Advent Calendar 2020 Day 16: Mike Yarwood Christmas Special, 1982

Having had nine straight BBC1 Christmas specials to that point, six of which were on Christmas Day and none of the others scheduled further away from the big day than the 27th, one can only speculate on Yarwood's thoughts on going to Thames at the end and finding his first festive spectacular relegated to the 21st. True, Christmas Day fell on a Saturday that year so the bulk of the big shows were under LWT's tight grip, but that still leaves better options than the preceding Tuesday for someone whose last BBC show had held up as their sixth most watched in Christmas week, albeit it still took fifth place in the 1982 equivalent week ITV ratings with only 700,000 fewer viewers year on year. The cause of Yarwood's decline, personal demons aside, is often said to be the rise of Thatcher - who, by the way, isn't even represented, not even by Janet Brown - but it feels more like he failed to get a handle on a time when Harold Wilson and Eddie Waring were not the centre of the popular universe. Indeed, in the cold open were it not for the borrowed set you'd wonder when it was that Larry Grayson sported a fulsome beard and jumper. One interesting sketch is Charles and Diana being interviewed by the actual Selina Scott (who had just been poached from ITN for Breakfast Time as she makes sure to mention) where not only is the relatively new Di played by Suzanne Danielle, not someone you'd associate with impersonation, but she gets the best gags, with David Renwick credited as main writer. Also, Yarwood does Sammy Davis Jr. The Nolans and Petula Clark play themselves.

THIS WAS HE: 1977, the most watched show on the most famous Christmas TV night of all, featuring Denis Healey as a punk; 1978 in the year he got the Radio Times cover and has to get Janet Brown in; 1979 in excerpt as Liberace (Yarwood) meets Johnny Mathis (Johnny Mathis)