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Advent Calendar Day 24: Turkey Carving, Live!

2016-12-24T08:00:00+00:00

It's Christmas Day, 1936. Almost two months ago, the BBC had officially launched the world's first high definition television service from its studios at Alexandra Palace in North London.

What better way to kick-start the Christmas Day programming for the few and lucky television viewers than... a live demonstration of turkey carving at 3:15pm, pictured above, followed by a newsreel and a talk by Edward Shackleton about his Lonely Christmas in the Arctic.

And with that depiction of life in 1936 we leave you, not without first wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Don't forget to unwrap our Christmas present and download a PDF version of the 1941 Christmas Radio Times by clicking on this link.

Advent Calendar Day 23: Watch Wogan on Christmas Day

2016-12-23T07:00:00+00:00

We're almost there! And what better way to get ready than by transporting yourself to 1984. The late Sir Terry Wogan's Christmas Day guests included Freddie Starr, Kiri Te Kanawa and Elton John, with a special satellite interview with Victoria Principal, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes in American soap opera Dallas.

You can watch the full programe here or, if you're in the middle of Christmas preparations, enjoy this short clip of Terry Wogan being offered an unusual role in Dallas...

Victoria Principal offers Terry Wogan a part of Dallas.

Don't forget you can find more BBC archive content by running a search on Genome and filtering the results by Programme Available. If you're feeling adventurous, just run an empty search and click on Programme Available, or click here. There are more than 11,000 programmes you can watch or listen to on those dark December nights...

Advent Calendar Day 22: Christmas Safety

2016-12-22T07:00:00+00:00

Not sure our safety experts would approve of Kat and Mo's technique to defrost a Christmas turkey...

"To provide a party of children with a spread that will satisfy their keen sense of what is due at Christmas-time, without making them ill, is no mean feat."

And it is with this 1927 listing that we begin our collection of safety advice gathered from the BBC listings - and found thanks to Genome's clever advanced search function. Food poisoning, as this 1997 festive episode of 999 Lifesavers reminds us, is a clear and present danger over Christmas. Even the halls of Holby City Hospital have been seen "inundated with policemen who have fallen prey to a dodgy batch of turkey sandwiches" one Christmas Eve.

Fear not: while the 1980's Food and Drink team will tell you all about how to avoid food poisoning during the festivities ("an important aspect of Christmas", they say), 1960's DIY guru Barry Bucknell is ready to help you with some advice on how to "keep accidents, draughts, and burglars well away from the family circle."

Failing that, you could always find solace on this episode of Radio 4's Misery Christmas:

"Did your turkey explode last year? Did the children have the mumps? Were you burgled, breathalysed, or stranded at an airport? That was a misery Christmas. A seasonal anthology for all those who sympathise with Scrooge, and have wished to see anyone who said " Merry Christmas " boiled alive with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.'"

Advent Calendar Day 21: Alternative Christmas Day viewing, 1969

2016-12-21T07:00:00+00:00

It's Christmas Day evening, 1969, presents unwrapped, turkey devoured, and family around the television. BBC One offers the staple festive offerings of Christmas Night with the Stars, hosted by Val Doonican, and The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show.

BBC Two, as usual, offered some alternative viewing. At a quarter past eight, you could take an aerial tour above the British seaside while listening to the rhyming narration of John Betjeman. Even better, you can still do so from your 2016 armchair by clicking here. You might still enjoy his depiction of that unavoidable element of the British seaside holiday...

"...All put your Macs on
Run for shelter fast
Crouch where you like until it's fine again
Holiday cheerfulness is unsurpassed
Why be put out by healthy English rain
Are we down-hearted? No, we’re happy still.
We came here to enjoy ourselves
And we will..."

Advent Calendar Day 20: Eight Days a Week

2016-12-20T08:00:00+00:00

Father Christmas 1954 meets Old Father Time, heralding New Year 1955

Before the advent of the Christmas and New Year double issue in 1969, it was only on the odd occasion that listings for December 25 and January 1 would be in the same issue of Radio Times. One such occasion came in 1954, where the cover artwork shows Father Christmas greeting Father Time to celebrate the event. At that time Radio Times normally covered the week from Sunday to Saturday, so including the preceding Saturday meant that that day appeared in two consecutive issues.

Christmas Day highlights in 1954 included Television's Christmas Party with Arthur Askey, Tommy Cooper, Petula Clark, Harry Secombe and Sooty, among others. Her Majesty the Queen's Christmas message was at 3pm but was only carried on radio at this time, and broadcast simultaneously on the Home Service and the Light Programme. The big variety show on Christmas night was On Stage, Coliseum, which was split into two parts, one on the Home Service with the second part on the Light - it was a programme commemorating the 50th anniversary of London's Coliseum theatre, pre-recorded at the venue. Its stars included actress Fay Compton, and comedians Bud Flanagan, Jewell and Warriss and Ted Ray.

An Early Christmas Present

2016-12-19T15:00:00+00:00

Here at BBC Genome we've decided to give you an early Christmas present: the chance to download the 1941 Christmas issue of Radio Times. This slimmer magazine is a poignant reminder of life under World War II, as the Both Sides of the Microphone column on page 2 attests:

"No need to stress the obvious fact that Christmas 1941 will be, in a material sense, only a shadow of the Christmases most of us have known. The family table will not groan as of old under a weight of good fare. There will be vacant chairs at the table, more poignantly vacant on the great day of family festival than on any other day. Nevertheless, it is Christmas, and none can escape it, even if there were any Scrooges still around so foolish as to wish to. Christmas 1941 may be all too different from other Christmases: it will still be different from every other day in 1941."

But we'll let you discover this fascinating historical document by yourself. Download a PDF version of the 1941 Christmas Radio Times by clicking on this link. It's our way of saying thank you for your loyal following, for sharing your discoveries with us, for helping make BBC Genome a better data source by editing it, and for being so patient with the latest technical problems. We hope you enjoy it!

(And yes, this would be Advent Calendar Day 19)

Advent Calendar Day 18: An Experiment with Time and Christmas

2016-12-18T19:00:00+00:00

A map illustrating the tour was featured on page 967.

Today's window is a real treat for those fans of the wireless.

Listeners on Christmas Day evening, 1931, were first treated to the traditional staple of a Christmas service from studio, panto and an appeal on behalf of the British Wireless for the Blind.

At 9:35pm, though, an "experiment with Time and Christmas" was announced and Half the World Away, a "one of those fascinating, highly technical programmes which someone devises every now and then to remind us that broadcasting and wireless telephony really are modern miracles' began.

The listeners would have started their journey "comfortably seated in one part or another of the British Isles having celebrated Christmas in as near the good old-fashioned way as finances have allowed." They would then be transported to Tower Hill, London, for a chat with Mr Smoker, the Yeoman Porter. From there they would "fly on telephonic wings to the wild coasts of the North" to listen to a light-keeper, next to Gibraltar, and on to Cape Town. The radiophonic waves would finally take them to Sydney (where there is now Boxing Day, the listing warned), Vancouver, Edmonton and the Niagara Falls:

"If luck is with us and the Falls are not frozen solid (fantastic thought), we shall hear, for the first time in this country, the voice of those titanic waters."

Finally, "In Montreal we shall find them finishing tea, and when, on our homeward flight across the Atlantic, we stop to talk to the liner Majestic, we shall interrupt someone at dinner. From the Majestic we pass to Dublin and, as Big Ben's hands are creeping towards 10.30, back to London."

Advent Calendar Day 17: A Christmas Carol

2016-12-17T08:00:00+00:00

From BBC Arts - a taste of A Christmas Carol, an opera adaptation from 1962.

Today's window opens up this archive gem: a clip from the first operatic version of A Christmas Carol, broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1962.

The opera was specially commissioned for BBC Television and starred Stephen Manton as Scrooge. The BBC Arts website released if for your enjoyment - along with clips of the 1935 film, Scrooge.

Advent Calendar Day 16: Christmas on Rations

2016-12-16T12:00:00+00:00

The ad by the Ministry of Food suggested various Christmas recipes using the available ingredients.

The 1944 Christmas edition of Radio Times magazine included the usual Food Facts ad by the Ministry of Food about how to make the best out of what was available at the time to make "Christmas Fancies."

More advice was available on radio thanks to The Kitchen Front, a daily programme devised by the BBC and the Ministry of Food to "talk about what to eat and where to get it" - the idea was to give wartime housewives hints and tips on the best and most resourceful ways of using their rations.

Browsing through the episodes provides a good glimpse into wartime daily life - suggestions on how to make mincemeat without suet, talks from women writers, guest appearances by "men in the kitchen" and, of course, some comedy to take the mind away from it all.

Frederick Grisewood on The Kitchen Front, March 1941.

Advent Calendar Day 15: A Christmas at War

2016-12-15T07:00:00+00:00

Christmas 1940 was celebrated by Radio Times with this iconic festive cover designed by cartoonist John Gilroy, well known for his posters advertising a popular brand of Irish beer.

Seasonal delights ranged from the cultural heights of Bach's Christmas Oratorio to the comedy of Jack Warner (later famous as Dixon of Dock Green, but at this time a comedian in Garrison Theatre) and his sisters Elsie and Doris Waters.

The speech bubble about 'this is Father Christmas reading it' is a reference to the wartime innovation of newsreaders identifying themselves to prevent enemy propaganda broadcasts passing themselves off as the official BBC news.

Advent Calendar Day 14: A Poem

2016-12-14T07:00:00+00:00

Today's calendar window opens up to reveal a poem. It featured in the 1926 Christmas edition of the Radio Times magazine and then again in 1927 as part of a collection of poems about broadcasting. "It is not a strange thing", the introduction to the collection claimed, "that men have
made poems about broadcasting for this new magic, which pours the music of the concert room into the stillness of the cottage and brings the song of nightingales into the heart of Town, is of the very stuff of poetry."

BROADCASTING AT CHRISTMAS
by Katharine Tynan

What is it, fleeter than the bird,
That flies unfluttering far and near,
And is not seen, and is not heard,
Until it finds the listening ear?

It is the multitudinous voice,
That brings the good news far and wide,
And bids good people to rejoice
In town and in the countryside.

Of old, the angels bore the great
Tidings of joy from the high skies,
But here's a messenger of late
Bears Christmas tidings as he flies!

And through the speech and violin
There is a lovelier message swells,
And they have broadcast ChristmasE'en,
The voices of the Christmas bells.

Ever enamoured with the magic of the wireless, here at BBC Genome we feel it's still magical. Do you agree?

Advent Calendar Day 12: The Hard Times

2016-12-12T08:00:00+00:00

John Hilton, a Professor of Industrial Relations, helped create clubs for the unemployed in the 1930s and broadcast a weekly talk for them.

On today's Advent Calendar window, a poignant look at the 1930s Great Depression.

Today John Hilton is going to talk about the little gadgets and fitments an unemployed man can make out of cheap materials with simple tools (in the craft room at the Club if he has no tools of his own) to make the house more cosy and to make things easier for the wife. If he starts at once he can have something ready and the paint nicely dry for Christmas; and what's nicer, Hilton asks, than to give your wife a Christmas present made with your own hands?

This was the Christmas edition of This and That, a programme set up in October 1934 by John Hilton, a professor of Industrial Relations, to be broadcast to listeners in Unemployed Clubs. Listeners said they looked forward to the 20-minutes-long talk "because it distracts as well as instructs. Minds are occupied and interested, and when life is difficult it is good to be able to forget for a moment one's own concerns."

Advent Calendar Day 11: Tinsel-Free and not-so Joyous

2016-12-11T07:00:00+00:00

Rick Wakeman on Grumpy Old Men At Christmas, 2003

"The children get tired and fractious, Grandpa goes to sleep, Auntie gets indigestion, Dad complains about the expense and I do the washing-up!" - things aren't always joyful, joyful in the holiday season and BBC Genome listings reflect this.

Apart from the usual tragic EastEnders Christmas plots - which should by now be considered traditional, the reports about those having to work over the holidays, and the special programmes for the lonely, there's also the desire for a somewhat alternative celebration, either by slightly changing the menu or rethinking the decorations...

Radio DJs are also known to rebel against the festive overload. John Peel felt the need to declare his Home Truths programme a "tinsel-free zone": "no mistletoe, no fairy lights, just good wholesome fair". Tom Watts opted for an alternative collection of Christmas record that didn't include "Wizzard and Wham!, Slade and Spector", and Chris Moyles and his team offered seven hours of "their own sideways look at the world" on Christmas Day.

Grumpy famous men have also been offered the chance to vent against "pantos, nativity plays, false bonhomie and novelty socks", while grumpy women bemoaned "supermarket shopping" and "multi-tasking". Our favourite, though, is this Woman's Hour listing/song... no bitterness here...

Woman's Hour, Woman's Hour Women all the way.
Have a merry Christmas,
Don't work too hard today. Let him stuff the turkey, Let him fill your sack,
Stay in bed all morning, Let him break his back
With brussels sprouts and holly And artificial snow.
Let him change the fairy lights And buy the mistletoe.
So why not have a change of plan?
We've got the best solution,
Listen each day to Woman's Hour For your New Year's resolution.

Advent Calendar Day 10: Christmas banners

2016-12-10T07:00:00+00:00

Today's window opens up a small collection of the banners that graced the festive programmes in the 1950s. If you want to learn more about the artists that illustrated the pages of the Radio Times magazine, you can listen to this Radio 4 programme about The Art of Radio Times.

Christmas Eve, 1953. By Norman Mansbridge.

Christmas Day morning and afternoon, 1956. By James Hart.

Christmas Evening, 1955. By Eric Fraser.

Boxing Day, 1955. By Mervyn Wilson.

Advent Calendar Day 9: Soap-powder Packet, Wrapping Paper and Glue...

2016-12-09T07:00:00+00:00

Janet Ellis demonstrating how to do Christmas Tree Cards in 1985.

Prunella and Peter's cupboard bore
No food or presents anywhere,
But a box, a newt and a tube of glue
Make Peter Piper's dreams come true.

No Advent Calendar can be considered complete without a mention of Blue Peter's DIY craft projects in the run-up to Christmas. Christmas cards, tree decorations, a top secret gift for grandparents using only "a soap-powder packet, wrapping paper and glue" (if anyone remembers what this was please let us know), and of course the Advent Crown, dangerously made from wire coat hangers, tinsel and real candles.

You could even use the magazine itself to build a reindeer...

Do you remember any more of Blue Peter's Christmas DIY projects? Even better... do you have a picture?

John Noakes lighting a candle of the iconic DIY Advent Crown