The Force was strong with festive television
At some point over Christmas we all find ourselves sat in front of the television. ADAM GRATTON recalls TV of Christmas past
PERHAPS the reason we have clear memories of Christmas as a child is that, while your parents are running around cooking and laying tables, you don’t have to do anything other than keep yourself entertained with what Santa has left you.
It leaves us free to observe everything which transpires, locking it in our minds to reminisce about years in the future as we fill our day with the festive trinity of eating, playing and watching TV.
It is the latter of the three which no doubt we all have similar memories and recollections of.
This is especially so considering there were only, at best, four channels until the late 1990s. We watched the same things.
I have vivid memories of James Bond films being a Christmas Day staple throughout the 1980s.
They were on in mid-afternoon around the time the smell of the Christmas Dinner permeated every corner of the house.
From Goldfinger to Moonraker, 007 was almost as much of a yuletide regular as Santa Claus.
On the odd occasion it wasn’t Mr Bond, I distinctly recall the pull of the Force as the most Christmassy of the Star Wars trilogy – The Empire Strikes Back, with all that snow – took up the festive film mantle.
Of course no Christmas television, even in this age of a thousand channels, would be complete without a re-run of the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special. I do have a theory that this was never an original show, only a rerun which appeared with the magic of Christmas each year.
Nevertheless, the British comedy duo have been an essential part of Christmas telly viewing for most of us over the past half century.
Let’s also not forget the festive tomfoolery of that other comedy pairing, The Two Ronnies. It might be old, but they never get ‘old’. I will be watching again this year.
Do we remember what shows were on in the morning? Writing this I’m trying to recall, but it is not as easy a task as what was on when there were jobs to be done.
Why? Well perhaps it had something to do with most of that time from six in the morning, spent feverishly tearing the paper off presents.
Nonetheless, while I might have difficulty in recalling those shows, it does not detract from what great treats there were to watch as a child come Christmas time in the 1980s.
From Timmy Mallett and Monster Trucks to the Children’s Variety Performance and Raymond Briggs’s eternal masterpiece The Snowman, there was always enough across those few channels to keep me occupied when toy fatigue kicked in.
One TV tradition which has continued, watch it or not, is The Queen’s Speech. As a child, it seemed an age to be sitting down for those 10 minutes when there were toys to be played with, but I did watch each year. Christmas telly has always had its own almost religious adherence to routine, and this has definitely been the case when it comes to the soaps, from Coronation Street to Eastenders and Emmerdale Farm – do you remember when all that drama took place on a farm?
Come the evening when the pots and pans, dishes and dish clothes had done their jobs and were back in the cupboard where they belonged, kids were worn out and in new PJS.
The nation would stop as around 20 million people tuned into the soap opera’s Christmas specials.
Today their audience share has been greatly diluted as we all look into our individual screens, whether it be a phone, tablet or laptop.
It’s true that back then there wasn’t as much choice, but is that a bad thing?
Family time at Christmas is paramount. What Christmas Day gives many of us is a chance to be together in the same place for that one day – a rare thing.
Those programmes gave us the same thing – a chance to settle down and be together, whether in silence, talking, or asleep. I like to think we can still capture that in today’s multi-channelled environment.
I, for one, spent the first few days of this month eagerly awaiting the Christmas Radio Times to come out with its traditional, cheerful cover. Then I can begin to plan... and I know it’s Christmas.