two, Weather
11.10pm Film : The Roads of Exile (1978) (Part Two)

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Friday 23rd December 1983

BBC2

3.55pm Film : Cary Grant in The Grass is Greener (1960)
5.35pm News Summary, Weather
5.40pm A Waltons Special : Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain
7.15pm Championship Darts Special
8.20pm Global Report
8.50pm M*A*S*H
9.15pm The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert
10.30pm Film : The Marx Brothers In Monkey Business (1931)
11.45pm News on Two, Weather
11.50pm The Old Grey Whistle Test : Pick of the Year

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Christmas Eve Saturday 24th December 1983

BBC2

1.05pm Film : Scrooge (1951)
starring Alistair Sim

2.30pm Shakespeare in Perspective
comedy with Roy Hudd


2.55pm The Book Game
chaired by Robert Robinson, with Anthony Burgess, Germaine Greer,
Susan Hill and Adam Mars-Jones, Freddie Jones reads the extracts

3.25pm Film : That Touch of Mink (1962)
starring Cary Grant and Doris Day

5.00pm The BBC Television Shakespeare
The Comedy of Errors, starring Roger Daltrey and Michael Kitchen
as the two pairs of twins, with wendy Hiller, Cyril Cusack, Charles Gray,
Suzanne Bertish and Joanne Pearce

6.55pm Sky at Drury Lane with guest Patrick Ros

7.45pm News with Jan Leeming

7.55pm Cider with Rosie
starring Rosemary Leach in the 1971 production

9.30pm Private Lives
highlights from the series with Maria Aitken

10.00pm Whistle Test Presents
Paul Young from the Hammersmith Odeon

10.45pm Film : To Catch a Thief (1955)
starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's thriller

12.35am Closedown

[darren]

Re: Christmas TV

Christmas Day Sunday 25th December 1983

BBC2

2:00pm Nobody Minded the Rain
Impressions of Coronation Day
Where were you on 2 June 1953? Perhaps you were one of the
20 million who watched the day's events on television; perhaps
you were one of the hundreds of thousands who braved the cold
and rain to cheer the Queen through the streets of London. Possibly
you were one of the 7,000 people present in Westminster Abbey
for the Service, the most glittering ceremony that our tradition provides.
This programme tells the story of Coronation Day and the
preparations for it through the reminiscences of people who were
there, including Lord Ramsey-then Bishop of Durham, Lord Eccles -
then Minister of Works, Lady Rayne-one of the Queen's Maids of Honour,
together with many citizens who, for one reason or another, have
good cause to remember the day, like the crewmen of the Lowestoft
lifeboat who were among the few that missed the Coronation
celebrations

3:00pm The Book Game
The second of four conversational games about books and writers
in which Anthony Burgess , Germaine Greer , Susan Hill and Adam
Mars-Jones try to identify recited extracts, and then give vent to their
literary likes and dislikes

3:30pm The Great Palace : The Story of Parliament
The People of the Palace

4:20pm Henry's Cat
Christmas Dinner

4:25pm Film : Meet Me in St Louis (1944)
starring Judy Garland with Margaret O'Brien Mary Astor Leon Ames
Meet Me in St Louis is perhaps Vincente Minnelli's best-loved
musical, featuring Judy Garland in numbers like 'The boy next
door' and 'Have yourself a merry little Christmas' and, of course,
the classic 'Trolley song'. It traces the life and loves of a middle-class
St Louis family through the four seasons, investigating the trials and
tribulations of growing-up

6:15pm The Natural World : Winter Days
Narrated by Robert Powell
A season of death and decay, or months of magic? When the sun
departs and winter days arrive, how does our wildlife cope with the cold?
There are many strategies for survival. Some prepare carefully, making
food stores, laying up fat, going underground, hibernating. Others adapt,
migrate, develop anti-freeze, flee. Some just shiver to survive, but all
behave in ways that ensure that life triumphs over death. Award-winning
cameraman Hugh Miles explores the still, silent, but stormy beauty of
this most challenging season of the year. It is a season to survive

7:05pm News on Two with Jan Leeming, Weather

7:15pm Cinderella
Rossini's delightful comic opera based on the classic pantomime
story provides a special musical treat for opera lovers at Christmas

9:50pm The Queen
The Christmas Day programme in which Her Majesty speaks to the
Commonwealth (with open subtitles and sign language interpretation
for the deaf and hard-of-hearing)

10:05pm The Bob Monkhouse Show
Bob Monkhouse presents the last of the present series in which he
introduces the best of comic talent from around the world.
This week his special guests are Norman Wisdom and from the
USSR via Los Angeles 'The Russian Comic', Yakov Smirnoff with
music from Bertice Reading and The Harry Stoneham Band

11:00pm Film : The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933)
The postage-stamp republic of Freedonia, threatened by a
revolution, appoints Rufus (Groucho) T. Firefly as its dictator.
With Chico and Harpo as double agents working for the rival
state of Sylvania, Freedonia is about to get a traumatic taste
of Marxist rule!

12:10am Closedown