===CHRISTMAS TV=== I think we can divide this into two categories - the TV that we all remember - and the TV that we actually get these days. ===CHRISTMAS TV WE REMEMBER=== I was a child in the 1960 so did have TV at Christmas - albeit a black and white one with very few channels. However the fact that our choice of programmes was limited did not diminish our enjoyment of the programmes. We would avidly pore over the TV or Radio Times to see what gems of programmes we had to look forward to - and they were carefully marked so that we did not miss anything. In those days it was only one TV in the living room so we pretty ...  Read the complete review

Christmas TV has always been a mishmash of old well-worn now traditional favourites demanded by viewers year after year, and a slew of mainly awful new festive viewing experiences. Among the movies, both festive and not, shown at this time of year there is a creation we call the Christmas Television Special. This strange anomaly has its tiny performance criteria set out in the title. It must be made for Christmas and it must be made for television. The special bit is the rather superfluous part that designates this episode is different from others. Isn't every episode supposed to be? The Christmas part doesn't necessarily mean it has to have a Christmas theme, it just ...  Read the complete review

I was spun into a bit of tailspin last week when looking at the schedule in my Christmas TV Times, the religion of ringing the seasonal telly for the holidays producing the realization that there was no Only Fools and Horses repeats this year, and considering the pure volume of repeats there were listed in the magazine this was a big surprise. Brucie and the 1973 Christmas edition of the Generation Game made it on at 11: pm Boxing Day night but Del's was nowhere to be seen? In fact there were so many repeats in the schedule that there was a TV first this year, the BBC showing the terrestrial premier of 'Superman Returns' on Christmas Monday primetime then repeating it ...  Read the complete review

If there’s one thing guaranteed for people to moan about at Christmas it’s the TV schedule. I often think it’s just an apt reflection of our own seasonal pessimism that we manage to bemoan the apparent lack of choice, proliference of repeats and general apathy amongst television producers. This all means that we are resigned to playing with the kids’ latest Playstation games or join in with aunt Gerty as she falls asleep on the sofa after a turkey overload. Logically, this shouldn’t be so. What with Freeview, Sky, a multitude of cable channels and the Beeb and ITV engaging in their annual ratings warfare then you’d think we are spoiled for choice these days and the ...  Read the complete review

Who stole good Christmas TV? I'm sure it wasn't really as good as I remember it being when I was younger - my memory has filtered out all of the rubbish we must have got back then - but I can still recall enough to know that this year's offering has been terrible by comparison. BBC and ITV are locked in a game of chase the tail; it doesn't matter if something is good or bad anymore, just as long as it's cheap and somebody else has made some money out of it before. How else can you explain all those celebrity quiz shows, five heats of The World?s Strongest Man and New You've Been Framed? Take out The Office, which stood head and shoulders ...  Read the complete review