Christmas Schedules

Bit confused about this to be honest, I thought the Mel Smith intro was pulled because he died (2013 was the first year they started showing the Bowie version again). But I'm pretty sure they still showed the Bowie intro last year even after he died.

I wish they'd show the original introduction again, which is actually a personal introduction from Raymond Briggs, which really sets the tone of the rest of the film for me.

ITV appear to have binned off a news bulletin on Christmas Day. The lunchtime / early afternoon bulletin has gone with just 2 bulletins on the day. (18:50 & 23:00)

The walking away from camera in the woods one? Yeah, that's "my" intro.

So the Christmas listings are out now and most Sunday papers seem to have a "free" guide tomorrow as well. The Christmas Double Issues really are a week late IMO considering most the Christmas specials on the commercial channels at least air in the week before Christmas and apart from the odd thing on New Years Day there isn't much of note in the first week of January. Indeed the BBC have films every afternoon the week before Christmas and just regular daytime schedules from the 2nd Jan.

The Snowman 30th anniversary DVD has all three openings.
Wasn't the David Bowie introduction tacked on primarily for international airings and was later used by Channel 4? I seem to remember reading somewhere the Raymond Briggs opening hasn't been aired much if at all outside of its original airing in 1982.

The Bowie introduction is pretty much the standard these days, save for the period of the Mel Smith opening, which is of course cropped to high heaven and back. It may still be on air now in that state had Smith not died in 2013.

Still, regardless of who appears at the beginning, its one of the greatest films ever made. Even though we've all seen it many times over, the ending is still moving 35 years later.

I haven't seen any copies yet but you are probably right. They will have missed most of the commercial TV highlights that are on air the week after next and then included presumably some festive highlights that are whatever dramas and new series the channels are showing in January!

The TV mags should maybe start reflecting the modern day era of scheduling and change what they've always done.

As far as Radio Times is concerned, in the past when Christmas Day fell on a Monday, on two occasions they have had an 'early' Christmas double issue running from 16-29 December, in 1972 and 1995. They went with 23 December-5 January in 1978, 1989, 2000, 2006 and 2017. So on the majority of occasions, they have viewed it more important to include the New Year than to catch the early Christmas specials.

The Bowie intro was recorded for when it was shown on PBS in 1983. It was just the option Channel 4 then used for years. The Mel Smith one was used from 2002 onwards. I think the 2013 introduction of the Bowie intro was just coincidental. This was also the same time they started showing the correct 4:3 version. We have this on Blu-ray and I’m fairly certain it’s in 4:3 too.

The 20th anniversary edition was cropped. Badly. At least on the TV airing and I presume it was the same on the DVD. The 30th anniversary DVD I don't believe is cropped but according to the specs it doesn't have any of the openings on the film itself, they're just in the extras/special features instead.

I say this every year but I think they should think about doing issues that are not necessarily 7 or 14 days long to create an issue that is always the Christmas and New Year issue.

Think outside the box, rather than doing the same they've been doing since forever.

Though oddly, the iTunes version which is in HD and so presumably from the 30th anniversary edition, is cropped.

Not so odly it turns out - a bit of searching this morning shows the 30th anniversary DVD / Blu-Ray is also cropped. Shame, as if it wasn’t I would have bought it, infact that’s probably the reason I didn’t when it came out.


So the only 4:3 version available is on the DVD double pack with ‘Father Christmas’. It’s still the David Bowie introduction though. The only release with the original (or correct as I call it) Raymond Briggs introduction was - apparently - a 1998 US/R1 DVD.

I think the Raymond Briggs introduction was shown by C4 in the late 1980s as I’m sure I remember watching it with my parents and then - in the years after - the version we taped off C4 the first year we had VHS (rather than Betamax) which would have been 1988 or 1989.