Was the festive TV schedule a real turn-off?

WHAT boring Christmas and New Year TV schedules. Old movies we’ve seen all year, endless cooking programmes and repeats of comedy shows.

E. HEYWOOD, Haddenham, Cambs.

WAS that the best humour the useless BBC could come up with on Christmas Day: Gavin And Stacey?

E. MARTIN, Ipswich, Suffolk.

CHRISTMAS TV was full of repeats and miserable soaps. However, there was one stand-out programme — Gareth Malone’s Christmas Concert from Watford General Hospital.

SUSAN FIELD, Oxhey, Herts.

THE BBC version of A Christmas Carol was terrible. This wonderful tale has become as much of a family tradition as the Christmas turkey, so why rip it to shreds and make it unsuitable for family viewing? It wasn’t the Grinch that stole Christmas — it was the BBC.

Miss RHONDA SMITH, London N7.

AS A life-long fan of Charles Dickens, I thought I’d hate the BBC’s new interpretation of A Christmas Carol with its sweary, Peaky Blinders’ grittiness. True, there were duff spots, but overall I loved it. Charles Dickens asked us to take Scrooge’s evilness on trust, but here we saw him in all his grasping, Victorian horror. It was supposed to be shocking — and it was. Because of the moral strictures of the day, Dickens could never have given us the graphic details of Scrooge’s background, but the BBC filled in the gaps and the whole story emerged. This was a true morality tale for grown-ups, not snowflakes or those of a timid disposition. Well done, BBC.

LYNN PICKNETT, Croydon, Surrey.

IF EVER there was a clear demonstration of why the TV licence should be scrapped, it was the BBC dramatisation of A Christmas Carol. I hit the off button when I heard the first F-word. I’m no prude, but it wasn’t entertaining or in the Christmas spirit.

MALCOLM WATSON, Loftus, N. Yorks.

WHY didn’t the BBC simply repeat Alastair Sim’s masterpiece as Scrooge in 1951’s A Christmas Carol? The new version was more about social deprivation than entertainment.

MARY WIEDMAN, Piccotts End, Herts.