The TV ghosts of Christmas past

It's the one day of the year we're guaranteed to watch the box... but have Yuletide schedules got better or worse over the decades?

- By Neil Clark

CHRISTMAS television is always the subject of hot debate — accusations of too many repeats or not enough classics chime throughout the household, but that wasn’t always the case.

In the early days of television, it was a different story. Between 1936 and 1955 there was only one channel to watch and that was the BBC. And it carried the very first festive programme, Christmas Turkey, broadcast on December 25, 1936, featuring a demonstration of a turkey being carved by a man named B.J. Hulbert.

This was followed by a newsreel and talk called A Lonely Christmas in the Arctic by the explorer Edward Shackleton. At 9.10pm, after Christmas Carols, there was a Seasonal Tour Through The Empire, while at 9.35pm, Television Party featured guests from the stage and screen.

Back then there were only around 400 television sets in the country. The Second World War halted programming until 1946 before ITV’s launch in September 1955, providing the option of two Christmas channels, even if coverage was limited to London at first.

Amid the changes, there have been two constants - the Monarch’s Speech at 3pm (first televised with visuals in 1957), and Carols from King’s College Cambridge on Christmas Eve. But has more choice improved programming or dumbed it down? You decide.

1955

THE BBC began its Christmas Day offering with a family service from St Martin’s Church, Birmingham, at 11am before the channel closed down from 12pm to 3pm.

After the Queen’s Speech at 3pm (with sound only), there was a visit to Disneyland at 3.15pm, followed by Andy Pandy on Watch with Mother.

The main evening entertainment at 9pm was Christmas Box, in which viewers were invited to “join in the fun and games at Christmas parties in Sheffield, Bournemouth and London”. This was followed by Bird in the Hand, a comedy with Terry-Thomas.