Only Fools And Horses were also what Christmas was all about. As time has gone on, interest in terrestrial tv has dwindled. We dont even look at it now, everything we watch is on an app. Havent watch Christmas tv proper for a few years now.
Sorry to sound demanding but do you happen to have the edition of The Cook Report that aired on that date, It was an investigation into Quack Cancer Doctors but if you don't Have it, that's OK.
Ahhh....Christmas 96!!! I loved it! Why? I had just left my hideous, low paid job, with the boss who would make Adolph Hitler look friendly! I had been stuck there since I was 17. Almost 9 years! There was nothing wrong with the work, it was the boss and his vile attitude and the low pay. Anywhere else I would have been well paid. So I finally took a step backwards and went to another firm, that paid way more for a lower position. Turned in my notice a week before Christmas and told him to get stuffed and walked. Best Christmas gift ever! I had three weeks of fun, zero stress and peace without worrying about having to go back there. Started my new job in January, got promotion and got married that year in 1997. It was a big upturn for me all starting from that Christmas....
I was only 9 back then and remember recording Cliffhanger on vhs and watching it Christams day. I was a bit disappointed the swearing and violence was cut out and wished channel 4 had aired it instead lol. I didn't see the uncut version until years later when I got it on blu ray.
As a 10-year-old kid & a huge ABBA fan at the time, I couldn't wait to watch this on Christmas night. However, although it were a huge coup for the BBC to get ABBA on Mike Yarwood's Christmas show, I couldn't help but notice that they didn't seem very comfortable with the way their appearance was arranged. Still a great show all the same
I love the bit where he says "and this is me😲 ?" because if he never told us who he was impersonating we would struggle to guess 🤔 they all sounded like a bad Harold Wilson impression 🙄
@@phyd Can you amend the description box, as you say this special is from Christmas Day 1979 but the title you say is 1978, which in fact it was, as Callaghan was Prime Minister then.
The slow decline started at the beginning of the 80s but gathered pace in 1982 when he signed for Thames.... Its since been claimed by Yarwoods agent the BBC Weren't that sorry to see him go..
@@phyd excellent comment.. I listened to a Rory Bremner documentary about MY on radio two (it's on YT) And he basically said Thames made MY an offer he couldn't refuse but he claimed the fact Yarwoods final show on the BBC was scheduled on Boxing day 1981 played a part in his decision to leave...the show did change subtlety on Thames. He started to interview guests etc... but with the benefit of hindsight his career would have declined at a slower pace had he stayed on the BBC
@@duncanholding7636 He joined Thames in 1982, when Christmas Day fell at the weekend, just like in 1983, so LWT were in control of networking. Come Christmas 1984, his shine had well and truly vanished, and like Morecambe and Wise, never to return. So he was bumped to day before or after Christmas Day. I have the dates his Christmas specials aired = 21st Dec 1982. 27th Dec 1983. Boxing Day 1984 the closest he got to Christmas Day at ITV. 23rd Dec 1985 and his last Christmas show was on 22nd Dec 1986.
@@duncanholding7636 Why? The offer from Thames was to Mike that when they controlled the weekday prime time schedule for Christmas night, he would be part of it. However management changed their minds. I was told the move to Thames was a PR move for Thames, but in reality Thames management didn't really care about Mike. It was just to give a bloody nose to the BBC and especially Bill Cotton. Once he arrived, Thames reneged on this. Thames used the excuse that networking Christmas Day was tough, with some companies telling Thames they would opt out of Mike's Christmas show if it was placed on Christmas Day.
Apart from Cliffhanger, which had come to TV pretty quickly for that time, if you thought BBC1 programming is worse now at Christmas than it was in the past, this video shows that it really isn't.
I was 11yrs old that Christmas eve and remember watching Super Mario Bros movie in the afternoon which was also a premiere along with Cliffhanger. Was a fucking awesome day.
33:10 - This was a very well spotted trait from Michael Parkinson, that Mike saw and did here. In compilation episodes, Parkinson always had the habit of saying "in my last series" and Mike here took it to the extreme of course, but very well spotted.
0:34 - those stairs seen here were later used from the late 1980s until around 1993 for the annual Children in Need set. Those curved stairs are the same ones used every November from around 1988 until 1993.
I think that some of his impressions are accurate but some poor, such as the Liberace. I don't think he was in the same class of Rory Bremner or John Culshaw.
