There was a sightly more “artistic” look than usual for the cover of the 1986 Christmas TV Times, perhaps reflecting the fact that their cover stars of Jayne Torvill, Christopher Dean and, er, Dumbo reflected a more artistic demographic than that of their more usual mixture of soap opera and game shows.
Although I may very well be skating upon thin ice myself here before a quick glance at the Christmas Eve schedule shows that in 1986 you could still settle down for your Christmas Eve viewing and watch “Blockbusters”, “Crossroads”, “This is Your Life” and “Coronation Street” much as you had been able to for the previous decade and the main 9.00 PM primetime feature film described as being a “Movie Premiere” was the then thirty year old Alfred Hitchcock black comedy “The Trouble With Harry”. Before that, “Jim Davidson in Germany” could be broadcast on a major channel during the peak family viewing period whilst the genteel sitcom “Fresh Fields” was pushed back to a late night slot. “Julia McKenzie and Anton Rogers – Too Hot for Primetime” I think not.
Over on Channel Four, the programming budgets still look tight and 1942’s “Holiday Inn” filled the early evening after the Gymnastics and the carols. Even “Countdown” seemed to be getting a day off. A feature-length portrait of Dame Peggy Ashcroft at 80 and a performance of Benjamin Britten’s “St. Nicholas” filled a surprisingly upmarket evening for the young and obviously still heavily arts based channel.
Christmas Day meant a first television showing for 1941’s “Dumbo” during the afternoon, and the commercial channels do seem to have found an awful lot of older films to show that year. Michael Barrymore was still able to “Strike It Lucky” before Danny La Rue featured in a new version of “Cinderella” written by Barry Cryer and Dick Vosburgh. Bond was back in the form of Sean Connery in “Never Say Never Again” before there was a special Christmas edition of “Duty Free” and Peter Ustinov gave us another of his unique portrayals of Hercule Poirot in “Dead Man’s Folly”. Ah! A cosy Christie murder and Christmas, they seem just so right together.
Channel Four moved through the day musically from “Hellzapoppin’” through the opera “Gloriana”, a feature on the pianist Vladimir Horowitz, and ended the day with “Eric Clapton and Friends” whilst also finding some time for “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “The Snowman”.
It appears that there was obviously some kind of Disney package deal afoot with ITV that year because Boxing Day daytime was mostly taken up with “Escape to Witch Mountain” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” before Lionel Blair presented a “Name That Tune Special” and Roger Moore took over Bond duties for that year in “The Spy Who Loved Me”. Cover stars Torvill and Dean did their “Fire and Ice” before we all traipsed over to the Palladium for “A Christmas Night of One Hundred Stars” most of whom seem terribly unfamiliar, which kept us busy until “Airplane II”. Meanwhile Channel Four showed an eclectic mixture of programming including tennis, the Queen’s horses, a visit to “The Pleasure Gardens”, a programme about stairs, an odd little film called “The Works”, Ravel’s short opera “L’Heure Espagnole” and the ironically named “Max Headroom’s Giant Christmas Turkey” before handing over to a film about “The Weavers” musical group.
New Year’s Eve was still much the same familiar stuff as had been on Christmas Eve, although the feature film was Christopher Reeve in “Monsignor” and Muriel Gray and Jimmy Mulville hosted that year’s New Year Party. Channel Four presented Wayne Sleep’s “Dash”, a film about beauty, an early evening first showing of “Late Night with Letterman” and a “Non-party” with Jools Holland and a host of “alternative comedians” dancing into the New Year.
On the Bank Holiday of New Year’s Day, ITV was once more mostly given over to movies with “Star Wars” in the afternoon and “The Love Bug” and “Jaws 3” in the evening before there was a special “Minder on the Orient Express”. Channel Four gave over much of the first evening of the year to “Loose Tubes” and Peter O’Toole in “The Stunt Man”.
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