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The Secret Story of the BBC Christmas Tapes

Sunday 23rd December - BBC Four (December 2018)

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JA
james-2001
Some shows on the news channel still have a pure BBC endcap too, in the 1997 style with the text in Gill Sans and without "studios" (which this show didn't have)
VM
VMPhil
Some shows on the news channel still have a pure BBC endcap too, in the 1997 style with the text in Gill Sans (which this show didn't have)

Yes it even used the correct, up-to-date BBC Studios logo and copyright notice both set in BBC Reith.
:-(
A former member
I have Never seen that before, so cheers.

I never seen any of the small ITV station or STV xmas tape mind



Really ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIs2VpxNCqM
SP
Steve in Pudsey
These have turned up on YouTube this morning




Incidentally, why were Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene the main talking heads in the documentary? They are not really people who I would associate with Christmas Tapes, but I'm wondering if there was a Going Live sketch in one of the tapes which they were going to use but found that they couldn't clear it after they had recorded the interviews?
EL
elmarko
Schofe is a big telly nerd too remember.
CB
ChipperBird
There's a few things that would of been nice to have addressed in the 30 minutes, things like the Doug Who? Joke and the story behind the Englebert Humperdink musical number. Also lack of "(He's a) Sports PA" with maybe some notes on what some of the terms/references meant.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Sports PAs were a recurring theme through the Christmas Tapes so probably worth more of a mention of the background, particularly as one Brian Barwick features early in his career - he went on to be head of BBC Sport, then FA chief exec and is now running Rugby League.

VT Tea probably could have been explained too. But I think it got the balance right in terms of the amount of detail given the time available.
MA
Markymark
Sports PAs were a recurring theme through the Christmas Tapes so probably worth more of a mention of the background, particularly as one Brian Barwick features early in his career - he went on to be head of BBC Sport, then FA chief exec and is now running Rugby League.



Wasn’t he also ITV2’s inaugural controller?
BL
bluecortina
Sports PAs were a recurring theme through the Christmas Tapes so probably worth more of a mention of the background, particularly as one Brian Barwick features early in his career - he went on to be head of BBC Sport, then FA chief exec and is now running Rugby League.



Wasn’t he also ITV2’s inaugural controller?



.. and controller of ITV Sport.
PC
Philip Cobbold
Didn’t LNN have a a Christmas tape? When did they stop?

One is embedded earlier in this thread.

In terms of smaller operations making Christmas Tapes, honourable mentions to Molinaire (on YT with lots of citv outtakes iirc) and, believe it or not BBC Newcastle did their own for several years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EMyXYwuPRg


Also one from BBC East Midlands.

JO
Joe
I guess the documentary was aimed at a particular audience. Yes, it could have gone into detail on many aspects but I think it was intended to be a surface look at the tradition, keeping the casual viewer in mind. For what it was, I thought it was great.

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