MEDIA LIST
Recorded at Birmingham‘s NEC.
0 Just Good Friends (BBC1) 6—6.35pm. Will they finally marry? This one should pull in the audiences.
o The Queen’s Christmas Message (All channels) 3pm (C4 5.40pm with subtitles) Following the death ofSir Richard Cawston, the show has a new producer for the first time in 15 years— Sir Richard Attenborough. o Murderat the Vicarage (BBCI) 8.20-10pm. New Miss Marple adventure with Joan Hickson again in the role.
0 Eastenders (BBC1)6.35 and 10pm. Double helping ofDirty Den.
0 Christmas Morning with Noel Edmonds(BBC1) l 1.30am—l .25pm. Not so much a stocking filler as a schedule filler.
BOXING DAY
0 Stalrs (C4) 7.05—7.35pm Step by Step guide to the role ofstairs in the movies ‘and our dreams‘. The storey so far.
0 The Works (C4) 7.35-9pm First co-production between the Welsh Fourth Channel and Channel 4 and actually filmed in an English version and a Welsh version. this is a comedy-drama about a young boy‘s first day at work.
-SATURDAY 27 '
o Rightto Reply Annual (C4) 6-6.30pm Highlights from the years best Video Box comments. studio discussions. And maybe even some more of the usually banned Video Box ‘auditions‘!
o Mickey’s Christmas Carol (Scottish) ll.30—l2noon A long awaited comeback for Mickey Mouse was in 1983 a complete triumph with this cartoon version of Dickens” story.
0 Just Wisdom (C4) 8—9pm. Don‘t Laugh at Me he sang and often it is very hard to. Rarely can apathetic aura have been so carefully constructed. This documentary looks at the career of the comedian who made a point of falling down on the job.
0 Omnibus Presents Comic Relief (BBC2) ll. 1(lpm—12. 15am. Another chance to see the charity comedy event. See panel.
SUNDAY 28
0 New World (BBCI) 10pm—12.1()am. Recreation of events that took place between 1620 and 1630 in Plymouth Massachusetts. made by Shadowland‘s team William Nicholson. Norman Stone and David Thompson for the Everyman series. The cast includes James Fox. Bernard Hill and Joss Ackland as various Pilgrims and adventurers. The ten year time scale has been telescoped to two in order to dramatise the ‘ideas that gave birth to a nation‘ — look out for Monocled Mutineer response from American friends if Everyman don‘t get it right. 0 The Great Salari Bird Rally (BBCI) 3.30—4pm. A twitcher‘s delight - Bill Oddie joins the attempt in Kenya to break the record for number of birds to be seen in one day.
0 Six Little Sisters (Scottish) 7.15—8pm The Waltons at three.
CDNNERY VS CAIN: CHRISTMAS TV MOVIES
Don’t panic because the Wizard at 02 is on (Dec 24, BBC1) and yes, you will be able to see Bing Crosby sing ‘White Christmas’ since Channel 4 are screening Holiday Inn on Christmas Eve. The massive onslaught oi iilms this Christmas includes something old, lots that is new and absolutely nothing blue.
The BBC have taken a sensible thematic approach to packaging the goodies and among their seasons are tributes to Vincente Minnelli and Anna Neagle who both died this year. The splendid collection at Minnelli musicals includes Meet Me in St. Louis (Dec 24), Gigi and An American in Paris (both Dec 31) and the incomparable Bandwagon (Dec 26) with Fred Astaire. The American Film Institute salute to Billy Wilder, hosted by Jack Lemmon, is screened on December 22 and is complemented by a selection oi Wilder’s work included Kiss Me Stupid (Dec 23), the underrated Fedora (Dec 25), the brilliant Some Like It Hot (Dec 26) and the British television premiere at Buddy, Buddy (Dec 29).
There has been little time to respond to the demise of Cary Grant but lovers oi Mr. Leach will warm to a hasty BBCZ tribute at North By Northwest and That Touch oi Mink on December 23.
Close lriends Michael Caine and Sean Connery light it out in the ratings battle on Christmas Day with opposite channel screenings at Educating Rita
Latest update on the Waltons sextuplets.
o Clive James on Television (Scottish) 9.15—1().15pm The distasteful on the distasteful. Tonight‘s show gathers together nude performers and strippers — regular sights to French viewers of the box.
MONDAY 22
0 Review at the Year (BBC 1)
1025—1 1 .45pm. Peter Snow with the thesis that the Chernobyl disaster and the Challenger space shuttle tragedy will prove as time unfolds to be the most telling moments of 1986.
TUESDAY 30
0 Archive Night (C4) Annual rummaging in the vaults discovers The Lovers where Richard Beckinsdale and Paula Wilcox first made their names. and winning acts from the original New Faces.
0 Chart Show Special (C4) Review of the year's best videos.
0 Review oi the Year (Scottish) llpm-midnight ITN's round up of the year's events presented by Michael Nicholson.
0 Slip Up(BBC1)9.3()—l 1.05pm. For journalists and train robbers the highlight of the festive season. Policemen are advised to watch something else. Keith Waterhouse's account of'Biggs in Brazil‘. Scotland Yard cock-up. Starring Larry Lamb as Biggs. Jeremy Kemp as the hapless Slipper of the Yard and Nicholas Le Provost as journalist Colin Mackenzie.
(BBC1) and Never Say Never Again (STV). For the young at heart however the day’s viewing highlightwill be Dumbo which spearheads an STV collection of Disney productions
A host of television premieres include the comedy Trading Places (STV, Dec 20), Paul Newman giving one ol his best performances in The Verdict (8801, Dec 26), Splash and Flashdance (STV, both Dec 27), Dustin Hollman as Tootsie (BBC1, Dec 28) and Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning role in Sophie’s Choice (BBC2, Dec 28).
Channel 4 chips in with a season of musicals, including Guys and Dolls (Dec 23), and BBC2 otters a David Lean retrospective that includes Great Expectations (Dec 22) and Lawrence of Arabia (Jan 2). (Allan Hunter)
NEW YEAR’S EVE - 0 Beauty (C4) Film by Mick (‘zaky about the beautiful. if not necessarily for the beautiful. Frontliners in the beauty business. Zandra Rhodes. Vidal Sassoon. David Bailey as well as some tnalc strippers. look at the obsession with physical appearance. 0 Stanley Baxter’s Picture Annual (BBCI)‘).3(}—l(lpm. Highlights include a Jimmy Durante number and a meeting between The Godfather and the Pope, o Auld Lang Syne (Scottish) 1 .25—2.25am If you are feeling a bit nostalgic for the old style llogmanay shows. then it will be worth waiting up for this. Billy Kay. who made the Odyssey series. presents the very first I Iogmanay show broadcast by Scottish 'I‘elevision in 1957 and talks to some of its stars including Jack House and Larry Marshall. 0 The New YearShow (Scottish) 1 l .3l)pm—l2.3()am. To nobody‘s surprise a new look to the New Year party. Acropolis .‘V'ow team. Muriel (irey and Jimmy Mulville host a show with a line up that includes Big Country. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Love and Money. Boys of the Lough and Craig (Bing Ilitler) Ferguson.
NEW YEAR’S DAY
0 Review ( BBC2) 2.45—3.55pm. The Saturday Review team look back on the year in the arts.
0 Scotsport Review of the Year (Scottish) 2.3(i—3.3()pm. Arthur Montford and the team look back at
Some Like it Hot.
the year‘s sporting triumphs and disasters including the World Cup and The Commonwealth Games.
FRIDAY 2
0 Anne of Green Gables (C4) 8— 10pm. Part one (part two tomorrow) ofa Canadian adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery‘schildren’s classic. memorably dramatist by the BBC in the seventies. Megan Follows stars as orphan Anne Shirley who dyes her hair green.
0 Arena: Bob Dylan Sings (BBC2) 9—lllpm. A title like that makes him seem like Des O'Connor. Still. the first new TV concert in a decade.
TUESDAY 6
o The Max Headroom Show (C4) 10.45—1 l . 15pm. Now Max is to be let loose with studio guests as he conducts interviews with the likes of M . . . M . . . Michael Caine.
0 Jazz at the Gateway (C4)
1 1.45pm—12.3()am. Scottish Television‘s jazz series. introduced by Oscar Peterson. returns.
WEDNESDAY 7 --
0 Out of the Blue and into the Black (C4) ‘)—l(lpm. Two documentaries (second tomorrow) looking at the emergence of a new breed of film makers responsible for Easy Rider and its follow-up crop of youth orientated films in the early Seventies. Now the big film companies are ignoring these directors again. . .
o The March of Time (C4) The American newsreel compilations reach the post-war years.
RADIO
In humour there are some original Goon Shows. starting 25 Dec R4 12.27pm. all by Spike Milligan and never before broadcast in the UK (broadcast all week). And from Week Ending. why not sell off Christmas? Project Santa Claus 25 Dec R4 11.30pm. In verse: Roger Mc(iough in The Christmas Glow 23 Dec R2. 9pm. reading his poems! In the cold: Mike Smith (and volunteers) looking for Santa in Lapland at breakfast. Breakfast Show 22 Dech 7am. In church: The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from kings College Cambridge. 24 Dec R4 3pm and 25 Dec R3 5.30pm. as it has been every year since 1918. A special Christmas Concert R4 21 Dec 8pm includes Sir Michael
I Iordern. Dorothy Tutin and the choir of Salisbury Cathedral in a concert of well-known Christmas music: Handel’s Messiah 22 Dec. R3 7.20pm by Oxford and Cambridge music scholars from St John‘s Smith Square. In drama: The Blue Jug 25 Dec R3 ()pm by Ronald Frame. read by Dorothy Tutin. is rivetting: The Man who was Nobody 26 Dec R4 2pm should be. with Jill Dench and Michael Williams: and Two Planks and a Passion 23 Dec R3 7.30pm is likely to be with David Threlfall and Denys I Iawthornc by the very able producer Robert Cooper.
20 The List 12 Dec— 8 Jan