THE author and presenter Richard Osman once wrote: “I believe when the historians of the future write about how we entertained ourselves they won't start with rock 'n' roll, and they won't start with cinema. They'll start with television.”
That’s very true – particularly when it comes to writing about how we entertained ourselves on Christmas Day.
As a child in the 1970s, for whom television was a constant companion, I couldn’t see the point of Christmas TV. The day itself was packed full of so much already, why choose this day of all days to broadcast the best TV programmes? How would I find time to watch the Basil Brush Show featuring Basil in Pantoland? Or Aladdin with Roy Castle as Wishee Washee? Or – always on during dinner and the most painful to miss – the Top of The Pops review of the year.
Why wasn’t the best TV reserved for a wet Tuesday evening in February, when there was nothing else to do? Probably because Christmas Day is the day that TV can do what it does best – add some magic to your life.
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For many years, I worked as a TV producer and some years ago, I directed a show that broadcast on BBC Alba on Christmas Day. It featured Michelle McManus investigating her family roots in the Western Isles and learning to sing in Gaelic. It was filmed in the summer, and there was neither an inch of tinsel nor a decibel of sleighbell to be seen or heard.
Yet the channel decided it should go out at 9pm on Christmas Day – the peakiest of peak time. When I switched to my new role as a lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland, I decided to investigate this a bit further and ask the people that made this decision why they had. Turns out, it came down to family. The channel hoped that Michelle’s investigation of her family tree, her search for a sense of belonging in a community, would strike a chord with viewers.
The head of scheduling told me that at that time of year, nostalgia plays a huge part – as it’s a time when people think of their families, and those who are not with them. However, BBC Alba, along with many other channels operating on a tight budget, have to decide if they can afford to commission a programme that only works at Christmas. From a schedulers' point of view, the best programmes are those that can be scheduled at any time of the day and year and in any order.
Even in early January, any hints of Christmas can seem very dated; and no-one wants to hear Jingle Bells in July. Indeed, in November and December, programme-makers are often desperately trying to avoid Christmas. When filming in people’s homes in the run-up to the festive period, I’ve often had to plead with folk to delay the hanging of the Christmas decorations and, in one memorable case, ask them to take them down, so that the finished programme didn’t look dated when it was broadcast.
On the whole though, the Christmas theme is embraced by programme makers who have to be more aware than ever that the family is watching together at Christmas. That’s the family in the broadest, biggest sense. They’ll be grandmothers who perhaps aren’t normally in the family home, kids that are allowed to stay up later than normal, families of friends formed for just one day. It’s a big, broad family audience.
Also, TV schedulers are creating a family. Those who are alone at Christmas get company and comfort from the fact that they are part of a collective, nationwide audience and by feeling part of the ‘families’ they are watching on TV. Those families may be in Coronation Street, Eastenders or Mrs Brown’s house. They maybe the family of friends featured in Dr Who or the big TV-watching family reflected back at us in Gogglebox.
At Christmas, families are not only more likely to be together back in the heart of their families, they are also more likely to want to see that sense of family reflected back to them through what they watch on TV. That is perhaps why the 2019 Christmas special of Gavin and Stacey was watched by over 17 million people.
Such viewing figures are rare – especially now – but TV schedulers have always realised the pull of family-themed TV. In 1972, the BBC placed Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game at the heart of its Christmas night schedule. ITV/STV made sure to make room for Coronation Street between the All Star Comedy Carnival and The Comedians. By 1982, Bruce was Playing his Cards Right on STV and much of the rest of the evening was taken up with a Chas n’ Dave Knees Up – surely, nothing says “family” more than a right good knees up?
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Over the years, there have been some Christmas shows that could be guaranteed big viewing figures. Only Fools and Horses would often get over 20 million viewers; The Snowman became a Channel 4 fixture; The Royle Family had a period when it was watched by over 10 million people at Christmas. Famously, Morecambe and Wise would often get over 20 million viewers with their family-friendly humour, while the episode of EastEnders on Christmas Day 1986 had over 30 million viewers – Dirty Den asked Ange for a divorce – slightly spoiling the family theme!
These days, the potential audience is fragmented by streaming channels and video-on-demand. It’s said that teens and twenty-somethings just don’t watch TV – though I suspect they do – just in different ways, on different devices and in different places. Still, viewing figures on Christmas Day will be some of the biggest of the year. We’ll laugh along to Ant and Dec, shout out the answers to Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel and probably shed a tear at Call The Midwife.
I’ll be searching in vain for a repeat of The Basil Brush Show.
Paul Tucker is Senior Lecturer at University of the West of Scotland. He previously worked in broadcast television production for over twenty years in London, San Francisco and Glasgow.
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