I loved and miss Christmas in the 80s as a kid in the U.K.!! Now living in the U.S. as an adult, I spend every Christmas Day watching 80s Christmas movie reruns on DVD that I watched as a kid or British Christmas comedy specials on RU-vid. I care for nothing whatsoever on today's tv. Someone should bring out a retro Christmas TV channel. I bet we would all watch that!!
Ah, Christmas television that you actually looked forward to and would sit and watch with your family. There was always a certain amount of homeliness and comfort from the way the presentation of, not only the programmes themselves, but also the continuity between them.
@@SpeccyHorace no, I grant you that one, but you know what I mean. These days we are flooded with so much tv on hundreds of damn platforms. Not like the old days, 3 channels, and excited to see something special. 😀
This was the first christmas after our dad left us. Mum invited all of our friends who would have spent christmas alone. It was the best christmas ever.
@Andrew Johnston Now we have rape gangs, acid attacks, teen knife and gun crime, BLM and taking the knee. Oh, and Lewis Hamilton. Haven't we come a long way.
I was fifteen at the time and remember it well. No social media to intrude or gadgets that people take for granted then. I grew up in a less complicated era!
Christmas telly was always a real treat and the highlight of the year,...all the family favorites Morecambe & wise,..only fools and horses, Minder,..generation game and many others,...one particular cherished memory I have is Christmas day 1978 at my gran and grandads ,while playing with my new Action man , the classic film The sound of music was the big Christmas day film that year,....great times, great memories
You do realise that everyone said the country was going to the dogs in the 80s? And how much better it was in the 60s? And in the 69s how much better the 30s were... it's just we are older and OUR lives were simpler. Life wasn't.
I'm half and half on this one; yes the country was going to the dogs... however (and it's a cliche) we still seemed to have some pride about ourselves... and knew how to enjoy ourselves a bit too, compared to the doom and gloom on TV nowadays, especially at Christmas (three hours of soaps on Christmas Day... torture!)
A time when tv actually drew you in and entertained, at Christmas they made an effort and the day felt special, as a kid I'd scan through The Radio Times in December and used to highlight all the good programmes I wanted to see right into January and couldn't wait, I'd actually run down the stairs when they were about to start. Now its all contests and overbearing, overpaid celebrities and loud noisey programmes, totally unwatchable now and I couldn't care less about any of them.
Buying the Radio Times double edition just to find out what was on over Christmas and the New Year. There was always something worth watching on Christmas night.
I remember a little before this, mid 70s, my Dad would come home with the double edition Radio Times and the double edition TV Times. My sister would take one, I'd take the other, we'd each go through it highlighting shows, then swap.
Blimey, where's the time gone? This all still seems weirdly recent to me, rather than a third of a century ago! Especially the animation of Santa trudging through the snow, dropping the present. Mr Benn at 1.45.. Taping that! :D
How sad am I! I knew the identity jingle before it started... Must have been a memorable Christmas. I remember watching The Fog! John Carpenter. Great film :)
Heaven 7 ironic isn’t it. In those days we used to wait and wait for three special tv days and wish it could go on longer. Now it all kicks off on tv at the end of November and we’re glad when it’s over.
Wonderful to see this - we recorded this exact broadcast of The Fog on our very first VHS videotape (still got it, with the little stickers we applied on it 'Tape 1') and after the film, the recording ended just as the Vera Lynn show was starting, so it's great to see the context here of the full schedule! I always loved the Santa walking in snow Christmas ident and music from that year, so memorable to me! 1985 was an amazing year.
Believe it or not Easter Parade was something of a regular .... on Easter Sunday. For some reason they used to repeat the Morcambe and Wise Christmas show in the summer
The BBC used to show tonnes of movie premieres until fairly recently, but they're getting fewer and fewer every year. I know most of these big film premieres are available on streaming services or Sky within months, even weeks, of their theatrical premieres, but there's still something magical about a big movie premiere on BBC1 or ITV.
I take it that the holidays were a big thing for programming in the UK... over here in the states all the shows would go into " hiatus " until january and all we would get were tired reruns. still the same thing even now.... 300 channels and nothing to watch.
A lot of effort used to go into the Christmas schedule in the UK. Personally I think that Christmas TV isn't as good as it used to be in the 80s/90s when I was growing up. There were only 4 channels back then and a decent Christmas special could bring in 15 million viewers. Having said that there were still repeats back then and conversely there's still some effort to produce "Christmas Specials" of the big TV shows even today. What I miss most is the big film premieres we used to get on the BBC over the Christmas season. By the time films are shown on BBC these days we've already seen them on Netflix, Amazon Prime or on Sky Cinema.
I remember that first EastEnders Christmas episode. Very enjoyable in a traditional old fashioned way compared to the fireworks of Den & Angie in 1986 🤯
There were quite a few stereo simulcasts on BBC TWO that year. As featured, Radio 3 linked up with the channel for the La Traviata film &, on New Year's Eve, Radio 1 provided stereo sound for the Live Aid highlights, half a dozen videos played on Whistle Test that year & a live gig by Madness On New Year's Day, there was the live classical concert from Vienna & a recording of a Paul Young concert albeit on BBC ONE
Blimey, BBC 2 didn't exactly seem to be pulling out the stops film-wise (though in fairness the bigger, newer films would have been saved for BBC 1). But a fairly decent year for comedy on BBC 1 (look how many there were back then!), including the first feature-length 'Only Fools and Horses' with 'To Hull and Back' (actually my family didn't particularly enjoy it, feeling the stretched format didn't work; the series learned how to do longer episodes well in later years), and feature-length 'Last of the Summer Wine' with 'Uncle of the Bride' (broadcast New Year's Day), which introduced new third man Seymour (never liked him as much as Foggy!) and a host of new characters that would become familiar favourites in the series. It's odd, we might have infinitely more channels now, but it seemed strangely comforting to know the whole country was pretty much watching the same things back then. And much more light-hearted, too.
BBC1 had the bigger films, like Gandhi, Rocky 2 and the 1981 Clash of the Titans. But the BBC2 line-up is excellent if one is into more 'art-house' fare. Tess and Ragtime were particularly well-regarded recent movies, and Diva was a huge French New Wave sensation.
The British are smart to make the day after Christmas a legal holiday. Everybody is so wiped out & partied out the next day & presents all over the place I always end up taking the day after Christmas off.
According to the BBC it came from the 1800's when servants were given a day off the day after Christmas day, and given a box of gifts by their masters hence the name boxing day🎄🎅🤶❄☃️⛄
Christmas always was a time for repeats. The only adverts itv could find were usually sales and holidays so they rarely used to fling cash at it. BBC only started banging at Christmas to sell colour licences in 1969. The season of family and goodwill was long forgotten.
Thanks for Your Brilliant post . I see You worked well on this . I do have the first showing on British television of The Elephant man on Monday September 10th 1984 ( I wrote to the BBC to ask that date) . I haven't checked yet to see if that introduction on BBC1
Apparently the ident got mixed to negative reviews with the crits, and I gotta say, it looks pretty crappy without the electronically generated backgrounds. The models were replaced by the Tree and his Marching Holly Squad. (Not sure who the names were of the 3 characters tho) Models would NOT Return until 1989 with the COW Spinning Top.
I remember the Pain family on Telly Addicts. They got on my nerves because they won every week which meant they kept coming back the next week! But I am in awe of how good the picture quality is on this.
Does anyone have any information on the music BBC1 used for its promos and trails? Was it a library piece or a specially commissioned. Christmas 1985 brings back magical memories, and I think time has been a lot kinder to the Robins ident than perhaps anyone thought at the time. Many thanks.
Real wholesome TV, that was fun, spontaneous and natural. Now it's all politically correct, woke, sanitised and unnatural. Video killed the radio star, woke crap killed the TV.
***** I was born in May, so I'm bedding into it. Being accused by my mum one day of having a grey hair has got me looking in the mirror with great anxiety.
Was interesting at the time to see the size of the turn table which was dusted off every Christmas then. I don't remember any big deal about the ident - the only problem seemed to be the vibrations shifting the scarfs all the time.
Why does the BBC show The Fog on Christmas eve? - they did it a couple of years ago too and it puzzled me then. Not that I'm complaining, it's a great film, it just doesn't seem particularly festive.
In the description, it says that the snowflake (1976), the pudding (1977), and double-faced Santa (1978) idents were not shown at closedown. They were replaced by stills. What did they show during the closedown in Christmas 1976, 1977, and 1978?
@@Alola_Hanna-Barbera_TMS_Fan Which is ironic, considering BBC1 played the 1986 Christmas ident at closedown, despite that ident being as jolly as the 1992 ident. And yes, the photo of Queen Elizabeth II was used during the 1992 Christmas closedown.
@@Tanzim-Kazi I also agree with your claim that 1978 was pure nightmare fuel. At least 1979 with the Carolers and Musicians was more calm. The reason why the Robins weren't shown at closedown was not only because of Noel, but the ident was ALSO too Jolly to Uphold the National Anthem. And let's be honest here, the ident looks terrible without the background. Although the ident used for 1986 is by far, my favorite Xmas Ident, I STILL do not know the Names of the Tree, Star and Marching Holly Squadron.
Great TV.Shame about Saville.In those few seconds,I cringed when he was sitting right next to those kids.The ones who were sitting right near him,years later discovering he was a serial paedo.Bet it made them shudder when it all came out in 2012.Pity they could not have edited that bit out.
As much as all the commentators have suggested how wonderful the 80s first of all we had Margaret Thatcher no comment secondly we had the AIDS pandemic I'm one of them one of the voiceovers one of the programs refer to people with special needs as handicapped children unfortunately due to illness I am now wheelchair user and I am definitely not
It seems to happen with each decade. Those that lived through the seemingly never ending industrial action of the 1970s would probably say that was the worst decade. A lot of people in the early 80s said we needed someone like Thatcher - then changed their mind after their memories faded.
The Christmas carol thing featured a young Gary Barlow. Can remember being rather puke about it even 31 years later 😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲
One of those very rare times the turntable has been seen. It was always a problem with the Christmas ident that since the camera was sometimes used for other things then put back the idents could never been linked together as the zoom was always different
I expect this year we will get selling house barging hunt Road trip films from the 1930s more repeats of Morecambe and Wise 1986 show for the umpteenth time and of course Bing in White Christmas for the 65th time running. I think the only new show on BBC for 2019 is Gavin and Stacy after that forget it the rest is all junk. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers 1932 movies.
