Merry Christmas!
Alright, maybe a touch too early, but we thought we'd get in early with this year's version of the annual Do Our Job For Us festive season blog.
See, since 2015's 100 Clips Of Christmas opener we've been doing annual Advent Calendars right here, 24 old telly shows dredged back up for your entertainment and otherwise as befits the calendar countdown, and that will be continuing from December 1st to 24th upcoming alongside both the On This Day posts, because innovation and nostalgia don't stop, and an absolute hoard of videos being Tweeted out that will no doubt completely swamp all those intentions. As the cheery on top, the annual post detailing Christmas Day thirty years ago will continue and will be accompanied by our starting to plug up the gap at the other end of the Eighties as we start to go back forty years to the 25th day as well.
As we always do before preparing the new material, we've had an audit of the 244 videos we've previously featured between 100 Clips Of Christmas, 2016 Advent Calendar, 2017 Work and Home Advent Calendars, 2018 Work and Home Advent Calendars and 2019 Advent Calendar, and a surprisingly large number of them aren't now missing. On the other hand, quite a few have been subject to copyright notices, had their uploaders be taken down or just vanished without explanation. If you know where we can find the following, listed in chronological order of original posting - and we're fully aware that in a few cases the answer is "on streaming services and/or commercial home viewing media" - do let us know.
Blankety Blank, 1984 (100 Clips Of Christmas)
No, not one of those where the panel changes halfway through (1979 and 1980), nor the one with Captain Tom Moore (1983), but the one with Les done up as a fairy, facing up to a quintessential mid-80s Blank panel - Harty, Madoc, Nimmo, Danielle, Dodd, Chase.
Spitting Image, 1987 (100 Clips Of Christmas)
The full episode featuring The Snowman In The Kalahari in which Aardman Animations gets very close to the original Raymond Briggs artwork.
BBC News, Christmas Day 1985 (100 Clips Of Christmas)
Blocked by BBC Studios, which as far as we can tell has befallen no other news bulletins - it could be because of Helen Fielding's report from the Sudan that launched Comic Relief but that's taken from Noel's Live Live Christmas Breakfast Show (100 Clips' number 100) which is still up. Followed by Bill Giles in in a flat cap and scarf.
On Safari, 1982 (100 Clips Of Christmas)
We had to scrabble around a bit in those days and alighted on this upload of Christopher Biggins' Children's ITV adventure game, with the contestants being those kid-friendly stars Shirley Anne Field and Melvyn Hayes with their children, joined by guests Lynsey De Paul, Kenny Lynch, Suzanne Danielle, Billy Dainty and the horribly typecast Jeannette Charles.
Dallas comes to Wogan, Christmas Eve 1986 (100 Clips Of Christmas)
Odd that this hasn't turned up in anyone's uploaded collection since, as Tel finally squares the circle on his longstanding obsession and gets Larry Hagman and Linda Gray over to verdant Shepherd's Bush Green.
The Big Match, 1974 (100 Clips Of Christmas)
The annual LWT Christmas week festive football fun, hosted by QPR's Terry Mancini with guests Rodney Marsh and Terry Venables. Claimed by ITV, which they haven't done for plenty of other Big Matches online.
Channel 4 startup, 27th December 1982 (100 Clips Of Christmas)
Their first Christmas, but moreover featuring an early outing for The Bubble Man Tom Noddy, who longtime readers will know is one of our peculiar obsessions.
Christmas Top Of The Pops, 1991 (2016 Advent Calendar)
Not a vintage year, in the early days of the Year Zero revamp and the only studio visitors being Nomad, Kenny Thomas, Oceanic and the Scorpions, but in 2016 you took what you could.
Noel's Christmas Presents, 1995 (2017 Home Advent Calendar)
Quite a few of these knocking about, including that year's companion look back at the previous Presents shows, but not this one right now, starting with a Victoriana scene before tying in instead with the fiftieth anniversary of World War 2, amid which Noel and Chris Jarvis take kids to Lapland and the former is sent further to Antarctica.
Christmas Top Of The Pops, 1987 (2017 Work Advent Calendar)
These last two programmes are more under threat by copyright holders than most due to their nature but there's enough unedited (or edited just enough) examples around that they shouldn't be lost so easily, or so you'd think. In fact this video only consisted of the links from Gary Davies and Mike Smith (so you won't have seen it on BBC4 either) introducing a year of "the old jack mixing and things" with a cameo by Andy Gibb, maybe even his last on TV.
Telly Addicts, 1985 (2018 Home Advent Calendar)
ITV are responsible for this takedown, which is why you must remain aware of the value of careful editing. The first of the annual celebrity shows pitted inaugural champions the Pains against - do you see? - the Aches, comprising Michael Grade, Nina Myskow, Barry Took and Larry Grayson.
