The Snowman introductions

Morning all,
Does anybody know which version of The Snowman Channel 4 have shown in recent years?

As far as I know there are 3 introductions, the 'real' one with Raymond Briggs, a stupid one with David Bowie pretending he's showing you around his house and another one with Father Christmas. Irritatingly the DVD I have of it has the stupid American one with Bowie.

They one they showed for years was the version with Mel Smith voicing Father Christmas, however since Mel Smith died they've shown the David Bowie version (and in the original 4:3 aspect ratio).

I agree with you the original is the best version, I'd love for them to show it this year but I imagine they'll just show the Bowie one again.

Eugh that's annoying. I guess I'll find a download and watch it that way.

I never knew there were other intros than the Bowie one. Makes it look outright unnecessary when you watch the original.

I actually know of the original intro from a Snowman CD-ROM that I used to own - it had a full copy of the programme with the original introduction. Since then it's always annoyed me that Channel 4 insist on showing these new versions.

The Mel Smith introduction appeared on the 20th anniversary "version", aka crop the hell out of it, and then they used that until Smith died. Prior to that, David Bowie was used I believe for most years.

The 30th anniversary Snowman DVD features all three openings, apparently.

I had a tape that I watched the hell out of as a child featuring this ident and the original introduction, so it must've been that way in 1995.