THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS TELLY PAST (part twelve)

Christmas 1985 on the BBC belonged to the Trotters, as shown by their domination of that year’s Christmas and New Year Double issue, the price of which had now soared to a mighty 64p. If you only watched one programme at Christmas that year, it was probably going to be “Only Fools and Horses” and the Radio Times really wanted you to know it. My memories of that Christmas are rather tainted by the fact that my dad had died two months earlier, so little of this rings any bells with me, but, in telly as with all things, life goes on.

Christmas Eve that year featured many stars who have since been lost from our regular Christmassy treats. Charles is no longer In Charge, Keith and Orville no longer seem to have a Christmas Circus, Jim no longer Fixes It, Kenny Everett sings no more a Christmas Carol, the Telly Addicts have slunk back to their sofas, and Terry and June are long gone. Cliff Richard still crops up from time to time though, as do the Carols from Kings, and there’s still “A Question of Sport” and, less wonderfully the “EastEnders” who might very well have been having the first “best Christmas Walford’s Ever Had” that year. “Cagney and Lacey” were still featuring in Primetime, but Val Doonican  had slipped from Christmas Day and was now having his Christmas Party late on Christmas Eve. BBC2 meanwhile presented Rex Harrison as “Doctor Doolittle”, a Charlie Brown retrospective, some carols, “Call My Bluff”, a programme about Fallow Deer, a look back at “Charles and Diana - A Working Year” (I wonder how that turned out…?) and “The Innocents” starring Deborah Kerr.

Roland Rat had a “Yuletide Binge” come Christmas Day before Noel Edmonds had a “Live Live Christmas Breakfast Show” around noon from the top of the British Telecom Tower. There was no afternoon movie on BBC1 that year, instead the nation endured “The Children’s Royal Variety Performance” before being relieved by the relative sanity of a feature length “All Creatures Great and Small”. There was a brief visit to Maplins in “Hi-de-Hi” before the Trotters took over with “To Hull and Back” and were followed by all new “The Two Ronnies”, “Wogan” having replaced Parkinson as the Christmas Day chatterer of choice, and the movie “Absence of Malice”. Thankfully BBC2 gave us “Citizen Kane” during the afternoon and the evening was very musical with Dame Kiri de Kanawa, Hinge and Bracket and the movie “Diva” being the pick.

Boxing Day mostly featured a “Tenko Reunion” film in the evening which followed “In Sickness and in Health” and new “’Allo ’Allo!” before heading off for Hitchcock’s classic “Strangers on a Train”. BBC2 showed Welles’ “Touch of Evil” in the afternoon, and a sport review, but the evening was all Gene Kelly and the Franco Zefferelli version of “La Traviata”.

New Year’s Eve afternoon was dominated by a main channel showing of “Gone With the Wind” and BBC2 showing “The Magnificent Ambersons”, whilst the evening included the “EastEnders” heading off to Southend looking for Mark Fowler (Mark One, that is, as played by David Scarboro) before “The Magnificent Seven” took over as the big evening movie (yes, in 1985!). There was then a new version of “The Browning Version”, a “Steptoe and Son” repeat, more from “Wogan” seeing in the New Year itself, and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” greeted the New Year proper, whilst BBC2 was reshowing much of Live Aid and other music in “85 Whistle Test 86” which ran for nearly six hours.

New Years Day was mostly familiar fare such as “The Edinburgh Military Tattoo 1985”, Ice Skating and “Birdwatch” live from Martin Mere. There was Paul Young in concert, “The Circus World Championships” and “Clash of the Titans” (in primetime!) before the “Last of the Summer Wine” special “Uncle of the Bride” and “Rocky II” dominated the rest of evening. BBC2 that day looks rather cracking if you liked old movies with “The Front Page” and “Animal Crackers” being the pick of the bunch.