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First a
quick review of what else was on offer that day from the pages of the Radio Times.
On 1FM it
was Chris Evans at breakfast, live one assumes, followed by Simon Mayo, Danny
Baker, Wendy Lloyd and a Radio Tip Top Christmas
special. The evening line-up included Peter Cunnah, D-Ream front man, reviewing
the year’s dance music and a concert from Wet, Wet, Wet.
As was
tradition for many years Roger Royle (he's back again this Christmas Day) was on Radio 2 before Don Maclean’s Good Morning Christmas. Daytime shows
included Ken Bruce, Aled Jones and a Disney special. The late night DJ, sitting
in for the holidaying Derek and Ellen Jameson, was Martin Kelner.
Radio 3
presenters doing the Christmas shift were Penny Gore, Paul Gambaccini, Piers
Burton-Page and Susan Sharpe. Aside from classical music offerings there was a
Dave Brubeck concert in celebration of his 75th birthday and Jeremy Nicholas
spinning some old 78s in The Shellac Show.
The war in
Bosnia had finally come to an end in December 1995 so Radio 5 Live had several
shows live from the area with Sheena MacDonald and Liz Barclay. The station
also had three different reviews of the year with Robin Lustig presenting Spotlight 95, Bill Hamilton presumably
concentrating on the positive news only in Now
the Good News and Sybil Ruscoe also in retrospective mood in the daily Ruscoe on Five.
Radio 4 was
still providing the kind of music programme that have long since disappeared
from its schedules: opening the day was Brian Kay and in the evening the BBC
Singers gave us “music in a lighter vein”. From 7 to 8.40 a.m. Russell Davies hosted Morning Cordial and during the day amongst the repeats were three new
series: Walter’s Festive Frolics with John Walters, At Bertram’s Hotel, a Michael Bakewell adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel
starring June Whitfield and Trumpton
Riots. Comedy came from The Masterson
Inheritance, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a
Clue and News Quiz of the Year
with Barry Took in the chair.
 |
| Commercial radio listings for Christmas Day 1995 |
But back to
the world of the Graculus, Professor Yaffle, Blue String and magic bean plants
in the first programme in a five-part series paying tribute to children’s TV of
the 70s (in fact the 60s and 70s), Trumpton
Riots. In episode 1, Nogs, Togs and
Clangers, Brian Cant remembers the creations of Postgate and Firmin’s Smallfilms outfit: Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, The Clangers and Pogle’s Wood.
One legend's tribute to two others, you could say. (All the 'Trumpton Riots' programmes were presented by people associated with children's shows of the era, but not the ones they paid tribute to - so Brian Cant didn't present the ones about Play School or Trumptonshire.)
ReplyDeleteThe Talk Radio presenters named by surname only in the "Best of" compilations - a good excuse for not broadcasting live on Christmas Day on a station so driven by phone-ins and topicality that everything pretty much *had* to be live - were Simon Bates, (ahem) Jonathan King, Tommy Boyd and Anna Raeburn.