Christmas 1981 was the very last year of having only a three channel Christmas in the UK and the Radio Times that year featured a lovely painting of a bell painted by Tony Meeuwissen on the cover of that year’s Double Issue. Did the BBC think, perhaps, that the bell was tolling for them? On page three, the magazine apologised for the imminent price rise to 25p of the next weekly issue, so maybe there’s something in that... Meanwhile, these were interesting times when a child could watch “King of the Rocket Men” and “The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries” on a weekday morning, Simon Groom, Sarah Greene and Peter Duncan were the current “Blue Peter” team, and BBC2 only switched on for 25 minutes each morning to show us “Play School”.
Christmas Eve that year featured “The Little and Large Show”, “Top of the Pops” and the first ever edition of “The Kenny Everett Television Show” on the BBC before an evening showing of “The Poseidon Adventure” got us all in the New Year mood for Christmas. After that it was back to the Leeds City Varieties Theatre for “The Good Old Days” which rather neatly segued into the story of the Christmas Truce in No Man’s Land during the First World War which would have been just a few short years after the jolly Edwardian era being recreated in Leeds, and a Midnight Mass which might just have lifted the spirits after being reminded of all that carnage. BBC2 conversely shared a Raphael in “One Hundred Great Paintings”, spent some time with “Pam Ayres and Fivepenny Piece” and broadcast a live global concert of Christmas music called “Star Over Bethlehem” before Toyah took over in an “Old Grey Whistle Test” live from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and then went round to Russell Harty’s house.
Nice of him to invite them.
Christmas morning on BBC1 started with a repeat of the concert on BBC2 the previous evening before “the Flumps” and “Rolf (Harris – but you already knew that, didn’t you?) at Christmas” with guests Keith Harris (no relation...?) and Darts, which sound a good combination on paper but probably ultimately disappointed. The lunchtime feature film was “tom thumb” (their lack of capitalisation) and after “Top of the Pops”, the Queen acted as a warm up for “Larry Grayson’s Generation Game” which, after writing a few of these pieces, now seems to have gone on forever. Another Disney classic followed, “In Search of the Castaways” before more fixing it courtesy of Jim and a familiar seeming run of “Paul Daniels’ Magical Christmas”, “Last of the Summer Wine”, “The Two Ronnies” and “Dallas” leading up to the feature film “Loophole” (Remember that? Nor me…) before a “Parkinson” clip show and an old favourite “Christmas Night with The Spinners”. BBC2 started the evening with a Da Vinci picture and a Kurasawa movie, “Derzu Uzala” before “Margot Fonteyn introduces the London Festival Ballet” took over for a bit of Christmas Day culture. Finally there was a singalong of Country Music songs called “Country Holiday” from Great Yarmouth (joy to the world…) and another year, another Jack Lemmon season, with that evening’s offering being “The War Between Men and Women”, which seems an appropriate choice for a typical family Christmas, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Boxing Day evening was the new home for “The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show” so he was obviously falling out of favour, although he did serve as an introduction to the first showing on British Television for “Gone With the Wind”. Don’t worry if you missed it, however, because, as regular readers of these posting will already know, it would be back. Perry Como pretty much ended the night with a “French-Canadian Christmas Special” before golf took over at the stroke of midnight. Meanwhile BBC2 showed us “How to Murder Your Wife” with a little help from Jack Lemmon, which followed more Ballet and “The Levin Interviews” and led into the “Midnight Movie” at, er, five past midnight which was the Herbert Lom version of “The Phantom of the Opera”. Hmmm… Do you think there might be a musical in that…?
New Year’s Eve included the “Blue Peter Review of the Year” and a repeat of “The Dick Emery Christmas Show” which surprised me at least. 1981…? Really? The there was a showing of “Elvis – The Movie” starring Kurt Russell and then a nostalgic evening of Barry Took looking at some TV highlights and an early outing for the type of collection of film and TV gaffes and cock-ups which would later become de rigeur for TV channels everywhere. They called this “81 Take 2” but much snappier titles would come along later. After that the main channel went briefly to Trafalgar Square to see in 1982 which would bring us the Falklands War but we didn’t yet know that as we visited Pebble Mill to say “Hi There 82!”.
BBC2 finished the year with more of the Annual Christmas lectures “From Magna Carta to Microchips”, a documentary featuring the then recently deceased Natalie Wood and Peter Ustinov visiting the Hermitage in Leningrad, and “Hinge and Bracket’s New Year’s Eve Party” preceded “The Prisoner of Second Avenue”, that night’s Jack Lemmon movie.
New Year’s Day featured a new series of “The Superteams” which was rather more sporty than superhero geeky, spent half an hour with “Doddy” and then went into the future for “2001: A Space Odyssey”, before revisiting the previous year’s Royal Wedding, looked at how the last year had turned out for “La Belle Isobel” (Buchanan, the opera singer) and ended the night “Up Pompeii”. If that film wasn’t to your taste, then the Polish offering “Man of Marble” was the late night alternative on 2 after it had spent the evening visiting the Chatsworth Estate and then Parnham House to look at its furniture.
Christmas dinner with the telly on watching TOTP.
ReplyDelete