Archive Hour - A Christmas Gander

Summary

Podcast Summary: Harold's Old Time Radio – Archive Hour: A Christmas Gander

Release Date: December 5, 2025
Host: Harold’s Old Time Radio
Theme: A nostalgic, evocative, and reflective journey through Christmas’s portrayal on radio from the 1930s to the 1980s, blending humor, sentiment, and sharp historical insight.

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Overview

This episode of Harold's Old Time Radio's "Archive Hour" explores the magic, contradictions, traditions, and broadcasting history of Christmas as captured by British radio over the decades. Hosted by Simon Fanshawe, the program weaves together rare archival audio, personal stories, and charming interviews, painting a vivid portrait of Christmas in the collective memory—balancing warmth and wit as it moves from children’s nativity plays to tearful war-time reunions and broadcast technical marvels.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening: The Spirit of Nostalgia

• Timestamps: [00:30]–[01:29]
  • Fanshawe introduces the “Archive Hour” as a “romp through the archives of Christmases on the radio.”
  • Sets the tone: equal parts affectionate nostalgia and gentle satire, inviting listeners to reflect on how Christmas both changes and remains the same.

“It’s time for the party pieces. Let us sit back and refresh ourselves with a breath of nostalgia.” – Host [01:11]

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2. Christmas and Childhood: The Nativity, Innocence, and Candor

• Timestamps: [01:55]–[04:40]
  • Touching, candid interviews with children about nativity plays (recorded 1963), revealing innocence and unexpectedly deep reflection on Christmas’s meaning.
  • Hilarious and honest moments, such as a child explaining why a classmate refused makeup—“He didn’t want to be like a lady.” ([03:20])
  • One child muses about Christmas’s material focus: “We get too much of our own way as children.” ([04:22])

“Old age pensioners come and we remind them about Jesus Christ?”
— Child interviewee, [03:40]

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3. Christmas’s Dual Nature: The Sacred and The Commercial

• Timestamps: [04:40]–[08:01]
  • Ponders how Christmas flips between spiritual depth and material excess.
  • Features reflective extracts from Joyce Grenfell and Spike Milligan, discussing how commercial hustle often overshadows true meaning.

“Supposing the whole Christian world had given up all its Christmas dinners. It would mean a very hungry Christmas day physically. But it would fill our spirits.”
— Spike Milligan, [07:40]

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4. Food and Festivity: Warmth, Humor, and Satire

• Timestamps: [08:01]–[12:58]
  • Comic reminiscences about Christmas feasting: Basil Boothroyd on over-indulgence and tinned dinners ([08:14]).
  • Satirical sketches about Christmas dinner, including turkey farming’s grim realities and playful send-ups of famous cooks.
  • The Goons’ absurd chase for a monstrous Christmas pudding ([12:09]–[12:58]).

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5. What Makes a Happy Christmas? The Classic BBC Panel

• Timestamps: [13:12]–[15:28]
  • Excerpts from the first “Any Questions?” Christmas episode (1948) where experts give their “recipes” for a happy Christmas, mixing wit and sincerity.
  • Notable answers:
    • “Plenty to eat, plenty to drink and a little bit of company, but not too much.” ([13:39])
    • Minor rebellion: “I sometimes wonder whether it may not be a little overrated… I should like to try a Christmas one time of going away entirely by myself…” ([14:30])

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6. The Joy (and Guilt) of Presents

• Timestamps: [15:28]–[20:25]
  • Interviews with children and young adults lament or celebrate present-giving traditions, including a girl’s guilt over expensive gifts from her parents ([16:22]).
  • Bernard Levin humorously confesses: “I do it for a purely selfish motive. Quite simply that spending money gives me pleasure.” ([16:32])
  • The sharp wit of an 11-year-old challenging “Santa” for a forgotten gift ([17:47]).
  • Amusing segment on girls' Christmas present spending on boyfriends, poking at social expectations ([19:26]–[20:17]).
  • Skit from “Not Now, I’m Listening” satirizes the excess of gifts with a two-tone Lamborghini being traded for socks.

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7. Christmas in Unusual Places: War, Wilderness, and Distance

• Timestamps: [21:47]–[33:28]
  • Reports from wartime air raid shelters highlight communal warmth amidst adversity ([22:05]).
  • Admiral Sir Edward Evans recalls 1911 Antarctic Christmas—pudding wrapped in old socks ([23:56]).
  • The first international Christmas broadcasts: “Half the World Away” (1931), the difficulties and later technical triumphs of connecting the Empire by radio at Christmas.
  • Iconic Royal Christmas messages, including King George V’s 1932 broadcast ([28:22]).
  • The 1973 Skylab radio link brings touchingly universal wishes for peace from astronaut Gerald Carr ([32:45]–[33:28]).

“So to that end, I wish for all the world a most fruitful and peaceful day.”
— Gerald Carr, Skylab astronaut ([33:28])

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8. Inclusion and Exclusion: Christmas Behind Walls

• Timestamps: [33:28]–[35:17]
  • Poetry from a 16-year-old on remand, poignantly reminds listeners of Christmas’s meaning for those incarcerated:
    “Christmas won't be the same this year / For all the strange ways, boys” ([34:09])
  • Reflection: “If Christmas means anything, it means that we all share in it.” ([33:51])

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9. Showbiz, Kitsch, and Camp: Television and Radio’s Revelers

• Timestamps: [35:17]–[46:22]
  • Fast-paced review of Christmas changes on radio and TV, from Mouse-in-clogs music to Blue Peter’s Advent Crown, through flashy Morecambe & Wise specials to the Osmonds and Bing Crosby hosting tooth-achingly sweet family shows ([46:22]).
  • Kitsch and stereotypes lampooned with clips from the Kentucky Minstrels ([41:34]) and Gracie Fields’ Christmas party.

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10. Wider Meanings and Touching Tales

• Timestamps: [47:39]–[57:32]
  • Origins of “Merry Christmas”—originally meant blessed or peaceful, not just merry.
  • Most powerful moment: 1951, a Ukrainian mother (displaced by war) hears her sons’ voices for the first time since their separation via a BBC transatlantic radio link, her emotional plea:

    “God bless you, my son. I am so happy to hear you. I hope to be next Christmas with you, my darling.” ([56:45]–[56:58])

  • Follow-up: mother secured a visa and was reunited with her sons.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [07:40] Spike Milligan’s Christmas message:
  “Supposing the whole Christian world had given up all its Christmas dinners. It would mean a very hungry Christmas day physically. But it would fill our spirits.”

• [13:39] Mrs. Huxley, “Any Questions?”:
  “Plenty to eat, plenty to drink and a little bit of company, but not too much.”

• [16:32] Bernard Levin:
  “I do it for a purely selfish motive... spending money gives me pleasure.”

• [41:34] Kentucky Minstrels:
  “To see me through the day to scare my cares away. All us children got rhythm.”

• [47:00] The Osmonds:
  “I wish it could be Christmas every day.”

• [56:45] Mrs. Haratina Boyko, refugee mother, to her sons:
  “God bless you, my son. I am so happy to hear you. I hope to be next Christmas with you, my darling.”

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Episode Structure with Timestamps

• Reflective and Comic Introductions: [00:30]–[01:29]
• Children & Nativity: [01:55]–[04:40]
• Contemplative Celebrities (Grenfell, Milligan): [05:13]–[07:44]
• Christmas Food & Satire: [08:01]–[12:58]
• BBC Panel on a “Happy Christmas”: [13:12]–[15:28]
• Presents & Guilt: [15:28]–[20:25]
• Wartime and Faraway Christmases: [21:47]–[33:28]
• Christmas in Prison: [33:28]–[35:17]
• Television, Showbiz, Kitsch: [35:17]–[46:22]
• Radio and the Bringing Together of People: [46:22]–[57:32]

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Tone and Style

Affectionately dry, sometimes pithy, and always rooted in the spirit of British radio—a mix of heart, humor, and the occasional sharp jab. The episode leans into nostalgia and sentimentality while never losing sight of the complexity (and contradictions) of Christmas.

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Conclusion

“A Christmas Gander” is both a tribute to British radio and a meditation on the ever-evolving but eternally familiar nature of Christmas. It’s a patchwork quilt of laughter, longing, criticism, and comfort, offering listeners a chance to experience the best—and quirkiest—of holiday broadcasting from the last century.

Transcript

[A]

I'm here on the job site with Dale, who's a framing contractor. Hey, good morning. Dale traded up to Geico Commercial Auto Insurance for all his business vehicles. We're here where he needs us most. Yep, they sure are. We make it easy for him to.

[B]

Save on all his insurance needs, all.

[A]

In one place with coverage that fits his business and bottom line. Oh, I shouldn't have looked down. It's all right. We're so far up here.

[B]

Look at me.

[A]

Take a deep breath.

[B]

I'm good.

[A]

So good.

[B]

Get a commercial auto insurance quote [e-mail].

[A]

And see how much you could save.

[B]

It feels good.

[A]

To Geico.

[B]

Ever since broadcasting began over 75 years ago, many thousands of hours of special Christmas shows have been made.

[A]

This week in the Archive Hour, Simon.

[B]

Fanshaw takes a Christmas gander through the radio and TV schedules of the past.

[A]

The programme begins as the curtain rises.

[B]

On the Late Joys, a seasonal production of an old time music hall.

[A]

Ladies and gentlemen, in wishing you the compliments of the season, may I also bid you a very good good evening. Good evening.

Well, here we are at the beginning of the festivities and a brighter, beautifuller, boozier lot of boys and girls I never saw. But enough of this boisterous badinage. It's time for the party pieces. Let us sit back and refresh ourselves with a breath of nostalgia.

[B]

And it is nostalgia. This hour, a romp through the archives of Christmases on the radio. That was John Hewer at the Players Theatre in London in 1972 and I'll be going back as far as 1931 when the BBC attempted its first round the world link up to what was then of course called the Empire. Well, Christmas is always supposed to be mainly for children, but I'd just like to put on record that I'm 42 and I still haven't tired of it.

[A]

I.

[B]

And if my mother is listening, can I just say that I'd still like a stocking? But there is something about kids and Christmas, especially kids and the nativity play. These ones were interviewed by Harold Williamson in 1963.

[C]

Mary and Joseph have come to Bethlehem. It is very late at night. Here is an inn. Perhaps they will have room. Have you any room where we can stay? No, I am sorry, all my rooms are full. Oh dear. Haven't you any place where we can rest? Well, perhaps I could find room for you in the stable. Follow me.

[B]

Before Harold talks to the stars backstage, can I just interject and ask, does anybody know when kids stop speaking with full stops between Each word.

[A]

What's it like when you've learned your part and you have. And you do the play?

[C]

Oh, that was great.

[A]

Was it really? Why?

[C]

Because, you see, all the people were laughing at Howard Snell because he had coffee beans all over. He didn't. He had me. He had makeup on and she was gonna put some lipstick on and Howard said no.

[B]

Did he? Yeah.

[A]

Why do you. Why did he say no?

[C]

Because he didn't.

He didn't want to be like a lady.

[A]

Why do you do a nativity play?

[C]

Well, to remind you of Christ being born.

[A]

Well, why should we be reminded of Christ being born?

[C]

Because Christ was a wonderful person. He could make people better.

[A]

What do you say?

[C]

Old age pensioners come and we remind them about Jesus Christ?

[A]

The old age pensioners are in the audience?

[C]

Yes.

[A]

And do you think they need reminding of Jesus Christ?

[C]

Yes, because it's a very long time ago when Jesus Christ was born.

[A]

What do you think is the spirit of Christmas nowadays?

[C]

Well, most people look upon Christmas, Christmas just as a joyful, pleasant time for buying Christmas presents and the joy of giving and receiving.

[A]

Well, is this a bad thing?

[C]

Well, I think it's a bad thing, really, because we get too much of our own way as children. So what are we going to be like as adults when we should really be praising God?

[B]

You realize they're in their 40s now. I wonder how they turned out. I don't want to begin on a down note, but listening to so many of these extracts, the contributors are often overcome by a certain ambivalence about Christmas, or rather about the way we celebrate Christmas. They're torn between the twin poles of God and mammon, the spiritual and the material, between Jesus and the stocking. Here's Joyce Grenfell and Spike Milligan, both from the early 60s, and neither of them being funny but rather more contemplative.

[A]

Today with a list of jobs to be done as long as my arm and too many people in too many places, pushing Christmas had lost its charm, what with neon signs blazing and dazing as they changed and Santa Claus's every other yard and nothing left in the shops. No wrapping paper, paper tags or scarlet string. Not a thing left. Oh, I lost sight of Christmas. Well, it's not for me anyway, I said. It's for the children. And I waited, tapping my foot on an island in mid traffic while the light stuck deliberately to prevent me or anybody else getting anywhere. Oh, Lord, I said, thank heaven there are no more shopping days. To Christmas, Christmas, oh, Christmas. I'd forgotten. And through A crack in a man made world. I caught a glimpse of the glory and the good of Christmas.

This Spike Milligan a recording of speech from nowhere. Spike Milligan speaking. And I've asked him to give a Christmas message to people. And whereas happiness is a good thing to have on Christmas Day, somewhere in the back of our minds there's an incident of a child being born in whose honor these festivities are supposed to occur. I myself can never be quite happy because the world isn't quite happy. In fact, it's far from happy. The immediate problem, it appears, is one of starvation. I am waffling on, aren't I? But I'd like you to know I'm not reading from a script. This is coming straight from inside me to you.

Everywhere in the world at this moment, there are people, maybe a family of a mother, a father and one child. The same number as the Holy family.

And they could genuinely be starving today. This isn't a an old East Lynn story. This actually is happening now as I speak.

Supposing the whole Christian world had given up all its Christmas dinners. It would mean a very hungry Christmas day physically.

But it would fill our spirits.

With a feeling of soaring up to truth.

A merry Christmas to you, mostly to your children, because this is the time for happiness. And thank you for listening.

[B]

Well, now we've fed the soul, let's get on with the real business of Christmas, starting with food. This is the great lugubrious and large comic writer Basil Boothroyd, on the Tonight program again in 1963.

[A]

I like Christmas food. I particularly like chestnut stuffing in turkeys and plum puddings smothered with white sugar, which makes them very much better, however sweet they are. And these are death to anybody who has to watch his weight as I do. However, I'm going flat out this Christmas and I shall starve myself for two or three days afterwards. Here we are.

What's this?

[B]

Our Christmas dinner.

[A]

You haven't cooked a thing. This is all in tins. Well, it isn't everything these days. He's ruined everything.

[B]

He has.

[A]

And what about the chicken? I suppose you've ruined that as well. Is he done yet? I'll have a look.

[B]

Almost. Eric and Ernie. In 1977, when they were still on the radio and before their TV show became the epitome of Christmas, they managed what so many programs at Christmas failed to do. They made it seem so natural to adapt their show. Other programmes, especially news and current affairs, bend and stretch and contort themselves to sound seasonal and rely often on sending hard Nosed reporters out to do extended versions of the. And finally signing off, stories like this one, where a news reporter was sent to talk to a turkey farmer called Eric Shaw in East Cleveland in 1975.

[A]

When it comes round to about.

20Th of December, you start thinking about getting feathers off, because you've got to get feathers off before anybody can eat them. First thing you do, as soon as you stop reducing food on the turkeys, they'll start fighting. So you've got to cover all the windows up with Essence axe so that it reduces daylight. And then about 22nd of December you start thinking, well, tomorrow we'll have to have them feathers off.

And then you. Well, you just discolate the necks, take the feathers off. How do you do it?

I mean, you've got it. You've got a turkey here, right? This one down in the front here, dearest. We'll pretend it's December 22nd. What are you going to do to it? Well, just get on his legs, take him down into bottom shed where we do our plucking and hang it up by its legs and just dislocate its neck with a clean break. No messing about. It all happens in a second and that's that. Turkey is practically ready for plucking. How long does it take you then to do each bird? I've never timed myself, but those 70, if we get gang here that we're expecting, that would be something like maybe six of us. We'll doom in an afternoon. It's all a lot of work for you to do just at the Christmas time when you ought to be easing off a bit.

[B]

Oh, well, that's when.

[A]

Wife and I don't agree about turkeys. We doing turkeys when we should be doing our last Christmas shopping and getting ready for Christmas. But yeah, it's a way of life and you put up with it. All I ask is don't ruin the dinner. That's all I ask. I won't ruin anything. I've seen it done with Danny Cradock on television. Who? Danny Cradock. Fanny Cradock. Is he.

He must have shut the oven door too quick.

[B]

Then.

[A]

Here is the turkey slowly roasted in our star house. Foil, aluminium foil with no basting whatever. There you have your first Elizabethan turkey.

[B]

Ah, Fanny and Johnny the Craddocks. And if the idea of an Elizabethan turkey with Fanny isn't frightening enough, here's the terrifying search for the great international Christmas pudding.

[A]

Following the tracks of the Ringi Berbers, Bluebottle led us to the great mud walled city of eyestack thorn. Yes, there it is, Capitan. Oh, run for your lives. Look, a savage portion of the pudding has escaped. As he spoke, the terrible pudding sprang into the deserted courtyard, its holly thrashing to and fro. Quick, quick, put the dish cover on.

Well done, Ned. Unless you give that pudding an anti hydrophobia injection, I promise you it won't live. Yes, Neddy, you will have to do it. All right, lift the dish cover. Now.

Under you go.

Well done, Moriarty. That pudding will be worth a fortune. Now we'll ditch Neddy.

Wait. He's knocking. Lift up the COVID.

Thank you, Neddy. How's the pudding? Delicious, you slime seagoon.

[B]

The goons stopped looping around years ago, but any questions? Just celebrated its 50th anniversary. And on the first program, which was in Christmas 1948, the panelists gave the definitive answer to the question, what is.

[A]

The expert's recipe for a happy Christmas?

[B]

Freddy Grisewood was in the chair.

[A]

They're all scratching their heads.

Mrs. Huxley, would you like to start off? Well, I don't think I've got a special recipe.

[C]

I think the old one. Plenty to eat, plenty to drink and a little bit of company, but not too much.

[A]

I like that. Not too much.

Peter Scott. Oh, dear.

[B]

Oh, dear.

[A]

I think Christmas is essentially a family time. I think children are an essential part of a happy Christmas. I think there's nothing quite so exciting as a small child's delight in the first glimpse of the Christmas tree lit up. I think when they come into the room and their eyes open frightfully wide and all the candles are lit, it's a tremendous moment. I think that's essentially the most exciting moment of Christmas.

Jack Longland. Well, I think we must hear something on the other side. The two questioners, two people who've talked so far have given the answer everybody expected and everybody wants to hear. But I sometimes wonder whether it may not be a little overrated. I rather should like to try a Christmas one time of going away entirely by myself, where I could escape from the horror of overeating and the noise of everybody.

And the noise of everybody else's children having a good time. And in order to be reminded of Christmas, I could listen to everybody else having a good time on the radio. Or if I got tired of the radio, as I very frequently do, I could read all about it. I could read all about it in Dickens and not have to go through it myself.

Ralph Weitman. A large teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda.

[B]

How people laughed at simpler things then. But it all seems to come back to children. As Peter Scott said, whether you're talking about the Nativity, the tree or in.

[C]

This case presence, I think the spirit of Christmas is giving presents. Because if you see someone happy and you've given them a present, makes you feel happy yourself. Up to now a lot of money has been spent and Christmas has been celebrated over and over again. And you know, the celebrations have been taking place as usual. But this year I think less money has been spent and I think Christmas is gradually fading out. My mother and father spent so much money on me and I feel ever so guilty after Christmas if I couldn't have afforded with my pocket money to buy them presents. I don't think it's worth the bother of them bothering with me.

[B]

Another of those sweet kids from the Northeast in 1963. But for my money, Bernard Levin had the right idea on the Tonight program in the same year.

[A]

Even I give presents to at Christmas time never seem to understand. I'm glad to say that I do it for a purely selfish motive. The motive is not that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Quite simply that spending money gives me pleasure.

[B]

Not with this Sandra at Wooden. He sounds most unsure of himself. The place, the Grotto in Selfridges. And the date? 1958. First a docile little 6 year old, then followed by an 11 year old girl and a Paxman like interrogation.

[A]

How old are you, dear?

[C]

6.

[A]

What is your name?

[C]

Howard.

[A]

I got something special for you, Tony. Did you want something special from us this Christmas? Tell me what it is then. Big space set, Leave it to me and I'll bring it down the chimney. Don't say a word to anybody. It's a secret between you and me and don't say a word. And I'm bringing it down especially. And watch out for me and the two reindeer. And don't eat all the mince pie this year. You ate it all last year. See you Christmas time and off you go then. Goodbye. Hello, dear. How are you?

[C]

I'm all right, thank you. Tell me, are you really far with Christmas?

[A]

Yes, dear.

[C]

Well, how do you get down the chimney path? They're so small.

[A]

Ah, well, that's a secret, dear. I mustn't tell you that.

[C]

Do you really come from the North Pole?

[A]

I certainly do, yes.

[C]

You keep all your promises to people?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Well, I asked you for a dollar show and you never brought it.

[A]

Oh, there must have been a mistake then, dear. How old are you?

[C]

I'm 11.

[A]

And what is Your name?

[C]

Lynn.

[A]

Now, why would you like this chair, dear?

[C]

I want a darkness here.

[A]

All right, leave it to me. I'll bring it down the chimney and put your biggest stock in there. And don't say a word to anywhere. It's a secret. It's a secret between you and me. And don't you dare go to sleep till I come.

[C]

All right?

[A]

See you at Christmas time. All right? Happy Christmas then, dear. And I shan't forget this show if.

[B]

She ever got it. Insincerity of that kind only ever exists in two other places, politics and show business. Here's Ronnie Corbett and Cilla doing the slushy showbiz bit. But then followed by the complete opposite. Some pretty blunt speaking from a bunch of young women in 1969 about how much they're going to spend on their boyfriends.

[A]

I'll tell you what I got if you tell me what you got.

[C]

Okay. The scent I got from David Frost was super, as was the fez.

[A]

I got from Tommy Cooper from Tarbuck and his mates. I got a box of dates. A picture of the Pope came signed from both of us. Jess Yates.

[C]

I got a new LP from Des o'. Connor. The hat from Patty Jakes looked better.

[A]

On her from Ronnie Barker. Lots of Christmas pudding I got with which she told me what I could do.

[C]

I got a lot of things for.

[A]

Christmas, but all I really wanted was you. How much money are you going to spend on your boyfriend's Christmas present?

[C]

Well, I've spent three pound already.

[A]

Do you buy a present just for one boy? Yeah. And do you expect to get back.

[B]

From him a present as valuable as.

[A]

That that you're giving him?

[C]

Oh, no, it doesn't matter, does it?

[A]

Now, a lot of people are saying.

[B]

That girls tend to give boys much more expensive presents than they get back. Would you agree with that?

[C]

Yes, definitely.

[B]

You don't expect to get a 15.

[A]

Pound present back from your boyfriend?

[C]

No, not really.

[B]

How much are you going to spend?

[C]

Well, I don't know.

[A]

I've got three. Three boyfriends.

[B]

Will you be buying some presents, though?

[A]

Oh, yes. Small ones, about a pound each. What about you?

[B]

How much will you be spending?

[A]

Well, I'm only going to buy one.

[C]

Present for the boy that I go spend the way every weekend with.

[A]

I spend about 2 pound 10, but.

[C]

I shan't buy for the others. Well, I've been told he wants a pair of shoes, so I haven't really much choice. Obviously about six or seven pounds.

[A]

What's he going to give you?

[C]

Do you know, with a Bit of luck.

[A]

A ring.

Excuse me. Yes, sir? I wonder if I could change the Christmas present my wife gave me. I should think so, sir. What was it you didn't want? It's a. A two tone Lamborghini with automatic gears, power assisted steering, eight track stereo and the new fail safe braking system. I see, sir. And what did you have in mind to replace it with? You don't have a pair of gray socks, do.

You?

[B]

A sketch from the long forgotten but wittily titled show. Not now. I'm listening. And one of the actors is Clive Merrison. A two tone Lamborghini and an eight track stereo. No bonuses there for guessing. It was from the 1970s. 1977 in fact. A couple of years after Roy Hudd reminded the troops how you really pay for Christmas.

[A]

Deck the halls with cards and holly. How I love to hang our Christmas cards. They're so comforting and jolly. I don't mean the ones with kind regards. No, the cards that deck the hall so are the ones that pay for our excess access Barclay card and also Diners and American Express.

[B]

BBC Radio at Christmas has always sought out people who are celebrating the festivities in strange places. The north and South Pole, the far continents of Africa and India. Birmingham. In 1940, one reporter went to one of the air raid shelters in London.

[A]

I've been around the streets most nights on one job or another, but I've never seen anything to equal this shelter. For comfort and cheerfulness. All the people come from a nearby block of flat. There's a family atmosphere and the place looks fine. There are flags on the walls and pictures of film stars and the children have hung paper streamers all around. You'll find that people find them fairly comfortable. Oh yes, there's no doubt about that. When whether the all clear goes 11 o' clock at night or 6 o' clock in the morning, they say we're not turning out, we are stopping here until breakfast is ready. And that's as far as they get. And they're all fairly full every night. Oh yes, they fall to the capacity. All nicely squeezed up, warm and comfortable like birds and the next sort of thing. Everybody was laughing and joking and if there was any noise from outside they started singing. There's a lot of singing in the shelter and a good deal of local talent.

While I was talking to them. The all clear sound. But they all agreed that they weren't moving. They had comfortable beds waiting for them and they meant to make full use of them until it was time for work. In the morning they slipped through the bombs and the barrage. In fact, they themselves say they take the notice.

[B]

Ah, the plucky Brits they were actually. Must have been terrifying. Although I don't know whether more or less than this. It's all very well covering the Christmas tree in fake snow, building snow persons in the garden. We do men and women in my house, sending cards with pictures of ice to skate on and people in mufflers, but you wouldn't actually want to go somewhere that cold for Christmas. But in 1941, by then, Admiral Sir Edward Evans told of doing exactly that when he was a much younger man.

[A]

My most memorable Christmas was spent far away in the uttermost south, 30 years ago, when, as a young lieutenant, I accompanied Captain Scott on his last Antarctic expedition. We were 10,000ft above the frozen sea on that bleak and inhospitable plateau which surrounds the south pole. Christmas Day 1911 found our two tiny green tents pitched in latitude 86 degrees, the only object that broke the monotony of the great white glittering waste that stretches from the bearden or glassier head to the Pole and far, far beyond. Once again the cooker boiled and for that night we had a really good square meal and our Christmas dinner. We had more than enough of everything. Pemmican with pieces of pony meat in it, a chocolate and biscuit ragu. And finally our Christmas surprise. The Bowers, the stores officer, suddenly produced two little round Christmas puddings wrapped up in an old pair of socks. That was a great Christmas and those were great days. Yes, we wear a lot of ragamuffins, but a very happy lot.

[B]

Foolhardy and brave. I guess there's no distinction, really. And the same with this lot. Over 40 years after Scott.

[A]

Hello, Shackleton. Hello, Shackleton. How did you get on? We had a wonderful time on board Magadan. How did you manage in Shackleton? We have the room decorated out here and we had all the fairy lights on also. We spent quite a time during the day listening to BBC broadcast, over. Did you receive those broadcasts fairly well? Over?

Yes, we received the broadcast very well in the morning and again the repeat, which came to a lot better in the evening.

[B]

Well, I guess if you're stuck on the South Pole, then all you've got left is to listen to the repeat of the morning's programme on the evening of the same day. And with no papers to read, you wouldn't have spotted this BBC announcement in 1931.

[A]

On Christmas Day, greetings will be received by English listeners from remote corners of the British Empire. If the BBC is able to overcome technical difficulties, we shall be plugged into the liner Majestic and Mid Atlantic to Niagara Falls to Gibraltar, Cape Town and Sydney, where it will be Boxing Day and high summer to Vancouver, Montreal and Dublin. The program will be called Half the World Away. Half the World Away ran into a. A walloping technical hitch, one of the biggest technical hitches of all times. The elaborate plans were premature. The New Empire circuits, as they called them, the copper wire and wet string, or whatever it was they used, didn't work and the program was cancelled at the last minute. And that's where I came in. Well, I happened to be on the premises at Savoy Hill, producing Jesse Matthews in Songs from the Shows, when I was asked to provide a substitute for Half a World away with only 36 hours to go. Well, that nowadays sounds rather frightening, but then it was rather fun. Eric Mashwitz and I sat up through the night writing sketches, and Harry Pepper and I knocked up a few songs. And within 36 hours we'd had the show typed, rehearsed and it was on the air.

[B]

John Watt, the producer, rather dangerously admitting that they knocked up a few sketches and songs. Don't give the game away, John. I don't want any of you listening to think that it doesn't take comedy writers a great deal of time, effort and money to provide the very best entertainment on the BBC. It may have been like that in the old days, but these days there are standards. We don't knock things up anymore, John. At least don't tell contracts, because it's like working for charity as it is. But the following year, on its 11th Christmas on air, the BBC did manage its world link. As Howard Marshall explained.

[A]

Well, it really was. It was a very important broadcast, but it was doing. Performing one of its major purposes, bringing people together around the world. And it was a very formidable responsibility. It was always a great thrill when you were leading up to the final moment when the King came. Of course, the first of those broadcasts was 1932, when King George V spoke to his people for the very first time. Through one of the marvels of modern science.

I am enabled this Christmas Day to speak to all my people throughout the Empire.

I take it as a good omen that Wallace should have reached its present perfection. At a time when the Empire has been linked in closer union. It became, for one thing, a traditional way of life. And Christmas Day, everybody automatically switched on. But it was a memorable experience, and incidentally, it was a very technical triumph in those days.

[B]

Then the year after that, they managed to link all the way around the world and not just Halfway to Bethlehem.

[A]

19 centuries ago came three wise men from the east following a star. The star is gone, not now to be seen. Yet the good tidings of great joy are to all people still and the origin of our greetings on this day.

We send this toast to the people of the Empire westward round the world.

London calling Dublin. Hello, Dublin. It falls to the Irish Broadcasting Service as representing the most Western European country to pass on today's greetings from the peoples of England, Scotland and Wales to the peoples of the Dominions on their journey westward around the world. Are you there, Bermuda? Goodbye, Dublin and thank you. Bermuda calling Ottawa. We are proud to take our part as representative of the colonies in today's chain of Christmas Day greetings and the Empire's tribute to His Majesty the King. Goodbye, Ottawa. Goodbye, Bermuda and thank you. Ottawa calling Wellington. Christmas greetings to the people of New Zealand, from the people of Canada.

For the second Christmas in succession, the peoples of the British Empire joined voices over the seven seas and the five continents. From the snows of the North American winter to the sun of the Antipodean summer. Christmas greetings to the people of Sydney and to all the Commonwealth of Australia. Upon the people of New Zealand. It is now nearly 3 o' clock on the morning of Boxing Day. Goodbye, Sydney. Goodbye, Wellington. Sydney calling Bombay. Hello, Bombay. Six and a half million Australians scattered throughout the continent gladly proclaim loyal greetings to this imperial Christmas festival. Goodbye, Sydney. Bombay calling Cape Town. Hello, Cape Town. Cape Town calling London. Hello, London. Here we are, 17 days away from you by ship and 10 by airliner as we speak to you across the 6,000 miles that divide us as the last link in the chain of greetings that have encircled the Earth within the last few minutes. The sun is shining. Goodbye, London. Goodbye, Cape Town and thank you. You have just heard Christmas greetings and loyal messages exchanged between the peoples of the Empire. Now, at one minute past three in London on this Christmas afternoon, the chain is completed.

That Round the World program was always the most exciting job of the year for me. It never failed to inspire me. And what better revelation of the true magic of radio? Those timeless sweeps across the seven seas and over the mighty continents. Fantastic distances annihilated by the mere flick of a switch. The magic of radio. Indeed.

[B]

His most exciting job. Surely not 39 steps was the most riveting of his roles, because that was Robert Donat, who hosted many of the World roundups. But the BBC didn't stop at the Globe in 1973. They did a radio link up with Skylab. The United States first space station launched on a Saturn V rocket in May of that year. And at Christmas, they received this message from Gerald Carr, one of the astronauts.

[A]

The tenuousness of our existence is emphasized by the need for man to get into harmony with his environment and with his fellow man.

Among Christians, the Christmas season serves to heighten our awareness of others and the brotherhood of man. And whether we're Christian or Jews or Mohammedans or Buddhists or Confucianists or atheists, I think we all agree that one of man's principal goals for the future should be to learn to live in peace and harmony with one another. So to that end, I wish for all the world a most fruitful and peaceful day.

[B]

Thanks, gerald. And the BBC tested the harmonious instincts of its audience in 1980 when they broadcast from a prison Strange Ways in Manchester. And notice the extreme caution in the talk of saints and sinners.

[A]

If Christmas means anything, it means that we all share in it. And that's why BBC Radio Manchester, trying to reflect Christmas, arranged a poetry competition at Manchester Strangeways Jail. Now, nobody's trying to say that they're saints in strange ways they're in there for reasons which they know all too well but it is Christmas in strange ways Just as it is outside Vincent comes from oldham he's just 16 years old he's on remand Christmas won't be the same this year I've sinned and now must pay Christmas won't be the same this year Now I've lost that precious day Christmas won't be the same this year no presents, cards or toys Christmas won't be the same this year for all the strange ways, boys Christmas won't be the same this year Away from all I know Christmas won't be the same this year except perhaps the snow Christmas won't be the same this year with all my days prolonged Christmas won't be the same this year Wish I'd never wronged Christmas won't be the same this year Away from all things nice Christmas won't be the same this year Until I paid the price Christmas won't be the same this year I'm counting all the days Christmas won't be the same this year Hearing old strange ways.

[B]

I wonder if Vincent ever went straight do hope so well, take a deep breath Put on your tap shoes Turn on the black and white teddy because it's the early 60s and this is the showbiz section where we drown in schmaltz and pizzazz Starting with It's Christmas.

[A]

Night with the stars.

Here is your master of ceremonies, Jack Warner.

And if I'm not too late, Merry Christmas. And that comes not only just from me, but from everybody here in the studio. Plus a whole host of old friends will be dropping in on you tonight, friend you've been seeing throughout the year in BBC Light Entertainment. Entertainment. By this time on Christmas night, of course, if you've eaten a little too much or if you're feeling just plain exhausted, you may be starting to doze off. And so it is to you, first of all that we say, wakey wake. Ha.

[B]

The extraordinary Bill Cotton. And did you listen carefully to the introduction music behind the orchestra? There was definitely a mouse in clogs running up and down the bottles in a wine rack. What is that instrument? Is it a xylophone? Anyway, by way of a shorthand whiz through what programmes do at Christmas to bend themselves to fit, I thought we'd dispense with the programmes themselves and instead rely on the men who know one time loose ends regulars Martin plimmer and Michael McGinnis from BBC2 in 1991 and their short history of Christmas on the telly.

In the bleak midwinter of war blitzed Britain. Life was dead dull.

[A]

Then God gave us television and TV.

[B]

Reinvented Christmas according to the Lord's mighty.

[A]

Schedule, turning it round from a low.

[B]

Budget production to a lavish small screen.

[A]

Beast Inglorious Gray, O vision. Nobody dare turn off the stone set because it took days to warm the valves up and you'd be blacked out till the New year and the crowd would get tiddly poo on your VP.

[B]

Wine and start slashing the seats yelling.

[A]

We want the Black and White Minstrels. What era is this? Hello, hello, hello, Blue peter in the 60s. Hang on a sec. I'm just doing a rather an important job here because there are only four Blue Peters before Christmas day. So on Blue Peter, we light our adventures crown on our four programs before Christmas.

[C]

Well, now we've lit the fourth candle.

[A]

On our Advent crown and got all.

[C]

Our Christmas decorations and cards up in the studio and we're all feeling really Christmassy.

[A]

Yes, it won't be long now, so we'll see you again on Thursday. Bye bye. Bye bye.

In an effort to spoil all this fun, BBC2 was wall to wall opera.

[B]

And films about lonely Swedish families living.

[A]

On an island with a dog who loses his appetite. Then came the age of color. Volume clean.

[B]

Enter the 70s, top of the Pops.

[A]

Christmas special Music has never Been better. Trousers have never been bigger.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

[B]

The Morecambe and why Special was Christmas.

[A]

TV's finest hour, with each year a surprising star guest like Glenda Jackson.

[C]

All men are fools and what makes.

[A]

Them so is having beauty like what I have got. What do you think of me so far? Rubbish.

[B]

It was all too exhausted. Something had to give and it was the fun.

[A]

In the 80s, Christmas was handed over.

[B]

Locks, stock and lime barrel to Noel Edmonds, who was chosen for his name.

[A]

Excuse me.

You clean cars around here? Yeah. Would you be good enough to clean.

[B]

My truck for me?

What do you mean? It's me.

[A]

Why? Didn't you think I'd turn up?

[B]

Raid the archives, open the vaults, get back to the traditional values of Christmas.

[A]

To a time when everyone smoked Will's whiffs, even children in toothpaste ads. A time when a man could buy.

[B]

His wife an iron for Christmas and.

[A]

Still get a kiss.

[B]

And then Eric Idle proved that anything he could send up in Rutland Weekend Television could never be as bad as Max Bygrave's in real life.

[A]

Christmas Weekend on Rutland Weekend Television starts tonight with the traditional hospital Christmas show. This year, Christmas Night with the Scars comes from St Solis Hospital, Pinner, where many famous television stars will be going to have a look at some sick people. It's an unfortunate time of the year to spend in bed, all day on drugs. And so a lot of the stars will be getting up and going to the hospital and. What's wrong with you?

[C]

I got burnt a bit. Did you have it happen over a power station?

[A]

Over a power station? What were you doing?

[C]

Bird nesting.

[A]

Oh, dear. How long have you been in here?

Eight months. Any little boys and girls looking in? Would you advise them to go bird nesting over power stations in future?

[B]

No.

[A]

It's shocking. Isn't.

[B]

Certainly is, Max. And I've got something in my wallet that says, in the event of an accident, please can I not be visited by Max Bygraves. In looking back, you always have to remember not to judge things out of context, but this is the oddest thing we found in the archive. It's fun, it's even rather kitsch, but boy, talk about stereotypes. The Kentucky Minstrels from 1940.

[A]

This is the BBC Home Service. Tonight, being Christmas Eve, the Kentucky Minstrels invite you to come and hear them at Mr. Interlocutor's residence, where they are preparing for the Christmas party which is about to follow. Everybody got a drink? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well. Well, I, I, I think this is the moment to drink a toast. To our worthy host.

[B]

Yeah, that's right.

[A]

I. I wish you health, a little wealth, a happy home and freedom. And may you always have true friends and ne' er have cause to need them.

Here's one. Here's champagne to our real friends. And a real pain to our sham friends. Oh, yeah. We've toasted our sweethearts, our friends and our wives We've toasted each other wishing all merry lives but now I propose you the toast that is best. There's one in a million and out shines the rest. Don't frown when I tell you this toast beats all others. But drink this last toast. Boys, a toast to our mothers.

And now, boys, now listen, what about our old friend Tambo? What's your idea of a Christmas entertainment? Now, just you listen here to me. This is my philosophy. To see me through the day to scare my cares away.

All us children got rhythm all us children got swing maybe ain't got money maybe ain't got shoes all our children got rhythm for to push away the blues.

[B]

Our old friend Tambo. That's Tambo with a T. Amazing what a difference one consonant can make.

[A]

Ladies and gentlemen, Racy Fields Christmas Party.

With Gracie are her mother and father, the children from her orphanage, the George Mitchell Choir, Jimmy Bailey and Billy Turnant and his orchestra. Ladies and gentlemen, our Gracie.

You're more than the whole world.

To.

Me.

[C]

I want to wish you, everybody, a very, very happy Christmas. Well, this next little song is to introduce this little lady who's my mother. Everybody knows.

Mother and I are going to sing a little song that I.

[A]

Used to sing when I was a little kid and we didn't have a piano because we couldn't afford one in those days.

[C]

So I used to make funny noises.

[A]

And make banjo fancy noises and I used to do the banjo noises to Mother singing Old folks at Home.

You were.

[C]

My heart is turning.

[B]

I don't know why, but Gracie always makes sense. Me want to cry, and I'm not being sarcastic, but with those last two clips, you know, that, incidentally, are separated by 10 years. I'm not sure which one is the odder old Tambo from Kentucky with his All Us Chillin Got Rhythm or Gracie's mum singing a minstrel song. Anyway, I promised you kitsch, and this really is kitsch, just because they are teeth and all.

[A]

Hello there, we're the Osmonds and want to welcome all of our BBC Radio 1 listeners and to our own Christmas Day Radio 1 show. We're having a party. We're having a great time. In our studio downstairs in our home here in Provo, Utah, you'll hear all the family in this show. And I'll act sort of like the DJ and hope that you all get a chance to know us each a little bit better. First of all, let's introduce ourselves, and we'll start with the oldest, Osmond. Hello there. I'm Father George.

[C]

And this is Mother, Olive, Alan, Wayne, Meryl, Jay, Donnie Marie, and Jimmy.

[A]

And now, Jimmy, why don't you tell.

[B]

Us what you really love about Christmas?

[C]

Well, I like the excitement.

[A]

The excitement.

[C]

Why? I was so excited last night to open my presents today, and I'm really happy.

[A]

Is that right?

[C]

Yeah. I wish it could be Christmas every day.

[A]

Merry Christmas.

[B]

You know, I'm sure if you melt down little Jimmy, you could make a saccharine based sauce for your Christmas pudding. A year after the Osmonds, Bing was wheeled out to do his family show for the BBC, broadcast from his home with his children.

[A]

I.

Dreaming of a white.

Christmas.

Just like the one I used to know.

Of course, in these rather commercialized modern times, the traditional meanings of Christmas are often clouded. And while there are many who feel that the mass sending of Christmas cards and the giving of expensive presents and the proliferation of colorful decorations, they feel that's all a far step from the true religious meaning of this day. But strangely, all these customs have a strong religious base, as Mary Frances will tell us. Even the popular greeting, Merry Christmas, by which I'm sure you've been hailed many times, already, has an original meaning that might have escaped us.

[C]

When people shouted Merry Christmas centuries ago. They didn't intend the word merry to mean joyful, hilarious or gay, as it does today. In those days, Mary meant blessed, peaceful or pleasant and expressed feelings of spiritual.

[A]

Joy rather than earthly happiness. I wish you a merry Christmas I wish you a. I wish you a Merry Christmas I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year the great celebrated feast of Christmas as we know it today was really founded by the ancient religious pioneers and the missionaries who introduced it through the pagan tribes of Europe. I think we'll get young Nathaniel here to step in and play historian. It may surprise you to know that today was universally accepted as Christmas day.

[B]

Until the 4th century.

[A]

It was brought to Britain by St Augustine of Canterbury in 604 and to Ireland by St Patrick. And from there, it gradually spread to the main continent of Europe, so that by the year 1100, all the nations of Europe celebrated Christmas on December 25th.

We wish you Merry Christmas we wish you a merry Christmas We Wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

[B]

Actually, you could pour that voice over your pudding to just make a different sauce. And there we are. You heard it from young Crosby first. It took only 500 years to get everybody to celebrate Christmas on the same day. An early example of EU harmonisation. But perhaps the greatest thing that radio has managed to do over the years has been the real bringing together of people, people separated for whatever reason and over whatever distances. In 1963, the BBC told the story of the Berlin Wall, where inhumanity, symbolized merely by bricks, allowed ideology to divide the indivisible. The love of one human being for another. 35 years ago, thousands of Berliners queued in the cold for a Pass.

[A]

Roughly 800,000 people in West Berlin have relatives to the east. Through this wall is divided 1200 couples. And that's why so many peoples, thousands and thousands of peoples are waiting in this cold for 24 hours to get their damn permit to go over there. I've waited here three and a half day in this cold weather, from the morning at seven o' clock to the evening at five or six. And now I have get a paper to go to East Berlin. I'm 77.

[C]

I have a sister, he's 75. She live in East Berlin. I was.

Teen hours first time.

[A]

I have a father, 17 years old. I saw him last at Whitsun, 1961. And since that time we could only write. And there are certain things you can't write. You must say to your father or to mother or to your family. You see, you have the wish to see them, to do good things to them, and you aren't allowed to because of this bloody, bloody wall.

[B]

The border was sealed again on January 5th. And while the people of Berlin were separated by what we now know was a phony war, many in Britain in 1942 were apart because of a real one.

[A]

Hello, BBC. This is Godfrey Talbot talking in the desert in Tripolitania with 8th army on the afternoon of Christmas Day. I'm standing here at the side of a track just in the middle of. Well, just in the middle of miles of desert in a little stony wadi. The noise you can probably hear in the background comes from a radio set and a little group of men here are listening to the special Christmas afternoon program from London. This morning we. We stopped for a minute, also with a unit, and there was held a Christmas morning service there in the hot sun, on the sand, we sat and we stood and we sang one or two Christmas hymns and a carol or two. And all the time ready for action. Just a small, very strange, but memorable Christmas service in the middle of North Africa.

[B]

All the time Ready for service. Six words. With such an extraordinary chill to them. After the war, there were millions of refugees homeless across Europe and living in temporary camps for displaced persons. DPs, as they were known. Lawrence Gillian produced the big BBC Christmas Day special. For 25 years, I think perhaps the.

[A]

Most dramatic moment for us was Christmas 1951. Certainly it was the most moving. Nearly six years after the war and there was still a tragic refugee problem. These surely were people we should remember at Christmas time. So that Christmas, the BBC sent Wilfred.

[B]

Thomas to a displaced persons camp in Germany.

[A]

And there he found a woman from the Ukraine whose two sons had been parted from her and sent to a.

[B]

New home in America.

[A]

And so I asked Stanley Maxid to go to America and find those two boys. The idea was that they and their mother should be reunited through our program. It was called the Gifts of Christmas.

Who save us all from satan.

I remember so well that afternoon sitting at the control panel and giving the cue that brought in Wilfred Thomas's voice from that DP camp in Germany. Well, I'm in this DP hospital now by the bedside of Mrs. Haratina Boyko, a Ukrainian peasant woman of 42 with a sweet face, gentle blue eyes, graying hair parted in the center. She and her husband and two small sons fled before the Russian army in 43 into Germany. The husband was put to forced labor in a sawmill. Mrs. Boyko worked as a cleaner. They lived in a camp. The husband sickened and died. After the liberation, an American mission offered to take the children to the States, but she was too ill to be accepted. Those boys are all she has in the world. But she made the gallant decision. She gave her children the gift of a new life in a new land. We are bringing her as a Christmas gift, the voices of her two sons. This morning, Stanley Maxted is waiting in the home of the foster parents in Baltimore, usa. Can you hear me, Stanley? Come in. Stanley Maxted. Yes. Right. Wilfred Thomas. Mrs. Boyko, I don't suppose you can understand me. Perhaps Wilfred Thomas will get someone to translate. But your two fair haired sons, Paul and Victor, are looking wonderful, wonderfully well. And before we go any further, kids, just speak to Mother and let her hear your voice, will you?

[C]

Hello, Master. This is Paolo.

[A]

Master.

[C]

Happy New Year, Victor.

[A]

This is Victor. Mother.

[C]

We wish you a merry Christmas holiday.

[A]

Mother. Darling. Well, Harriet Legion, you speak to them. Say something, sweetie. Come on down.

God bless you, my son. I am so happy to hear you. I hope to be next Christmas. Christmas with you, my darling.

[B]

And you'll be glad to know that she was. She got a visa before New Year's Eve that year and was reunited with her children.

[A]

May all your Christmases be merrier than the last. And may you all have a very.

[C]

Very happy New Year. Bless you all.

[A]

And I can't say fairer than that, can I, ducks?

[B]

You certainly can't. A very happy Christmas to you all.

[A]

And don't forget to hang up your stockings.