Home Advent Calendar 2017 Day 23: Cilla Black's Christmas, 1983

Cilla Black in a studio living room singing All Night Long surrounded by young bodypoppers. It was 1983, we knew no better. Cilla had been in the career shadows but an appearance on Wogan led to LWT snapping her up within 24 hours, and while they readied a vehicle for her - Surprise Surprise followed in May, Blind Date a year later - this Vince Powell-penned salt-of-the-earth showcase of family entertainment got her name back onto prime-time. The reminder of the famous singer comes in a combined tribute to Carmen Miranda, Ginger Rogers and Gracie Fields, and to surely nobody's great surprise Frankie Howerd pops in early. While the nub of the show seems to be through satellite link-ups with the Bee Gees, George Benson and Julio Iglesias, and we can't work out if booking that much time makes the show cheap or costly, the big set-piece is right at the end as Our Bobby appears and opens the way for an eclectic array of stars - Diana Dors, Wincey Willis, Berni Flint, Lennie Bennett, Sally James, Melvyn Hayes, a pissed off looking Irene Handl - none of whom are formally introduced and whose job it is to walk on set, join in a chorus of We Wish You A Merry Christmas and for some tell a joke. Kenny Dalglish, it turns out, is not a natural gagsmith.