Christmas Magazines Through The Years Country Life Christmas Special 2007

What was 2007 like?

Queen Elizabeth saw in the 55th year of her reign in a much stronger position than she had been in 10 years previously. She was seen as a valued stateswoman by the majority of the UK public and was very much the favourite member of ‘The Firm’. In politics, however, the previously very popular Labour Party was split at the very top with Gordon Brown insisting that Tony Blair should make good on his promise, apparently made at the time of the Labour leadership election that took place after the tragic death of John Smith, that Brown step aside to avoid splitting the vote and Blair would hand the leadership over after 10 years. Whether the promise was made in those very definite terms, only the two protagonists would know, but after years of acrimony Blair resigned as Prime Minister in June and handed over the poisoned chalice to Brown. Then came one of those ‘Sliding Doors’ moments, where Brown had the opportunity to go to the country in October, buoyed by a 20% poll lead. Rumours were so strong within the party and the press that it was considered a foregone conclusion. Brown never wanted to go, because it was not in the national interest as he saw it, but when he announced that there would be no election, the press jumped all over the story and accused him of bottling it. The following year, the Banking Crisis sank the World economy, and although he used all his economic judgement to navigate a path through it, he was fatally compromised by it in political terms. Brown himself admits that Labour would have won the election and he would have had extra time to recover politically from the 2008 Crash.

Away from politics, it was a year that saw the new Wembley Stadium open, but the England team that graced the new stadium were less a new era and more a throwback to the 1970s with their failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championships. Their lack of success was matched by the England Cricket Team who were whitewashed in the 2006/7 Ashes series by an Australian team looking for revenge after England had regained the Ashes in 2005. A sporting icon made its last appearance on BBC1 after nearly half a century of bringing the best of sport to TV viewers. Sadly, it was a shadow of its former self as the BBC lost sport left right and centre to Sky and Channel 4.

Television was in the grip of reality shows and one of them, Celebrity Big Brother became highly controversial when Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara were accused of directing racial abuse at Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood actress. Leon Jackson won X Factor and became the third show winner in a row to achieve the once coveted Christmas Number 1 slot. In more positive news, The Sarah Jane Adventures starring Elisabeth Sladen as former Doctor Who companion Sarah Jane Smith, debuted on New Year’s Day and at times was even better than the parent series. However, David Tennant had a notable success in the role of the Doctor, as the Doctor Who Christmas Special, Voyage of the Damned, co-starring Kylie Minogue achieved a 13 million audience, the programme’s highest on Christmas Day.

The music charts in the summer were dominated by the juggernaut of Umbrella by Rihanna and the latter part of the year by the highest selling single of the year, Bleeding Love by the previous year’s X Factor winner Leona Lewis. Now that downloads as well as physical sales counted, the opportunity for records to stay in the upper reaches of the chart for longer meant less movement up and down. Whether that was a good or bad thing depended upon your age and view as to the importance of chart positions, but for now the charts were still to some extent the true measure of success.

Two films released this year used books that had been a massive success with a young audience. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the fifth book in the series and a guaranteed blockbuster. The other was The Golden Compass, the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy. It had a top cast with Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman and a fantastic central performance by Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. However, the source material with its anti religious storyline was diluted, too much for supporters and not enough for detractors. The result was that the second book, The Subtle Knife was left unfilmed until a much more faithful BBC adaptation many years later.

Country Life Christmas Special 2007

The cover promises magic and reflection, but it turns out to be a very misleading one. In 11 years, this magazine had undergone a massive change in tone. Gone were 1996’s reflections on the social and religious meaning of Christmas. In its place there is a political activism that sits very uneasily with a festival of peace and love. The editorial is nothing to do with Christmas and instead concentrates on a campaign to get rid of the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy. No peace and love there, that’s for sure! This sour tone continues into the letters page with no one seeming to wish anyone else the compliments of the season. I found it very disappointing, and I can only imagine that at least a readers at the time found it left a similarly sour taste. Looking at the advertisements the readership hadn’t changed in social and financial status, but they were clearly more militant having a Labour Party in power that they saw as antagonistic to their way of life. With Avian Flu being an immediate threat to their birds, things were bad enough, but when the smoking ban in enclosed places including pubs was brought in, the landowners must have felt like they were living through the end days!

Final Reflections

I suppose there is no golden rule that you can run to decide whether a Christmas issue is meeting the needs of its audience. It has become clear that the magazines throughout the years are meeting the needs of the audience at the time and in a way that the audience appreciate. However, the lack of Christmas spirit in evidence has made this the least enjoyable read so far. My next magazine is a Country Life from the following decade so did the Christmas spirit so absent here reappear? You will have to find out tomorrow!