Noel Edmonds presents a special Top of the Pops from 1978, with Darts, Abba, Boney M, Brotherhood of Man, Father Abraham, Bee Gees, Brian and Michael, Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, Wings, Showaddywaddy, Rose Royce, Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta and Legs and Co.
Sitcom about a British government minister and the advisers who surround him. The seasonal festivities at the Department of Administrative Affairs are overshadowed by rumours of a cabinet reshuffle. But a leadership election and the Eurosausage affair could lead to great things for Jim Hacker.
Victor bemoans the commercialism of Christmas and ponders whether it ever had a deeper, spiritual meaning. He decides to help the vicar feed the homeless on Christmas Day, but it's not quite the uplifting experience he'd hoped for because they end up being held hostage by a gun-toting man.
For over a decade, the Liverpudlian ex-market stall trader Eddie Braben penned Morecambe and Wise's material, reshaping the double act into the Eric and Ernie that the nation took to its heart. But it wasn't all sunshine.
This comedy-drama follows the story of how The Golden Triangle was formed and celebrates the man behind Morecambe and Wise's greatest successes.
In 1969 Eddie Braben was persuaded by the BBC's then Head of Light Entertainment Bill Cotton to make the journey to London to meet Eric and Ernie and their producer John Ammonds. It wasn't a meeting of the minds. But there was a spark, something different and special that Braben saw in the music hall double act who had yet to crack their on-screen presence. He set out to uncover the essence of what would transform them into television's most beloved entertainers.
What followed was years of dedication, determination and hard graft - comedy comes at a price. With the help and support of his wife Deidree, Eddie dug deep, taking on a huge scripting workload that saw Eric and Ernie take over the living rooms and hearts of the UK population.
Year on year a new series, a new Christmas special, incredible celebrity guests and the never-ending commute from home in Liverpool to work in London saw Eddie work himself to the point of exhaustion. He was a man desperate for a break but driven by perfection and the need to make people laugh.
The film culminates in a journey to the iconic 1977 Christmas Show, celebrates a decade of enormous success for both Braben and Morecambe and Wise, whilst not shying away from the pressure and pain Eddie went through to help create the screen work of Britain's beloved double act.
It's the season of peace and goodwill to all, when we think of those less fortunate than ourselves. It's also the time of year when we stuff our faces and gorge and drink ourselves silly. Christmas dinner is served. Being the last great feast in the British culinary tradition, what role does it play today?
With contributions from actor Simon Callow, cultural critic Jonathan Meades, food writers Paul Levy, Prue Leith and Diana Henry, and historians Kate Colquhoun and Kathryn Hughes, this fun documentary asks why the British remain so wedded to this meal? What does it say about us as a nation? Can it survive in a rapidly changing and culturally diverse Britain of different faiths, food fads and health concerns?
For many, Christmas dinner means the anxiety and pressure to get it right, the endless advice from every celebrity chef reinventing the wheel and the bizarre traditions that must be maintained at all costs. For others it's a time to savour good food, dine with family and friends and connect with ancient customs and rituals. Either way, we end up completely stuffed.
We all love a good quiz. So here's a question - when did ordinary contestants turn into the pro-quizzers of today? Giving the answers are Victoria Coren Mitchell, Judith Keppel, Chris Tarrant, Mark Labbett, Nicholas Parsons and many more. Narrated by Ben Miller.
Mama is one of the last traditional weavers from the South Seas island of Rurutu, French Polynesia and one of the last to make the 'taupoo', the traditional ceremonial hats woven from dried pandanus tree leaves.
Taking five weeks to make, these hats were originally introduced to the island by British missionaries in the early 1800s. Now, they're worn to church and given as wedding gifts. But the knowledge of how to make them is dying out. For each hat, 30 or more long pandanus leaves have to be cut down, spliced together, hung, dried, rolled, sorted, dyed and bleached. And that's all before the weaving actually begins. Without a template or stitches or any thread, Mama almost magically weaves the dried leaves into a hat.
Touching upon the island's Christian history, local myths and legends, and offering a unique sense of this island idyll in a moment of flux, this film is a rare visual treat and a chance to enjoy the last vestiges of an ancient tradition.
THURSDAY 23 DECEMBER 2021
THU 19:00 Top of the Pops (m0012tx7)
Christmas 1998
Jayne Middlemiss, Kate Thornton and Jamie Theakston present the pop chart programme's Christmas special, first broadcast on 25 December 1998. Featuring Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, B*Witched, Fat Les, LeAnn Rimes and Boyzone.
THU 20:00 Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights (b00dhv1n)
An amazing journey in Norway's far North as Joanna Lumley pursues a lifelong dream to track down the elusive, stunningly beautiful Northern Lights - 'the true wonder of the world,' as she puts it.
Joanna grew up in tropical Malaysia, and as a little girl never saw snow or felt cold. Inspired by fairytales and picture books, she always longed to make the journey north. At last she travels north across the Arctic Circle, up through Norway to Svalbard, the most northerly permanently inhabited place on Earth, where she has to cope with temperatures approaching minus 30 degrees centigrade.
With a box of crayons in hand, her journey takes her from train to boat, to husky-sled, to snowmobile, as she is pulled ever northwards by what she calls 'the strongest point of the compass'. She explores the romantic fjords of Lofoten and learns to ride a snowmobile, speeding across endless expanses of Lapland tundra with a Sami herdsman in search of his reindeer. As she reaches the Arctic Ocean, she prepares for bed in a hotel made entirely of ice. Everywhere she goes, she asks about the mysterious Northern Lights.
THU 21:00 Winterwatch (b01q9d86)
1963: The Big Freeze
Chris Packham introduces a classic documentary from the BBC's archive, which takes a look at the worst winter of the 20th century in 1963. He also explores what we now know about how this big freeze affected Britain's wildlife, and how it would cope if we experienced another equally bad winter.
THU 22:00 The Last Igloo (m000cr9s)
Documentary that follows a lone Inuit as he hunts, fishes and constructs an igloo. It tells the story of skills that are disappearing and of how climate change is affecting the lives of Greenland's indigenous people.
With its focus on the ingenious craft of igloo building before it becomes too late to record it, this is a meditative and poetic sensory immersion in a landscape of ice and snow, an elegy to a world that is melting away.
THU 23:30 Lucy Worsley's Christmas Carol Odyssey (m000c5y4)
In this festive treat featuring the Kingdom Choir and Hampton Court Choir, Lucy Worsley reveals that there’s much more to our best-loved carols than meets the eye. She reveals how their stories add up to a special kind of history of Christmas itself. In the ancient past, the wassail, a pagan fertility ritual, gave us door-to-door carol singing. Wassailing was also an integral part of an older midwinter festival that was adopted by Christianity when it came to Britain, and was rebranded as ‘Christmas’.
Religion, however, soon turned its back on carols. They were far too frivolous for the Puritans, who wanted to ban Christmas altogether. French Catholics on the other hand didn’t mind fun and frolics, and Lucy crosses the channel to learn a French renaissance jig, written by a dancing priest in the 16th century. The tune she dances to went on to become the carol Ding Dong Merrily on High in the 19th century.
In strict Protestant Britain, the carol survived outside the Church and new ones turned up in some surprising places. Lucy visits the British Library, where she discovers an 18th-century children’s book that contains a little memory game called The Twelve Days of Christmas. Christmas carols could also be politically dangerous and subversive. British Catholics were oppressed for generations after the Reformation, but one Catholic scribe, John Francis Wade, hid a coded message of support for a Jacobite rebellion in the carol O Come All Ye Faithful.
Eventually, the Church of England couldn’t resist the power of the carol, and finally opened its doors to all of them, thanks to a chance pairing of words and music in Hark the Herald Angels Sing, performed in the programme by the renowned gospel ensemble, The Kingdom Choir. In the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s passion for English folk music took him to the villages of Surrey. Here, Lucy meets a folk singer who tells the tale of an elderly farm labourer, Henry Garman, who sang a tune for Vaughan Williams, which became O Little Town of Bethlehem.
Finally, in the snowy Austrian Alps, Lucy discovers the simple story of a young parish priest with a poem in search of a tune. When he found one, the result was Silent Night. During the First World War, this simple carol would become a hymn for peace during the famous Christmas truce of 1914. Silent Night also reminds us that carols are, and have always been, ‘popular music’, music for the people, fulfilling an enduring need to celebrate and sing together at Christmas.
THU 00:30 Carols from King's (b04w0vg5)
Sixty Years of Carols from King's
On the sixtieth anniversary of this Christmas institution, Juliet Stevenson narrates the story of Carols from King's, how it was first televised in 1954 and how each year the soloist is selected for the traditional opening of Once In Royal David's City.
THU 01:30 Winterwatch (b01q9d86)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 02:30 Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights (b00dhv1n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 24 DECEMBER 2021
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m0012ty3)
Christmas 2002
Richard Blackwood and Lisa Snowdon present the pop chart programme's Christmas special from 2002, with the year's top-selling singles and the Christmas Number One. Including performances by Gareth Gates, Atomic Kitten and Girls Aloud.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b086trr9)
Christmas Hits
The Top of the Pops Christmas Hits compilation is made up of hits down the years, mostly performed on those classic episodes of Christmas Top of the Pops in a seasonal studio. We include songs that reached the charts in December, from Ian Dury & the Blockheads to Madness, East 17 and Coldplay.
There are hits that made the enviable Christmas Number 1 spot from the likes of The Human League & Pet Shop Boys, songs that were pipped to the post and perennial Christmas classics from Slade, Mud and Frankie Goes to Hollywood to name but three. We also have a special rediscovered rare performance opening the programme from the psychedelic era Rolling Stones from 1967 and not broadcast for over 40 years. Christmas Top of the Pops adorns the studio in tinsel to give a perfect playlist for any festive party.
FRI 21:00 Tom Jones and Beverley Knight's Gospel Christmas (b09jld6x)
Gospel Christmas returns from the heart of Cardiff to celebrate a special evening of music and spiritual cheer with Sir Tom Jones and Beverley Knight. The blend of traditional gospel, carols and songs of spiritual intent from modern greats like Prince and Bob Dylan are performed by choirs and a house band from the British gospel scene, and will add up to the freshest of winter warmers.
FRI 22:00 Country Christmas (m0012twg)
2021
Country Christmas brings the joy and festivities of the holidays to you in this Christmas special. Join first-time hosts Gabby Barrett and Carly Pearce as they get the holiday festivities started on CMA Country Christmas. Sing along to Christmas classics performed by Jimmie Allen with Louis York and The Shindellas, Gabby Barrett, Breland, Brett Eldredge, Lady A, Carly Pearce, Pistol Annies, Carrie Underwood and Lainey Wilson.
FRI 22:40 Country at the BBC (b08qgkzv)
Grab your partner by the hand - the BBC have raided their archive and brought to light glittering performances by country artists over the last four decades.
Star appearances include Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and, of course, Dolly Parton. All the greats have performed for the BBC at some point - on entertainment shows, in concert and at the BBC studios. Some of the rhinestones revealed are Charley Pride's Crystal Chandeliers from The Lulu Show, Emmylou Harris singing Together Again on The Old Grey Whistle Test and Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy from The Val Doonican Music Show.
We're brought up to date with modern country hits from Top of the Pops and Later...with Jools Holland.
FRI 23:00 The Turn of the Screw (b00pk76h)
Drama studying the interactions between the living and the dead.
A young governess, Ann, is sent to a country house to take care of two orphans, Miles and Flora. Soon after her arrival, Miles is expelled from boarding school. Although charmed by her young charge, she secretly fears there are ominous reasons behind his expulsion.
With Miles back at home, the governess starts noticing ethereal figures roaming the estate's grounds. Desperate to learn more about these sinister sightings she discovers that the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of her predecessor hold grim implications for herself.
As she becomes increasingly fearful that malevolent forces are stalking the children the governess is determined to save them, risking herself and her sanity in the process.
FRI 00:30 Omnibus (m0012ty5)
Whistle and I'll Come to You
An ancient whistle dating back to the times of the Knights Templar spells danger for the man who finds it. Classic MR James chiller adapted by Jonathan Miller.
FRI 01:15 The Sky at Night (b06t3wst)
The Real Star of Bethlehem: A Christmas Special
Astronomers have been fascinated by the idea of the Star of Bethlehem for centuries. Did it exist? And if so, what was it?
The list of candidates includes some of the most exciting objects in the night sky - supernovae, comets, meteors and unusual alignments of the giant planets.
In this surprising and entertaining Christmas special the Sky at Night team go in search of the potential causes of the Star of Bethlehem.
The team explore the possibilities, investigating the nature of the phenomena and digging through the historical records including Babylonian clay tablets and ancient Chinese manuscripts, to reconstruct events in the night sky 2,000 years ago.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock goes hunting for supernovae using the most powerful laser in Britain, and discovers that these mighty explosions caused by the death of stars can shine brighter than the moon in our sky.
Chris Lintott reconstructs the night sky over Jerusalem at the time of Jesus's birth, discovering a once-in-a-millennium conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that was first suggested as a cause of the star by the great astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1604.
Armed with his telescope, Pete Lawrence searches out the features of the night sky we can observe today that may provide clues to the origin of the Star of Bethlehem.
Professor Alan Fitzsimmons explains why the sudden appearance of a comet in the night sky has always been seen as an omen of great events on Earth.
Dallas Campbell goes in search of the historical and archaeological records that can shed light on the identity of the star. Finding Babylonian tablets in the vaults of the British Museum and ancient Chinese texts that record all the unusual events in the night sky 2,000 years ago, including a bright new star that appeared for 70 days in the year 5BC.
FRI 02:15 Top of the Pops (m0012ty3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley
20:00 TUE (m000cfd5)
A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley
02:35 TUE (m000cfd5)
All Aboard! The Great Reindeer Migration
19:05 SAT (m0001rz0)
BBC Proms
22:15 SUN (b04fy01d)
Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections
00:35 MON (b037c5gt)
Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections
00:35 TUE (b037nhb9)
Carols from King's
00:30 THU (b04w0vg5)
Country Christmas
22:00 FRI (m0012twg)
Country at the BBC
22:40 FRI (b08qgkzv)
Daniel Barenboim: In His Own Words
21:00 SUN (m0012ttj)
Daniel Barenboim: In His Own Words
02:05 SUN (m0012ttj)
Disco at the BBC
02:15 SAT (b01cqt74)
Eric, Ernie and Me
22:00 WED (b09ksz61)
Handmade in the Pacific
00:45 SUN (b0bjj2r8)
Handmade in the Pacific
01:00 WED (b0bkyt27)
How Quizzing Got Cool: TV's Brains of Britain
00:00 WED (b084fs6s)
Ice Dream: Lapland's Snow Show
00:05 MON (m0001v0s)
James May: My Sisters' Top Toys
23:05 MON (b008l2vq)
James May: My Sisters' Top Toys
02:30 WED (b008l2vq)
Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights
20:00 THU (b00dhv1n)
Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights
02:30 THU (b00dhv1n)
Keeping Up Appearances
21:00 MON (b007c65w)
Lucy Worsley's Christmas Carol Odyssey
23:30 THU (m000c5y4)
Natural World
19:00 SAT (m000qsjr)
Natural World
19:00 SUN (b0078zwl)
Natural World
01:15 SUN (b0078zwl)
Omnibus
00:30 FRI (m0012ty5)
One Foot in the Grave
21:00 WED (p00d70c7)
Pet Shop Boys in Concert
21:30 MON (m0012zms)
Some People with Jokes
23:05 TUE (b04w80p3)
Sound of Musicals with Neil Brand
23:45 SUN (b08bqfd2)
Swingin' Christmas
19:50 SUN (b00wyltw)
Tales of Winter: The Art of Snow and Ice
00:45 SAT (b01q6qj6)
The Galaxy Britain Built: The British Force Behind Star Wars
22:45 SAT (m000cdzt)
The Ice House
22:30 MON (m0012tv3)
The Lady in the Van
21:05 SAT (b06wcqyr)
The Last Igloo
22:00 THU (m000cr9s)
The Sky at Night
01:15 FRI (b06t3wst)
The Truth about Christmas Carols
23:35 TUE (b00gbgt3)
The Turn of the Screw
23:00 FRI (b00pk76h)
Timeshift
23:00 WED (b008l3cn)
Tom Jones and Beverley Knight's Gospel Christmas
21:00 FRI (b09jld6x)
Top of the Pops
19:00 MON (m000vbsr)
Top of the Pops
01:35 MON (m000vbsr)
Top of the Pops
19:00 TUE (m0001r5k)
Top of the Pops
01:35 TUE (m0001r5k)
Top of the Pops
19:00 WED (b008ptfg)
Top of the Pops
01:30 WED (b008ptfg)
Top of the Pops
19:00 THU (m0012tx7)
Top of the Pops
19:00 FRI (m0012ty3)
Top of the Pops
20:00 FRI (b086trr9)
Top of the Pops
02:15 FRI (m0012ty3)
Toy Empire: The British Force Behind Star Wars Toys
00:15 SAT (m000c7nq)
Victoria Wood: Seen on TV
21:35 TUE (b00pl74d)
What We Were Watching
20:00 MON (m0012tv1)
What We Were Watching
02:35 MON (m0012tv1)
Winterwatch
21:00 THU (b01q9d86)
Winterwatch
01:30 THU (b01q9d86)
Yes, Minister
20:00 WED (b0074qsm)
dinnerladies
21:00 TUE (p09yj3rt)