Wow I am amazed to see a clip of Ceefax on BBC1 in the 21st century. A real rarity as they normally were broadcasting 24 hours a day from1997. Thank you so much for uploading this, really brings back lovely memories.
Many thanks for this! The mini disc used, Merry Xmas Everywhere was only 15 mins long, so Jolly Old St. Nicholas was played off CD as a filler/link track (it would resurface as the starter track for a BBC 2 festive compilation at Xmas 2002).
Thanks for uploading this DoctorVision ☺️. I wonder why BBC One went to Ceefax rather joining BBC News 24 that morning? I know it probably wouldn’t have made much sense to simulcast it for just 20 minutes, then opt out again into their programme at 5:50. A VERY rare showing of Ceefax 1 - other times it was sparingly used, were during the RBS Tests, when the transmitters needed to be tested for an hour or so overnight each year - that was usually on both channels though 😊
Well according to BBC Genome (a wonderful resource if you didn't know), BBC One went to BBC News 24 at 2:10 am in the early hours of Christmas Eve but there is no mention of a brief foray into Pages from Ceefax before the first programme at 5:50 am so I assume it wasn't initially planned to happen. All I can think of is that perhaps they wanted a clean cut and as BBC News 24 usually goes for a break to the weather forecast at half past the hour, they probably opted-out then and into Ceefax instead of cutting out abruptly at 5:50 instead, as usually the news progresses seamlessly into BBC Breakfast. Seems the most logical answer to me.
@@DoctorVision Thanks so much for that explanation 😊. Makes perfect sense as I forgot overnight that News 24 usually show filler programmes on the half hour, so if there was no "news" to broadcast, as it was broadcasting USA Direct or Hardtalk etc at the time, Ceefax ultimately could do that job for the 20 minutes they needed to fill, until programmes got going at 5:50 on Christmas Eve morning.
