In 1988, a programme made its debut on US Television just after the Super Bowl. It wasn’t widely trailed and it didn’t contain any household names in the cast, but with a huge audience still sitting in front of their televisions it made a huge impact. It featured the Arnold family specifically Kevin, whose adult reflections on the process of growing up was by turns funny and sad. Although The Wonder Years was a programme whose backdrop was the many US social and political upheavals of 1968 to 1974, it’s themes were universal, friendship, family and first love. If you want a comprehensive look at the programme, here is an article I wrote for h2g2.
The Wonder Years was an incredibly important programme for me, developing a significance that went beyond my love for the programme itself. For the vast majority of its run, my Dad and I would ring each other on the Sunday night after it was shown on Channel 4 in the UK, and discuss the episode. It was one of three programmes we really bonded over, the other two being M*A*S*H and Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister. I credit the show with giving me insight into my Dad’s character, thoughts and motivations that I would never otherwise have got.
The Programme
The Wonder Years was, in essence, the story of one abiding relationship, that of Kevin Arnold played by Fred Savage and Winnie Cooper played by Danica McKellar, and it is this relationship that takes centre stage in the episode I am going to reflect upon. Kevin and Winnie were childhood friends who grew up together, and when we first see Winnie, she has glasses and pigtails, seems shy, and is very much the girl next door. When the first day of Junior High School arrives, Winnie has contact lenses, long hair and is very much the object of any 12 year old’s dreams. That first episode takes the Vietnam War as its background and brings it front and centre in an incredibly shocking way. We learn that Winnie’s brother, Brian, has been killed in action. At the Cooper’s house after the funeral, Winnie feels overwhelmed by grief and the amount of people there and she and Kevin slip away to Harper’s Woods where they used to play as young children. It’s there that Kevin and Winnie share their first kiss as Kevin tries to comfort her. It’s a moment of innocence and tenderness which is one of the most beautiful in any series. The way that the programme confidently trod that line between humour and drama hooked huge numbers of viewers who were watching straight after the Super Bowl. It certainly hooked me a few months later when I first tuned in, and I watched every single episode from then on.
The Arnold Family were familiar to most of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s, even those of us who weren’t from the US, with the lower middle class nature of the family’s situation making it universal in a time that still saw many trying to bridge that divide between the working class background they came from and the middle class lifestyle they craved. Jack Arnold, played by Dan Lauria, worked for Norcom where he became a middle manager through hard work and making the most of his abilities, traits he tried to pass on to his children. His wife Norma, played by Alley Mills, was a housewife when we first meet the family, but she was, like many women at the time, trapped by social expectations and wanted much more out of life. Karen, the oldest of their children, played by Olivia D’Abo, represents the counter culture of the time. Her generation are pushing against social expectations, in a way Norma cannot, and she is destined to clash with Jack who has doted on her since she was born. Wayne, played by Jason Hervey, is, initially at least, spiteful and bullying to Kevin who has to share a room with him until Wayne is about 16. I can imagine that many brothers would react badly to that kind of enforced closeness, and lashing out at Kevin is probably the only way he can express himself. Winnie comes from a much more well off family, who are able to give Winnie the type of lifestyle that the Arnolds are unable to give their children. However, the death of Brian makes her family situation more pressurised as she is carrying all the hopes and dreams of her parents, and they clearly expect an awful lot from her in terms of school and life achievements. Kevin’s best friend, Paul Pfeiffer, played by Josh Saviano, is initially Kevin’s geeky sidekick, but over the course of the series he develops in ways that surprise both Kevin and the audience. The final piece in the puzzle is the voiceover of Kevin’s adult self, played by Daniel Stern, who comments on the events in front of us with the benefit of experience and more understanding of those involved. In a sense, nearly all of us have that tendency towards reflection when looking back, with our own internal monologue filling in the gaps and giving us new insight. It is, almost certainly, that voiceover which turned a nice but potentially unremarkable story of growing up in small town America into a phenomenon. It spoke to that person inside many of us who constantly tries to understand their upbringing and how it led to their place in the world.
Christmas
This episode starts off in an electrical shop where colour televisions are starting to be advertised as must have items for any family. Kevin, Wayne, Karen and Norma are entranced by the sight and the salesman moves towards them scenting a sale. Norma, who wants one as much as her children, informs the salesman that she will have to ask her husband, at which point the possibility of getting one for Christmas recedes very quickly! Jack shows off his apparently Scrooge like tendencies, in the next scene, by complaining about the cost of a Christmas Tree which is $8 for an 8 foot tree or, as Jack disbelievingly puts it, ‘a buck a foot’! Kevin wants to butter his Dad up by helping him carry the tree to the car, favouring a subtle approach. Wayne characteristically spoils this approach by asking his Dad directly if he is going to buy a colour TV or not! Throughout the episode, his tendency to complain or demand at inopportune moments derails the family’s charm offensive, a fact remarked upon by Kevin’s older self. We see Jack and Norma at the kitchen table after the kids have gone to bed, and Norma is clearly trying everything she can to persuade Jack to buy the television, but it looks ever more unlikely.
Kevin’s last day of school provides a very agreeable surprise when Winnie comes up to him in the corridor and gives him a Christmas present. He immediately says that he has got a present for her, even though he hasn’t, and must now decide what the perfect gift will be to show Winnie how much he loves her. The trouble is that 50 cents a week in allowance doesn’t stretch very far and he only has $6 left to spend on perfection! He is given a hint by the perfume that Winnie is wearing. Kevin and Paul go to the store to buy that perfume, but there’s a problem, namely that Kevin doesn’t have a clue what it’s called! Paul, ever practical, suggests a skater in a snow globe, but Kevin is determined to find that perfume if he has to stand at the perfume counter all day.
By the time Christmas Eve night arrives, the family are at loggerheads due to Wayne’s constant moaning and Karen’s determination to go out with her boyfriend rather than go carol singing with them. Kevin wraps up his present for Winnie and goes to her house to give it to her, dreaming of her reaction when she sees him. The evening doesn’t quite go to plan, on either front, but it isn’t disastrous either. Why? You’ll have to find out by watching it. The full episode doesn’t appear to be on YouTube, but there are a number of clips including the ending if you want to search for it.
Final Reflection
This episode encapsulates, for me, the appeal of the show, from its reflections on the social and economic realities of a family like the Arnolds, to its beautiful portrayal of Kevin and Winnie’s developing relationship, still in that area between friendship and romance, and the difficult task in getting those early presents just right. The reveal of Winnie’s present is beautifully done, and the gift itself is absolutely perfect.
One thing I haven’t mentioned so far is the music, which played such a central role in fixing time and place. It is this music that meant The Wonder Years would remain unreleased on DVD for about three decades, as copyright permission had to be sought for each piece of music for the release. However, it had to be like that, because without that music The Wonder Years would not have worked. The music in this episode was, interestingly, much less of a focus than usual but the use of River by Joni Mitchell is beautifully done. She is not an artist I really know very much about, but the lyrics and tune fit perfectly with Kevin’s situation, as indeed it pretty much always did. Yesterday was the first time I had seen this episode since the original UK broadcast, and it is simply magical, which makes me wonder two things. One, why have no reruns of The Wonder Years been shown since it finished? Two, why, when I have the DVD of the entire series have I waited until now to watch any of it?! I have decided to watch the entire six seasons next year, so watch this space as I am certain to be blogging about it!
My second Christmas TV special of the four I am revisiting, and this year I am going back to the 1970s, the heyday of the Christmas special where seemingly every comedy and variety show had a specific Christmas episode. Up until 1977, interestingly enough, The Good Life bucked the trend as they kept to the main series only. When they did decide to schedule one for Season 4, writers Esmonde and Larbey gave us an episode that ranks with the absolute classics of the sitcom form.
The Programme
In 1975, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey pitched an idea that took self sufficiency as its subject. The idea of living off of the land had been gaining a fair amount of attention in the 1970s. Now, this was, perhaps, not as progressive as we might think. Even though The Good Life has been seen by some as a ‘green’ comedy, in the 70s far more of the country grew their own fruit and vegetables than they do now. Allotments were far more common with the land being available for these social amenities, and many more men in particular having the time after work and at the weekends to tend to their plots. Self sufficiency took the idea one step further with the people involved trying to escape from, not only the ‘rat race’, but the whole economic system, swapping items using barter rather than paying for goods using currency. Esmonde and Larbey’s stroke of genius was to set their comedy in the heart of the commuter belt, Surbiton in Surrey. This made the lifestyle far more disruptive than it would otherwise have been, given the social strictures of the time. The comedy was built around four characters, Tom and Barbara Good, played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal and their neighbours Jerry and Margo Leadbetter, played by Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith. In the first episode, Tom Good is a commuter alongside Jerry Leadbetter, but as he faces his 40th birthday he realises that he is unfulfilled and he is looking for something to inspire him. His decision, to become completely self sufficient is fully supported by Barbara, treated with sardonic amusement by Jerry, who cannot understand why anyone would want to give up security, and viewed with horror by Margo whose life revolves around social climbing. In the 1970s, both households could be supported by their husband’s wages, so the idea of Barbara and Margo looking after the house was not as unusual as it perhaps appears today in a society where even two wages are not enough to get a mortgage. The interesting point here is that Barbara becomes every bit Tom’s equal partner in self sufficiency, giving her a key role in both the decision making and the physical labour. Now, that was progressive for the time.
The Good Life took the situation and got 4 seasons of top class comedy out of the clash of cultures and characters aided by four of the most gifted comic actors of the time. Richard Briers was the most well known of the quartet at the time, and his was clearly the central role, at least initially. However, it didn’t take long for the writers to make it a real ensemble piece. It was in the comedy writing tradition of its time, in that very few supporting actors appeared for more than one episode. The idea of creating an extended network of family and friends who we would become equally familiar with was perhaps a decade away and the Christmas episode had just one other actor in the half hour.
Silly, But It’s Fun
This episode was the penultimate episode of the entire series, and was much needed as far as I was concerned. The final regular episode of Season 4, The Anniversary, was extremely downbeat and actually quite shocking. For the second anniversary of their adoption of self sufficiency, and therefore Tom’s 42nd birthday, they go out for dinner with the Leadbetters as Tom wrestles with the increasing financial problems his lifestyle is causing. While they are out, a gang of burglars who have been targeting homes in Surbiton break into the Goods’ house, and, finding nothing to steal, vandalise the house. It was an episode I didn’t like as a kid, and still don’t like now, although at the time it was praised for injecting a note of realism into the series, and the Christmas episode can arguably be seen as a corrective which returns to the qualities that made it so loved by the public.
The episode starts with Barbara making paper chains out of newspapers. She is going for Christmas robins, although Tom says they look more like Christmas vultures! Tom has also been busy, scavenging at the local golf course for holly and mistletoe, and getting the top of a Christmas tree from the local greengrocer after it had snapped off. In total their Christmas ends up costing 15p, for the balloons which Tom insists are a necessity! On the other side of the fence, Margo has ordered the Leadbetters’ entire Christmas from a high end store. However, upon delivery she immediately spots a problem. The delivery includes a Christmas tree that is supposed to be nine feet tall, but is only eight feet five and three quarters. According to Margo, that six and a quarter inches is a measure of how much standards have fallen! She refuses to accept any of the order as the tree is not up to standard, and insists that the delivery man returns to the store with everything including the food and drink. The cameo by David Battley as the delivery man is a masterpiece of scene stealing. He is laconic, long suffering, and, when he observes something, very funny. He tells Barbara she has the type of eyes men would kill for! He is one of those actors instantly recognisable to regular viewers of 70s film and television, most notably for me as Charlie Bucket’s teacher in the iconic Willy Wonka movie from 1971.
The following morning, having found out that redelivery on Christmas Day is impossible, she rings round her entire social circle with the news that Jerry has chicken pox! Jerry is quite delighted with his ‘diplomatic’ chicken pox as he hates the social whirl of Christmas visits demanded of him by Margo every year. However, reality sets in when Margo reminds him that they now have no Christmas food or drink. Luckily, Tom and Barbara are on hand to save the day by inviting Jerry and Margo to share Christmas with them. When Christmas dinner is over, Tom brings out his home made Christmas crackers and informs the assembled company that all they lack is something that makes them go bang, so they have to shout bang when they pull them! They all do, apart from Margo who says crack as it is the root of the word cracker! When the crackers are opened there are paper hats made of newspaper. Margo, a natural Tory, is less than impressed by the fact that her hat is made from the Daily Mirror, so Tom swaps his Daily Telegraph hat with her! Then, there are the jokes, which Tom has written, which are not entirely suitable as far as Barbara is concerned. Margo reads hers out in one of the funniest moments in the whole episode.
“The Ooh-Aah Bird is so-called because it lays square eggs.”
“I don’t understand that.”
The Good Life Series 4 Episode 8 (Esmonde & Larbey, 1977)
One thing was hinted at during the series was that Barbara was attracted to Jerry and Tom to Margo. In this episode it is out in the open with Barbara and Jerry flirting with each other and Barbara using the excuse of mistletoe to plant a couple of kisses on Jerry and then giggled naughtily as Tom was walking out of the room! Mind you, Tom then cornered Margo and threatened to kiss her if she didn’t start joining in more enthusiastically! Let’s just say that it was the 70s and leave it at that!
The party games are a delight with balloons allowing the two couples to get up close and personal, and giving us the rare sight of a thoroughly enthusiastic Margo letting her hair down. The final scene of an exchange of presents, I will leave for you to see for yourselves if you haven’t already.
Final Reflection
A bit like Only Fools and Horses after Time On Our Hands, The Good Life came back for a further adventure, and, as with Only Fools, it was a let down, and I choose to ignore it and not treat it as canon! That’s my decision and my opinion but don’t let me influence you on that. Anyway, after The Good Life, Richard Briers went on to the fantastic Ever Decreasing Circles, Paul Eddington the timeless Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister and Penelope Keith to the comedy juggernaut To The Manor Born. Arguably all three programmes played to the strengths of the actors and showed them in a similar vein to their Good Life characters. Felicity Kendal, however, never had the same success with Solo, even though it was written by Carla Lane. Like The Mistress, four years later, it asked the TV audience to see her as more unsympathetic and flawed, but sadly for her The Good Life’s fan base didn’t take to it.
For four years The Good Life went from strength to strength, becoming one of the best loved comedies of the entire decade. The original showing of this episode drew in over 20 million viewers on Boxing Day 1977, and is still shown most years. Indeed, this year (2023) you can find it on BBC4 at 8:30 pm on 21 December and Christmas Day itself on Gold at 5:25 pm. Do yourself a favour and track it down if you haven’t seen it, and watch it again if you have!
For the first in a series of four posts covering favourite Christmas specials, I have chosen an hour of comedy from 1990, which made me laugh more than anything else in that decade. Despite excellent specials from Only Fools and Horses, The Royle Family and 2.4 Children, this is the one for me that just shades it on the strength of one particular scene. What is it about ‘Who’s Listening?’ that sets it apart? Let’s find out.
The Programme
It’s easy to forget that One Foot in The Grave was very much a slow burner, much like Only Fools and Horses. The first series gained an enthusiastic core audience including Janet who introduced me to it, but viewing figures were quite low. However, the second series benefitted from very good reviews and word of mouth, building up very good numbers and making a Christmas special a viable option. The fact that this first Christmas special was shown on December 27, 1990 rather than in a prime slot on Christmas Day or Boxing Day perhaps indicated a certain hedging of the bets. Future Christmas specials including One Foot in the Algarve would become Christmas Day staples.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, it is the story of the misadventures of Victor Meldrew played by Richard Wilson. In the very first episode he is forced into early retirement from his job as a security guard after 26 years and replaced by a box! This leaves him with too much time on his hands to contemplate the irritations of life, of which there are many, and his railing against the world provides the catalyst for the frequently bizarre twists that fate has in store for him. His wife Margaret played by Annette Crosbie is driven to distraction by Victor’s antics, frequently getting annoyed with him as he allows problems to get under his skin and spiral out of control. Despite their rows and frustration, theirs is not an antagonistic relationship, merely one that is prone to storms, and their deep love for each other is frequently shown throughout the series. It’s perhaps best summed up by Margaret’s quote
He’s the most sensitive person I’ve ever met and that’s why I love him and why I constantly want to ram his head through a television screen
Warm Champagne Series 4 Episode 4 (Renwick, 1993)
There are a number of recurring characters who help to give the series its texture. Jean Warboys played by Doreen Mantle is Margaret’s friend who drives Victor to distraction with her muddled thinking, but she has a heart of gold and puts up with Victor’s temper when others would have had enough. Patrick Trench (Angus Deayton) and his wife Pippa (Janine Duvitski) are the Meldrew’s next door neighbours. Although Victor and Patrick are constantly fighting, Margaret and Pippa are very good friends who share their mutual frustration at the juvenile behaviour of their warring husbands. Finally Nick Swainey played by Owen Brenman is the constantly cheerful arranger of old people’s activities in the area, activities he keeps trying to get Victor involved in despite constant abuse.
Who’s Listening
This episode features three threads that are woven through the story. First of all, a woman who works in a video shop gets on Victor’s wrong side and is treated to one of his trademark rants. He talks to the vicar of their local church, who has lost his faith because of what has happened to her, and finds out that one of his comments struck far too close to home. Victor has a problem with a mail order for a gnome to put into his garden, because he has put the catalogue number, 263, into the column for the amount! Finally, Patrick and Pippa order an £800 bottle of wine for her father which gets delivered to the Meldrews as they are out. David Renwick has great fun with the storylines for the latter two stories as he dovetails them with consummate skill. The story of Mrs Burridge, the video shop worker, and her son Adam showcases his skill at incorporating very sad and serious threads into his stories without missing a beat. He even dabbles in philosophy with Reverend Croker who has lost his faith as a result of Mrs Burridge’s experience. The whole episode is as tightly plotted as a farce, but it never loses sight of the humanity that makes this show so good.
The scene that always has me in fits, and had me struggling to take a breath when I first saw it was the gnomes scene. It starts with Victor ranting at someone at the other end of the telephone because he can’t believe they haven’t used enough common sense to realise that no one could possibly want 263 garden gnomes! As the wind gets up and gnomes start breaking, gnomes that need to be returned to the firm before he can get a refund, Margaret and Victor have to take drastic measures.
I still think this is the funniest scene of any Christmas special and indeed any comedy in the last 50 years. It’s so beautifully played, superbly structured and the reveal is timed to perfection as it unfolds. In 1991 Janet and I formed a quiz team with my best friend and his Dad. We called ourselves the 263 Gnomes in honour of this scene!
Final Reflection
It seems amazing that this is nearly 33 years ago, as the memory of first watching it still brings back such clear memories of our first Christmas together. It is a Christmas special for the ages, a perfect mix of pathos, philosophy and farce. If you have never seen it, hunt it down on Brit Box or maybe iPlayer, or buy it on DVD if you feel inclined to treat yourself to one of the most consistently brilliant comedies in British TV history.
One of the guarantees on a Christmas morning in the 1970s was that somewhere among my presents would be an annual or two. The Beano, The Victor Book for Boys and from the age of 8 a Blue Peter annual were regular treats. The Eleventh Blue Peter book was my first one and I received them every year until my teens. What was so special about them, and how would I react when reading my first annual again? I got the chance to find out when I found it in a charity bookshop earlier this year, so let’s go.
The Year 1973
1973 was the year of strikes and industrial unrest with the unions and the government at loggerheads. It was the year that the three day week started and we did our homework by candlelight. It was the year of the first battle for the Christmas Number One won by Slade with their iconic Merry Xmas Everybody. It was, for me, the year I joined St Andrew’s and finally fitted in somewhere. For all those reasons it was a year I remember with great affection.
The Cover
On the front, instead of the year, the title was Blue Peter Eleventh Book, rather than the Blue Peter Annual 1974. I think this gave it an air of an ongoing series and perhaps made it less likely that it would be put to one side before New Year’s Eve as some of the other annuals were. The picture on both the front and back cover is of the daredevil presenter John Noakes skydiving as part of one of the most clearly remembered segments of the show from 1973. I was a massive fan of John Noakes, as were many others, and his picture on the front cover probably attracted many parents, family, friends or Father Christmas himself to buy it!
The Contents
On the two contents pages inside the front cover there are 20 passport style pictures of John Noakes and 20 of Lesley Judd, who joined the team in 1972. They were the presenters who were perhaps seen as more relatable to the audience and, in Judd’s case she was now the third presenter of a trio with Noakes and Peter Purves, having initially presented the programme alongside Valerie Singleton and then taken over from her as Singleton branched out into a series of programmes like Val Meets the VIPs and became a guest presenter for Blue Peter Special Assignments rather than a regular presenter. So, 1973 was Judd’s first full year and the book reflected this in the prominence it gave her. Looking at the bottom of the two pages, the 70p price tag raised a smile! Looking at the contents themselves, three sections jump out straight away. First of all, A Spoonful of Paddington, one of a series of Michael Bond penned stories featuring the famous bear. I got the Armada Lion collection of stories pretty much as soon as it was released in 1978, but this was my opportunity to read a new Michael Bond and I remember it being the first page I turned to. Second was Tolpuddle Martyrs which I remember incredibly well both on screen and in this book. Finally, The Ugly Sisters was a pantomime themed section of the show with Peter Purves and John Noakes gleefully hamming it up aided by Arthur Askey!
A Spoonful of Paddington
One of the elements of the Paddington books that kept them fresh was that there were no references to people or events that could pin the books to a specific time period. After decimalisation, for example, people still referred to coins using their pre-decimal names, and everyone knew what they meant. So, when a character in Paddington referred to sixpence or a shilling it didn’t seem out of place. I read Paddington as a child and was quite convinced that the books were set in the modern day. That was turned on its head in A Spoonful of Paddington which was a story based on Uri Geller. Now, immediately, I have to explain to readers who weren’t around in the 1970s who Uri Geller was. He was an ‘illusionist’ (charlatan) whose stock in trade was bending spoons through ‘the power of the mind’ and he became a sensation in the more credulous days of 1973. Michael Bond incorporated this trick of Geller’s in the story and tied it in to Paddington’s efforts to replicate the feat, his first go at babysitting and the Blue Peter team in a typically funny and well plotted tale. By the end of the story, with it’s knowing pay off, it is clear which side he is on in the Geller debate!
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
This was a story I remember from television and one that had a real impact on me at the time. In the studio, and in this book, Peter Purves introduced this historical tale with union banners behind him to explain the reasons behind unions. Nowadays, of course, the government would be screaming about indoctrination and trying to get Blue Peter banned, but in those days we were trusted to be given that type of historical information. The historical stories were always accompanied by beautifully drawn cartoons, which are reproduced faithfully in this book. The story of the poor workers in Tolpuddle being exploited by their employers resonated with me and the time because of the way it was done. They complained that 8 shillings a week was impossible to live on and asked for 10 shillings. In retaliation for their attempt to feed their families properly, the employers reduced their wages to 6 shillings a week, leaving whole families at the risk of starvation. A group of men got together to form the first union and swore an oath to support each other. Sadly, one of the men was a traitor and he went straight to the employers. I remember being appalled by his actions at the age of 8, and not much has changed in the intervening 50 years. Along with the cartoon version of A Christmas Carol  it informed my sympathy for the underdog that has stayed with me all my life.
The Ugliest Sisters
This was an article based on a Blue Peter pantomime that took a scene from Cinderella as its inspiration. Val was Cinderella, Lesley was the Prince, John and Pete were The Ugly Sisters and Arthur Askey was Baron Hardup. It was Askey with his huge experience of the art form who guided them through their rehearsals and gave them the tips they needed to put together a scene that was broadcast. I still remember the ‘somewhere else’ gag that amused me hugely then and still makes me grin now. It is the details of the preparation that give this article a real interest to me, explaining some of the history and conventions behind pantomimes.
Reflections on the book
There is a huge amount to read in this book, even for an avid devourer of the written word as I was at the time. There are behind the scenes stories including the cover story of John’s 25,000 feet freefall with the Flying Falcons which goes into great detail about the training required and the way the actual jump felt. There are historical articles and one of the famous ‘makes’ giving you the instructions to make your own ‘Red Indian’ village! I’m not sure that one would get past the planning stage now! There is a recipe for cooking a Scone Pizza, which sounds intriguing at the very least, and would be easy for any reasonably capable child to do. In those days of latchkey kids, of which I was one, it was useful to be able to put a snack together when you got home from school. Of course, you first needed to remember your key if you were to try out these recipes, something I was not always good at! The overall tone was what might be called didactic today, and it is a tone some people might frown upon. This book shows why they would be completely wrong to do so. All the facts and ideas are presented in an engaging and effective way that is as good as the most technologically advanced of lessons these days. The quality of this book just doesn’t dip from cover to cover, and revisiting it has been an absolute treat.
Moving on 2 years from yesterday’s blog I come to the Christmas before I turned 13. It was the year that one of the crown jewels in the BBC’s Christmas viewing was watched by an audience of 21.4 million! I wonder if you can guess which one? As well as that show, there were a number of programmes both familiar and forgotten. So, join me on a trip through the Christmas of 1977 from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day.
Christmas Eve 1977
The Christmas Eve morning line up was very appealing to me at the time and, quite honestly, would be appealing to me now! We start off with Bagpuss at 8.55, which was a total comfort blanket of a programme. For a complete contrast you had that followed by Buster Crabbe in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe from 1940, which was still exciting to watch given the amount of battles and the cliff-hangers that would take you into the next episode. Regardless of the slightly hammy quality of the acting, it definitely stood the test of time in those days. It would, perhaps, be less appealing to the majority of today’s 12 year olds, but even 80 years on, it’s relatively fast pace might keep some of them interested. The next 90 minutes would have been an absolute must see for me as it contained much of the music I would have bought as I started to collect singles. I was a Swap Shop fan through and through, never once switching channels to the anarchy of Tiswas, whose casual, if humorous, cruelty reminded me far too much of my days at school at the time, minus the humour of course. One of the main areas for the other children at school to target were my musical likes which I was occasionally unguarded enough to admit to. This programme gave me 90 minutes to ignore all the bullying and ridicule and just enjoy pop music in Swap of the Pops.
Two things come to mind when looking at the list of artists. Firstly, I can guess what songs they will have been singing in most cases, and could quite conceivably have a number of them on vinyl. Secondly, what were Harry Secombe and Chuck Berry doing on the programme? I’m not saying they weren’t excellent singers in their own right, but they seem a little out of place on this list. Mind you, the music that we were introduced to particularly on the BBC covered all bases at the time, so it is perhaps less surprising than it would be these days. Having another look at the list, I’m even more impressed to note that they resurrected both Chopin and Beethoven for this show!
One of the biggest news stories of 1977 was the death of Elvis Presley on August 16. It is one of those news stories where I can remember exactly where I was when I heard it. In my case I was watching the ITV lunchtime news sitting in my dad’s chair as he was at work. I remember my heart literally skipping a beat through shock. Although I hadn’t really discovered much of his music before he died, the release of Way Down, giving him a posthumous Number 1 in August/September 1977 and the subsequent airplay his old hits got put him firmly on my radar. I clearly wasn’t the only one, as Christmas saw a season of Elvis films in the mornings.
I have to admit that I was never a great fan of his 60s films despite preferring his 60s music output. They were fairly pedestrian and pretty much all had the same plot, a bit like a prototype Hallmark movie set up! As a 12 year old, the constant romantic entanglements were of no interest to me, so it was really a case of waiting for the songs or, more probably, drifting away from the TV and concentrating on something else. They may have been commercially successful in their time, but they were definitely not great works of cinema!
Following G.I. Blues your BBC1 viewing was eclectic to say the very least. At 12:40 there was the Soviet Gymnastics Spectacular, at 1:30 the film White Christmas and at 3:25 Jubilee 77 which looked back at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations that June. The two hours watching this review may, I would suggest, have stretched my 12 year old patience too far!
As you can see, things definitely looked up for me from 5.35 when Rod Hull and his feathered friend started off Christmas Eve evening with, almost certainly, complete chaos. The Superpets programme was a That’s Life spin off that looked at some of the animals featured on BBC TV over the years. It would certainly be popular today and would no doubt launch a huge number of Tik Tok posts or GIFs! I actually remember all of these segments believe it or not! The evening took another dip, from my perspective, with a film called Third Man on the Mountain which included a few famous names like Michael Rennie (who was ill the Day the Earth Stood Still!), Herbert Lom from the Pink Panther films and James MacArthur who was Danny in Hawaii Five-O (Book him Dano, Murder One!). My childhood was filled with action and adventure films which I generally found boring, and seemingly endless numbers of Westerns which I grew to detest. My favourite part of the evening was probably atypical for a 12 year old boy. It was this classic drama.
As you can see, it was the last of 16 episodes, and it was a programme that gripped me from the start as I watched Louisa’s journey from poverty to her position as the Duchess of Duke Street. Further down the cast list you can see Lalla Ward who was the Second Romana in Doctor Who and something of a crush of mine at the time. Let’s say that her appearances on screen were greatly anticipated! We then go from the sublime to the cor blimey with The Dick Emery Christmas Show, which I remember raising an awful lot of laughs in our house with his collection of broad characters and instantly familiar catchphrases. Finally, it was back to a favourite show of mine at 9.50, the ever brilliant Starsky and Hutch. The late finish of 10.40 wasn’t a big problem as I was not full of excitement for the following day in the way I had been two years earlier. Where was The Polar Express when I needed it!
Christmas Day 1977
Looking at the line up on BBC1 for Christmas Day a couple of things come to mind. First is a real sense of deja vu, of which more later, and second is the realisation that the ‘golden age’ of Christmas TV wasn’t necessarily as good as it is made out to be all these years later. Like the music from the era, we remember the gold and forget the iron pyrite!
The morning offerings were similar to two years earlier with two programmes focused on the religious element of the season. Star over Bethlehem featured a service from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and after a programme called Playboard, which I have no recollection of at all, the traditional showing of a church service, this time from Kingston upon Thames in Surrey. The sole Christmas themed children’s programme was The Bear who Slept through Christmas.
Another programme lost in time, at least to me, and one that has a fairly sketchy write up with no idea from Radio Times who contributed to it. Well, IMDB came to my rescue this time with their page although with the exception of Johnny Mathis none of the names are familiar. The morning film, National Velvet from 1944, is famous for being the first starring role for the then 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor. It’s a film I have never watched, but given the cast I might look out for when it appears on TV again. At 1.40, there was the Are You Being Served? Christmas Special which would probably have had me in fits of laughter at the time, but from there until early evening, the deja vu I wrote about earlier set in! Top of the Pops, Queen’s Speech, Billy Smart’s Christmas Circus, The Wizard of Oz, all in exactly the same position in the schedules as they had been two years earlier. It was perhaps this type of relatively quick repeat of the ratings winner that has those of us of a certain age associating certain films with the holidays. The Great Escape always seemed to be on at Easter or the August Bank Holiday and Christmas was The Wizard of Oz or Oliver (Christmas Day 1976) or The Sound of Music (Christmas Day 1978)! Interestingly, it turns out that The Great Escape was first broadcast on August Bank Holiday Monday in 1979, May Bank Holiday 1981 then around Christmas in 1983, 1985 and 1987, while Oliver! was only repeated once more at Christmas in the 1978 and The Sound of Music was repeated in 1980, 1981 and 1982, but never at Christmas. Amazing how your memory plays tricks on you.
Anyway, back to the programmes which introduced everyone’s favourite vulpine celebrity into Christmas 1977.
Basil Brush’s infectious laugh and dreadful jokes thoroughly endeared him to me and to generations of children and it was no surprise to see him and Mr Howard in the Christmas schedules. It would definitely have been a programme I would have watched, and all of us would have settled down for the rest of the evening as BBC1 brought out the big guns after Songs of Praise, as Christmas Day was on a Sunday that year, starting with Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game at 7.15. Following that, were the two biggest shows of 1977, each attracting over 20 million viewers.
I discussed the relative unfamiliarity of Mike Yarwood to current audiences, but it was his show that won the ratings battle in 1977 with over 21 million viewers. It reflects his amazing popularity at the time, built on the excellent impersonations and the very funny writing that gave life to his characters. Can I remember anything about his 1977 show? No, I can’t. In contrast, the cast list itself for the following show which also attracted around 20 million viewers will bring back memories of two particular sketches.
Yes, this was the show where Angela Rippon showed off her dancing skills over 40 years before Strictly, and where Messrs Aspel, Baker, Bough, Kendall, Norman, Waring, Whitmore and Woods joined Eric and Ernie for the famous rendition of Nothing Like a Dame! When you remember that this was 46 years ago, it’s ability to conjure up memories is just incredible.
Boxing Day 1977
The Boxing Day fare was again very similar in nature to 1975, with Grandstand, It’s a Christmas Knockout, Top of the Pops, including a certain tracksuit clad presenter who also headlined a programme that fixed it for children making a reappearance, and such staples as Holiday on Ice getting a prime slot on Boxing Day afternoon. However, there were a couple of programmes that definitely deserve a mention. First of all, the Elvis film that morning proved beyond doubt that he could act and that he could handle the grittier character work that his overbearing manager, Colonel Tom Parker, refused to allow him to do in the 1960s.
Jailhouse Rock was arguably Elvis’ high point as an actor, and you can see in this film the way he could have rivalled Frank Sinatra who turned himself in to a movie star by proving that he could cut it as a serious actor. Elvis here is raw, angry, vulnerable and utterly charismatic as the young man who took the wrong decision, but whose talent may yet save him. He was followed on Boxing Day by another singer turned actor, the brilliant David Soul. His musical showcase might have had him reviewing his situation at one point!
The double act of Fagin and Hutch takes some getting your head round, especially them taking part in a darts match! However, both were very adept at comedy as well as drama and they both had a background in music so perhaps it isn’t quite as surprising as it seems. Soul’s appearance in the Christmas schedules reflects what a huge star he had become on this side of the Atlantic due to Starsky and Hutch and his massively successful year in the upper reaches of the charts.
The final programme to pick out is one of my favourite ever Christmas specials and one that I will give a full review to during #Blogmas. It’s this one.
Still hilariously funny, I will take a deep dive into this comedy classic in a couple of days time. I hope you have enjoyed my second look at Christmas TV of the 70s. Was it as good as everyone remembers? Probably not. The appearance of the same programmes is perhaps understandable as you don’t change a winning formula, but looking back it seems as though most of the festive content reflected a time where audiences were given safe and undemanding Christmas fare rather than the line up of absolute classics that our selective memories tell us we were watching. Did it hit heights that arguably haven’t been matched since? It definitely did. Morecambe and Wise and Mike Yarwood were gifted performers who brought perfect comic timing and excellent writing into the mainstream. The talent in front of and behind the camera was amazing and both programmes still stand up today as examples of the best of British TV.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 