BBC TV Christmas Trails 1988

Some BBC Television Christmas programme trails and Christmas Morning with Noel Edmonds clips from 1988.
Copyright the British Broadcasting Corporation 1988.

[@WillScarlet1991]

I remember stocking on blank VHS tapes to record all the great films that were shown (including Back to the Future). Amazing times, sadly not to be repeated 😞

[@puppets.and.muppets]

what about E.T. ?

[@zeddeka]

It's being young that's the magical thing. The 80s were pretty bleak in so many ways, if we're honest with ourselves. I'd love to be young again. Wouldn't especially want to go back to the 80s though.

[@flashharry10]

Absolutely remember doing the same

[@AreJayCee]

​@zeddeka Yeah it's a wee bit o the rose tinted specs wi the 80s

[@Harriet-Jesamine]

​ Bollox!! it was empirically and objectively better

[@rach5516]

Makes my heart ache for those times x

[@Crocs4cats]

Me too!😫 It physically hurts🥹

[@SENEX12]

It's our fault they no longer exist. Some of it is just change but most of it is because we gave up and let too many outsiders in who have changed everything. The baby boomers have had it too easy, far too interested in themselves to notice communism creeping in. Too interested in hedonism to reform banking and industry, too fixated with being better than their neighbours and having the latest model to see how the state was burgeoning and that productivity was stifled and slowing. This is why we have migration, not just because nobody wants to look after granny but also that granny has paid only 1/3 of the total cost of her retirement in to an antiquated model that was never set up for people being retired longer than they were in work.

[@KH-ym2rv]

I feel a bit sad 😢 wishing for those times still. Grandparents who aren't here and haven't been here for many years. I wish they still were. A Christmas was a Christmas back then. Maybe its just nostalgia, but i feel sorry that for todays youngsters, they'll never have the same Christmassy feeling that we had. These days it's all about big presents, mostly expensive. We were thankful for so much back then. A different, better time ❤

[@bobyoungson914]

Halcyon days sadly lost 😞

[@ryanskillen8339]

This seems god awful

[@neilwhat]

Saw a random photo of my Nanny and done me in. Me and my brother either side of her, Quality street in the middle and we both thought we were the most important to her. Love and miss her so much.

[@creationinmotion4124]

Makes me remember people no longer here. Mum being one 😢😢😢

[@mariatimmins8846]

I remember looking at the tv times or radio times and marking down all the films i wanted to watch over xmas, i loved those times, less channels but more excitement... ❤ x

[@iainb381]

I still do 😂 I think it's just trying to keep some tradition alive 🎄

[@tonyhoughton6857]

I used to do the same especially the films as all the good films were on at Christmas not like today when you have watched them on sky

[@stepheng8779]

​@@tonyhoughton6857You still have sky 🤯

[@TDM1165]

At 19 seconds in, advertising one of the most sublime hours of comedy ever, blackadders Christmas carol, I was 23 that Christmas and had just moved into my own flat and I remember me and my brother watching it and being in hysterics, still stands up

[@Heaven-dy9lj]

Yes a lot of comedies have dated, maybe because they were a contemporary reflection of the times made in. Bladder hasn't aged, it was old to begin with. Apart from that Blackadder has some amazing script.

[@linseybrownlie3680]

It's the best 👌

[@LoyalKJ12456]

Christmas felt like Christmas then ..good times , England was England..TV was good ..we was all in same boat not a pot to piss in but it always felt magical..I'd give anything to go bk too that time , it felt like a big hug that era 🥺

[@Ladygaga4047]

Exactly

[@SuperRocky74]

I couldn't agree more.

[@I7275-p2d]

Nostalgia wasn’t as good then though. It was better in the 60s.

[@thejfg7741]

It was the 1980’s - Thatcher and the start of an economic policy that destroyed this country. Everything privatised and sold off.

[@Edgel-in6bs]

England is still England. Kids still love and treasure Christmas. You just got old. And let's face it. Noel edmonds isn't one to reminisce over.

[@stevecunningham5598]

Not a reality show in sight , heaven.

[@zeddeka]

Nope, just the horrors of things like ITV's Saturday night line up. And repeat after repeat. If you think it was "heaven" back then, try watching Russ Abbott and Les Dennis back to back and see how suicidal you get. The 80s had its fair share of utter junk TV.

[@MissMarceline-wp6oq]

​@@zeddeka😂😂😂😂

[@russelledwards001]

Just Edmunds on Xmas morning being mr important with his satellite linkups wasting everyone’s time on Xmas morning.

[@stevecunningham5598]

@@russelledwards001 He was the low point of the morning.

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

I do remember "Back to the Future" being shown on Xmas day. Different times - but admittedly fun.

[@FromtheHerts81]

You had to wait for the big Christmas movie to come on. Nowadays you just stream one at whatever time.

[@kevinbeck6785]

OH for the brilliant Christmas TV on BBC we all wish TV would be like this once again

[@zeddeka]

Eh??. Russ Abbott and Les Dennis?? You for real? The 80s had its fair share of crap TV.

[@kevinbeck6785]

@@zeddeka And what CRAP are you laughing at today

[@AdMycroft-fb1eo]

Oh to be back in those times!

[@marasmusine]

It was always fun getting the Radio Times and planning out your holiday TV viewing, finding out what awesome films would be showing. All that's gone now, you just press a button and get whatever film you want whenever you want.

[@johnking5174]

3:00 - Noel said they were in Studio 3 at the BBC Television Centre in London. Now in December 2021 that studio is the permanent home to ITV Daytime programmes Good Morning Britain & This Morning. BBC in 1988 would never have imagined two ITV shows permanently occupying one of their television studios!

[@KevinM913]

It’s sad that they left Television Centre. The development looks really smart now but it’s a pity the BBC could n’t sold part of the site and still retained a presence there.

[@johnking5174]

@@KevinM913 Kevin, the BBC are there. Their commercial subsidiary BBC Studios owns and operates Studios TC1, TC2 and TC3 at Television Centre. ITV Daytime do not own the studios they use. They simply hire them from the BBC, a fact which ITV loves to gloss over and ignore in their publicity of their daytime shows Kevin.

[@KevinM913]

Thanks John. I didn’t realise. As you say, it’s never mentioned. I wouldn’t mind one of the apartments there myself.

[@johnking5174]

@@KevinM913 When Ant and Dec produced their Saturday Night Takeaway from Studio TC1, all publicity boards which had BBC STUDIOWORKS logo was covered in black bin bags when Ant and Dec wandered the corridors. That is how much they never wanted the public to know. Embarrassing a bit, using your arch rivals TV studios. ITV should never have closed down The London Studios on the south bank. At least the BBC kept three of the original eight TV studios in operation. ITV dumped the whole lot, including the famous Studio 1 with the well known audience seating structure.

[@zekezero12345]

I want to watch Back to the Future. On Christmas Day. In 1988.

[@sammyb1651]

A VERY reasonable thing to want in my view.

[@paulwaymondo7568]

Your gunna need a Deloreon !

[@MultiGreatescape]

@@paulwaymondo7568 and a Flux Capacitor

[@joanne26]

OH Happy days when the BBC were at the top of their game and there was plenty of light entertainment 😃🇬🇧👍 🤩🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿❤️

[@spanishpeaches2930]

I remember Christmas 88 as one of my very favourite....maybe the last truly great one of my life..i was 27.

[@Bengina3]

Ahhhh the golden days when they would release an early Christmas tv guide in November with so many incorrect listings or written TBC, I was just looking forward to some blockbuster movies on Christmas Day

[@cketts8128]

Goodness I miss the 80s! I was in my late teens and having a fab time 😂.

[@brhodes0]

Bread was absolute depressing sh*te.

[@BHJBHJ424]

Agreed - awful stuff

[@09weenic]

Yep absolute crap

[@spanishpeaches2930]

It really was scouse sh1te at its worst

[@whataripoff999]

Aye... not everything was better in the past.

[@darkmagician9916]

For the love of a time machine

[@Filmbuf-g2k]

The links and christmas adverts were better than the actual programmes are now ..😂...

[@zeddeka]

People used to say that about the programmes back then. There's always been a huge amount of junk on TV.

[@russelledwards001]

You still watch TV?

[@Filmbuf-g2k]

@russelledwards001 nope 😂..films and documentaries, can't stand all that 'reality' rubbish....mind you most modern films are poor too....

[@SweetStevieAaron]

Les Dennis’ career is still a complete mystery.

[@bryemycaz]

It was thanks to Dustin Gee.

[@spanishpeaches2930]

As was his marriage to Amanda Holden.

[@Smokey2Mc]

That santa joke was terrible

[@Scott-up3bq]

So your humour

[@FromtheHerts81]

These broadcasts contain a lot of firsts for me. Back To The Future was the first Christmas Day movie I remember. That Queen's Speech was the first I remember watching. Can't remember any other vividly. And the Lockerbie disaster was among one of the first major world events I was conscious of.

[@martinmoore7279]

Simple times

[@I7275-p2d]

Yeah the 80s. The AIDS epidemic, the miners strike, the Falklands, the Bradford fire and the Hillsborough disaster. Simple times.

[@martinmoore7279]

@@I7275-p2d wow the glass is half empty

[@stevedickson5853]

​@I7275-p2d Every single year in our history has tragic events , its called life, but some eras are better and the 80s and 90s were better times in my opinion, the UK unfortunately has turned into a cesspit since

[@martinmoore7279]

@@stevedickson5853 I think it's always been a cesspit. We just block out the bad bits and put on our rose tinted glasses.

[@stevedickson5853]

@@martinmoore7279 it's called life

[@richardhill9549]

That was a good year for Christmas telly.

[@zeddeka]

Russ Abbott???? Les Dennis????

[@spanishpeaches2930]

The year started off ok..got steadily worse thwn got better , culminating in a brilliant Xmas for me. A total classic.

[@johndaarteest]

@@zeddeka I think you have Russ Abbott derangement syndrome, every comment you make is about him.

[@Harriet-Jesamine]

This was very well put together

[@spakoerz]

Take me back ffs

[@zeddeka]

You'd soon be ripping your hair out with boredom. People tend to forget that.

[@spakoerz]

I was never bored 😉

[@vincentboyce107]

Nope.

[@darrensmith2734]

Wow back to the future what memories 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@Robert_Manners]

When the news headlines came on at 8:28 it brought back to me what a dark and difficult time it was in late 1988.

[@shiftybea]

Love the stock laughter effect after Les Dennis' Santa joke. I first heard that in Danger Mouse back in the 80s as a gag. "Steven Spielberg's Back to the Future". Hmmm.

[@Embracing01]

Yeah it wasn't remotely funny that joke. And I never found Russ Abbott funny, but at least he was entertaining and not vulgar. Yeah they clearly didn't know that Back to the Future was a Robert Zemeckis film not a Speilberg film, though Speilberg was executive producer or producer.

[@vxrdrummer]

Back when Noel Edmonds ruled the world!

[@scottyg7284]

Unsurprisingly he owes it to bbc cover ups, the bbc have form.

[@2511dhall]

​@@scottyg7284I don't think he was in that brigade, The Late Late Breakfast Show could of ended his career.

[@jonathanstempleton7864]

No Mrs Browns Boys No Strictly Come Dancing No Call The Midwife No Gavin and Tracy No Doctor Who No live action Disney remakes Wonderful 😄😄😄😄

[@garyhunt8067]

@@jonathanstempleton7864 Just decent shows

[@stepheng8779]

​@@garyhunt8067Yeah with Stuart Hall, Noel Edmonds & Savile lurking on Totp. Wonderful 🤦

[@garyhunt8067]

@@stepheng8779 Leave Noel Edmonds out.

[@zaaraha5092]

I prefer Call the Midwife

[@johndaarteest]

@@stepheng8779 What has Noel ever been done for?

[@aala7337]

Decent tv programmes back then ,before the net took over so everyone watched a handful of channels!

[@zeddeka]

There's always been a lot of junk on TV - such as Russ Abbott and Les Dennis here. Remember, the 80s was the era of trash like Surprise Surprise.

[@robintyson591]

Those fireworks - gives a real strength and authority to that news bulletin. 08:43

[@gary72carol61]

Wow I remember that and I agree, also Moira Stewart, very pretty woman. in later years I began to feel a bit disturbed when I would hear her voice as she did the Inland Revenue Self Assessment advert to remind us all about filing our work related income by end of January.😞

[@pezmundo77]

"Steven Spielberg's Back to the Future" - that's a bit unfair on Robert Zemeckis

[@taz473]

Happy days ❤

[@martinsmith1538]

When Quality Street and Roses came in metal tins and weighed 1kg rather than 600g.

[@stevedickson5853]

Those horrible plastic containers will be as slim as a dinner plate if they carry on reducing the weight

[@zeddeka]

And cost ten times more in real terms than they do now

[@martinsmith1538]

Indeed ​@@stevedickson5853

[@colinthomas5462]

​@@stevedickson5853😂😂👌

[@robintyson591]

The days when a real HUMAN introduced each programme.

[@simonjones7727]

Lockerbie, how terrible. I remember staff in Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary being called in and their memories of lining the walls of the A+E waiting for the casualties to be brought in. Except there were not many of those. It was more a case of fatalities than casualties...

[@susangreen2344]

Keep it simple.... and it was- so much better!

[@vxrdrummer]

I was 5 at this time, and up until about about 2000, tv was amazing, especially at Xmas. I think from about 2000 onwards, I just watched sport or was out getting drunk. Nowadays, I dont even have a tv subscription! Just watch streaming services and youtube.

[@benfisher1376]

I agree wholeheartedly. It's the same things every Christmas day on BBC 1. I looked up the schedules online, and for the last decade, every single Xmas day they've shown, Call the Midwife, strictly come dancing and Mrs Brown's Boys. That's got to be a record. They don't try so much now, maybe because there's too much competition from hundreds of channels etc?

[@ChrisHazz]

I remember watching back to the future that Xmas on my portable stereo with a black and white tv built into it, what a present 🙂 I was 10. TV was definitely more of an event at Xmas before we had thousands of TVs and shows on demand.

[@sharkey25uk]

Beverly Hills Cop on pre-watershed, I wonder if this was the infamous Melon Farmer / Duck you Muddy Funster dubbing of all the swear words

[@CoreyHopkins-vp1lv]

I love these I have a few too

[@DinkyGaming]

I was only 4.. but the dancers and swans n pretty cartoon parts seem eerily familiar in a comforting way 😮😮😮 like a memory i didn't know was there

[@kylemccready4866]

loved it was only one here though haha 90s Xmas were the best

[@DarrenHarrison7160]

Back when the beeb was great. Little did we know eh....

[@johndaarteest]

Now then, now then, as it 'appens very few people did.

[@robertwilliams9234]

We won’t be looking back at the rubbish that will be on television this Christmas

[@markb3915]

@ Robert They will. Old people always think the past was better.

[@brentmeistergeneral2813]

@@markb3915 Thats because it was.

[@johndaarteest]

@@markb3915 One day you'll be doing that then.

[@Kie77]

Warren Barton, the kid calling on Swap Shop - it's gotta be the footballer, right?

[@Cameron-x1r]

I'm trying to locate the year that it all turned 'upside down' for want of a more explanatory word. How about 1995 or 1996...any other suggestions? A bit later maybe.

[@Carroty_Peg]

I think Blair accelerated the decline. Ask Academic Agent, tho

[@tonemc6047]

New Labour and the anti christ as PM

[@EmoTioN77359]

Thankfully I have no memory of Wife Begins at 40, thanks brain!

[@simonjones7727]

My God but it looks grim....

[@Nicholas-ok9no]

One million years ago....... what a proper place to be.

[@zeddeka]

The 80s were seriously grim. If you're pining for Russ Abbott you probably need to see a psychiatrist

[@tracythomas132]

Blackadders Christmas Carol is excellent!

[@centureye]

When tv was entertaining and none of pc nonsense

[@andrewtongue7084]

I note, with some irony, the Weather forecast (then) included the Republic Of Ireland - no division geographically, at least - better times, certainly.

[@johntaylor6345]

Bring back Noel Edmunds. Great presenter.

[@SjMk1.]

the last few years before everything changed

[@thesunreport]

0:21 - Hugh Laurie calls Rowan Atkinson 'Bladder' instead of 'Blackadder'. 😄

[@a.c.h3792]

Slack bladder...then bladders then bladder I think it was

[@peteh4122]

Les Dennis and Noel Edmonds were pretty fit back in the day!

[@eddielasowsky7777]

Back to the Future took 3 years to get from cinema to TV, Back to the Future 2 was almost out !

[@jonathanmcstay]

❤

[@LoyalKJ12456]

The Internet killed the magic & people ..

[@RamblesBrambles]

Its called nostalgia, 10 year olds today will have exactly the same sentiment as you when they get into middle age, its all part of getting older...

[@zeddeka]

What magic? Russ Abbott and Les Dennis? You troll accounts are so stupid.

[@johndaarteest]

@@zeddeka You have RADS

[@craigmacdonald7764]

And in 2024 bbc wouldn't be saying merry Christmas it'll be happy festive to you

[@Boris-xx7dw]

God I need a Time Machine .

[@jointhemasquerade]

The Adidas logo on Noel's Christmas jumper is a bit odd.

[@Clara-ph7my]

Let us all go 'Back to the Future'!

[@stickswiper37]

I can’t believe how times have changed so much. I know it’s a cliche, but tv WAS so much better quality back then (apart from Les Dennis maybe 🤣) Even watching this now brings back those magical Christmas vibes from the past.

[@zeddeka]

It really, really wasn't. Every era has its fair share of absolute trash TV. The 80s were no exception. You've just seen Russ Abbott and Les Dennis there. The absolute pits. If you watched ITV you had the horrors of Surprise Surprise. Total garbage.

[@beagchic3488]

@@zeddeka You don't seem to have anything positive to say about that era, were you around then ?

[@johndaarteest]

@@beagchic3488 He has a terrible case of RADS.

[@beagchic3488]

@@johndaarteest Didn't know what RADs is, looked it up and tend to agree with you. Learn something new every day 😁

[@johndaarteest]

@@beagchic3488 like TDS but for Russ Abbot not Trump

[@garyhunt8067]

Beverly Hills cop was heavily edited. Not exactly family entertainment.

[@keithjones9054]

When the BBC were good

[@helentomlinson6606]

Back when the world made sense

[@robintyson591]

When 7.15 was 7.15 and not 19:15/19h15.

[@deadandburied7626]

Russ Abbott on BBC 😮

[@terryleather4920]

Footballer Warren Barton?

[@naysmith5272]

He was offering 2 Women and a BMW

[@timthegallant]

​@@naysmith5272foresight to what his football career would bring him.

[@iandennis1]

Yes it was. Even credited for this on IMDB

[@sjp6839]

Same phone num as swap shop

[@davidreed1995]

Better that todays crap more funny then top of the pops were better then were did the good times go

[@Robert_Manners]

Yes this was my early teenage years as I was 14 years old in 1988 and you are correct in that people really did look forward to the Christmas TV 📺 shows and the many Christmas 🤶 special as some of the nations favourites had reached their peak 🗻 of television excellence during the mid 1980's. I never really thought of them as the good times as to me it was just everyday life back then, however now over 30 years on I can see why you feel that they were indeed 'Good Times' indeed, Happy Christmas 🤶

[@Small_Seasoned_Curlies]

Probably the same place as your sense of spelling and grammar 😢

[@zeddeka]

This advert a good reminder of what utter junk has been on TV in every era. The horrors of Russ Abbott and Les Dennis. If you flicked over to ITV you had the folksy hell of Cilla Black and Surprise Surprise. The 80s had their fair share of real junk on TV.

[@ColinCressey]

Christmas Day programmes are absolute rubbish now

[@abigailweir7287]

I used to cringe at Bread. And it contained a future Tory austerity MP.

[@WillScarlet1991]

Who?

[@bryemycaz]

@@WillScarlet1991 Giles Watling, who played Aveline Boswells husband Oswald.

[@WillScarlet1991]

@@bryemycaz Thanks.

[@mezbrookscarter8289]

god Russ Abbot and Les Dennis - thank god we don't have to put up with that now.

[@JimJim-kh8rw]

Weather with Bully Bill Giles 😂

[@Edgel-in6bs]

When you watch the clips you realise how awful bread actually was....

[@FrankTownsend]

Yes, it was just unfunny and limped on for too many series. It happened a lot back then, another example would be Last of the Summer Wine.

[@kylemccready4866]

yeah talk about stale!!! haha

[@db111]

To be honest at the time I didn't notice, but cringe now

[@johndaarteest]

@@kylemccready4866 Yeah but the writers had to earn a crust somehow.

[@russelledwards001]

It was all awful. Let’s be honest.

[@mrcatman6854]

NOEL.....HAPPY XMAS AND WELCOME TO THE BBC....PEADO CENTRAL 😂😂

[@2511dhall]

Noel isn't that kind of person

[@worldofameiso5491]

Those days when the BBC was more interested in entertaining rather than indoctrination.

[@scottyg7284]

Separate into a play list please buddy.

[@atmakali9599]

Linking up with the fake station

[@Juxtapositional]

Exactly. It’s not a ball… You always wonder if people like Edmunds actually know

[@derekhart3308]

Might only had 4 channels way back then, but we had least had great tv shows on the channels now, just producing any crap on hundreds of channels ... and main 4 showing shit tv ..

[@TK-ux5du]

The Les Dennis Christmas Laughter Show. False advertising, surely!

[@paulcastell1429]

No wonder I never watched Bread, bloody awful and not funny.

[@chrishall7915]

I keep saying TV is worse nowadays but now I'm not so sure ... I don't remember it being this bad.

[@andrewbarrett2685]

Look at the temps and they say there's global warming. 😊

[@neilbirch8431]

Proof that comedy in the 80s was also rubbish!

[@kevinbush4300]

Wasn't it great when we used to watch quality programming full of kiddy-fiddlers. Rubbish nowadays, watching woke virtue-signallers.

[@shazanali692]

Noel Edmonds, he is clean

[@kevinbush4300]

@shazanali692 yes... granted. Always thought Noel Edmonds was a decent chap.

[@russelledwards001]

Edmunds is insufferable.

[@chrishall7915]

I hated Bread.

[@jasoneldridge4738]

It seems everyone hated Bread, but for some reason it kept going for years ?

[@chrishall7915]

@jasoneldridge4738 I think there was just nothing else on at that time ...

[@Crocs4cats]

I liked it…😕 but I was 14🤷🏻‍♀️

[@mariatimmins8846]

I remember looking at the tv times or radio times and marking down all the films i wanted to watch over xmas, i loved those times, less channels but more excitement... ❤ x

[@ghostbison1]

❤❤