The Snowman

Here's one for all fans of C4's most well know Christmas programme... The Snowman.

I've been thinking about this one for the past couple of days, and wanted to see a public opinion on it before I contacted Channel 4...

I always thought that it should go out on Christmas Eve teatime as I thought this was always its "traditional" slot... but these days C4 seem to think different and the last couple of years have shoved it on to Christmas Day mid afternoons - when the family is often too busy preparing lunch, or the kids are too busy playing with their new Christmas presents to sit down together and watch it!

And I've also just found out it actually premiered on a Boxing Day... so it's been all over the place!

Fortunately this year I was able to catch it on two occasions - on Christmas Eve on Classic FM with Aled Jones narrating, and on C4 on Christmas Day... but as I said earlier, I think it should really be a Christmas Eve programme... what do you think?

I missed it this year, though I caught some of the Artsworld stage production of it shown a few minutes later. I like it on Christmas day though.

I never knew that it Premiered on Boxing Day, but IMO it should be shown on Christmas Day, thats how it was when I was growing up and it was the case until the latter half of the 1990's, though when they did show it on Christmas Day it was never at 2.30pm, it would be at about teatime or so. I also took the liberty of Recording it onto DVD this year, though I forgot it didn't have adverts, so that made it even better.

It's good to see that Channel 4 give some of these Cartoons annual outings, but it was a shame Father Christmas was shown at 7.30 in the morning, Christmas Eve teatime (which it was on it's Premiere in 1991) is more appropriate for this one.

Slightly OT, but does anyone else remember another Raymond Briggs one, called Grandpa? IIRC it was always shown on Channel 4 at Easter until the mid 1990's, and it hasn't been shown since, but it has a Snowman style ending.

Incredibly, in 1983, it wasn't shown until the 29th December.

I'd say Christmas Day too. It was shown then every year from some time in the 80s ('84?) right through to 1996.

I haven't seen Grandad lately either. Wasn't there another one about a cat called Fred?

I see they're still running it cropped to 16:9 in order to pretend that it's a widescreen programme, any chance of it ever being shown full frame ever again?

Christmas Eve at a weird time like 4.40pm was perfect for me. Don't watch it now its on Christmas Day.

Which version has played over the last few years? The original (1982) version has an introduction by David Bowie, but I believe a later version (c.1986?) has an introduction by someone else.

Apparently three versions exist:

The original 1982 one with introduction by Raymond Briggs (which according to IMDB posters has aired internationally but I've never seen it)

The well known version with David Bowie doing the introduction spiel which aired on Channel 4 for many years.

Then when the show was re-issued in 2002 for its 20th anniversary David Bowie was replaced with the Father Christmas animation introduction which was aired on Xmas Day this year.

IIRC the 20th anniversary reissue was an attempt to bring it up to date - by cropping it and changing the introduction.

AFAIK all the versions are the same content-wise, just with different introductions and the 20th anniversary edition being cropped to hell and back.

I'm just glad I taped it years ago and have it full frame. Does anybody know if the DVD version is also cropped?

Just video it and watch it when you feel like watching it.

There's 2 DVD releases. The butchered "special Edition", and the original 4:3 version which is paired on the disc with Father Christmas.

Definately. Used to love watching it either before or after evening mass. One of the only times I step foot in a church to be honest though.

Erm... is it just me or do the current vote percentages (43% 47% and 8%) not add up to 100%?

The TVForum vote calculator hasn't done its maths properly!