Back in 1978, the big story for ITV (and therefore for the TV Times) was the “defection” of Morecambe and Wise, for so long a cornerstone of the BBC Christmas Day schedule over to “the other side”. This, they hoped, would finally give them their much needed ratings boost for Christmas Day and they made the most of it, making the comedy duo (alongside a cardboard cutout of Sean Connery) the cover stars for the Christmas issue. Those were the days when a refusal to appear in a photo shoot from a movie star was no boundary and when handgun safety issues seemed less prevalent.
Simpler times… simpler times…
For TV Times, still in its “single channel” era, Christmas Eve was a simple enough affair. The day began with “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street” and, because it was on a Sunday that year, the morning consisted of “Morning Worship” from the Thamesmead Christian Community, and then the movie “The Bible… In the Beginning” featuring Richard Harris as Cain and Franco Nero as Abel. After this, the entertainment baton then passed to that other cornerstone of Sunday Worship, the football, with Gerald Sinstadt and Elton Welsby looking at highlights from Saturday’s games. Christmas Eve proper then got under way with Kermit the Frog narrating a Jim Henson special featuring “Emmer Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” and poet Pam Ayres visiting Hong Kong. After the news, “Godspell” led into “Bruce Forsyth’s Christmas Eve” version of the “Big Night” programme that had also lured him over from the BBC that year. The day finished with the Cary Grant film “Charade” and a midnight mass on a surprisingly fairly heavily religion-themed day on ITV.
You might have thought that Christmas Day itself would bring everything back down to earth, but the kids could be entertained after the 8.45 start by “The Christmas Story” before “The Wotsit from Whizz-bang” and “Pipkins” (with the sinister Hartley Hare) took over. After a “Christmas Clapperboard” with Chris Kelly and “A Merry Morning” with Jimmy Tarbuck (if you can believe that), there was another “Christmas Morning Service” from St George’s Chapel, Windsor before the transition to more mainstream entertainment was marked by the movie “Living Free”. A swift visit to the “Crossroads” motel and the perplexing game show “3, 2, 1” led up to the Queen’s speech which was followed by the surprisingly violent choice of “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” as the “family movie”. Then “Billy Smart’s Christmas Circus” would provide its traditional show (although it wouldn’t be around for much longer) and then “The Muppet Show” with Danny Kaye led into “Diamonds Are Forever”, thus explaining the Connery cutout on the Christmas cover… “The Morecambe and Wise Show” then dominated the late evening with Special Guest Leonard Rossiter (remember that?) before the day slipped away with “This is Your Life”, the news, “Ghost Story” and a 12.30 Meditation.
The daytime of Boxing Day was pretty much all Christmas specials from “Chorlton and the Snow Dragon” on “Chorlton and the Wheelies” at 9.00 AM, via a “Get It Together” Christmas Special and “The Christmas Spirit” visiting “The Ghosts of Motley Hall” through to “Christmas Star Games” with Michael Aspel. Even the daytime movie was in the holiday mood, although it was “Holiday on the Buses”.
The early evening of Boxing Day in 1978 was dominated by the pilot movie of the huge new American TV series called “Charlie’s Angels” which was sandwiched between Nicholas Parsons presenting a bumper Christmas edition of “Sale of the Century” (i.e. a normal edition with a bit of tinsel on the set) and “The Benny Hill Show” which is a peculiar combination under the circumstances and I’m sure he would have appreciated a crossover episode where he chased the “Angels” around at high speed. Most of the rest of the evening was given over to a showing of the rather excellent original version of “The Day of the Jackal” starring Edward Fox and a documentary on the Casino de Paris.
New Year’s Eve that year was once again dominated by “Bruce Forsyth’s Big Night” followed by the Telly Savalas movie “The Diamond Mercenaries” and ITV slipped into 1979 with a two part curiosity called “Out with the Old, In with the New” which ran from 11.05 PM until 12.30 and started off with a first part with a title that wouldn’t have seemed out of place on some alternative universe version of Craggy Island, “Some Wonderful Scottish Girls” followed by “Welcome to the Hogmanay Ceilidh”.
Things got back to “normal” rather quickly on New Year’s Day with “Crossroads”, Kenny Everett, “Coronation Street” and “This is Your Life” leading in to “Kelly’s Heroes” before a musical spectacular set against the background of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas called “Cinderella at the Palace” packed everyone off to bed ready for the new working year ahead.
I was 12 and looking forward with great anticipation at my first viewing of Battle for the Planet of the Apes. I didn't care if it wasn't great and Claude Akins as Aldo the gorilla died after falling out of a tree in payment for his evil. The film had apes in it and that was the draw. I remember leafing through this TV times. Fond memories. I'm enjoying these MAWH!
ReplyDeleteI remember enjoying Ghost Story too even though maybe I should have been in bed.
Day 6: Christmas 1978 on ITV as seen by that year's TVT - with Morecambe and Wise mishandling the Walther PPKs in front of a cardboard effigy of the Connery...
ReplyDelete