BBC1 CHRISTMAS DAY CONTINUITY 1990

[@DanBmthUK]

Late 80’s and early to mid 90’s .... a time when Christmas TV was magical ... and so were the trailers and idents!

[@Embracing01]

Completely agree. There's a certain soul about these early broadcasts, whether this is due to tape grain and analogue reception I dont know, but if they remade those same idents and voice overs in HD and in widescreen I dont think it would be the same. These have so much charm. I dont think anyone records anything off TV anymore. Its all catch up on streaming sites now. People will have no physical record of what they watched on TV in years to come because they expect the internet to store everything when it can disappear or their SKY Box to store it all on.

[@creationinmotion4124]

Memories of my last Xmas at high school. Watching this with my best friend, no longer with us 😢

[@markrussell6813]

ah thanks for uploading that. I'd completely forgotten. I wrote the music for that Xmas Ident along with my then writing partner Rory McFarlane. Brings it all back. We recorded it in the basement studio of Logorhythm Music, then in Lexington St, W1.

[@KEITHMU]

Wow. Thanks for your comment. I absolutely adore the music for this ident. In fact it's one of those tunes that I often find myself humming. Just a few questions, how did you go about submitting the tune? Did you see the visuals first and have to fit music around it? Were there any other variants made? A BIG BIG thank you again for your post.

[@markrussell6813]

KEITHMU Thanks Keith. Rory and I worked through Logorhythm Music, who specialised in music for commercials & idents.They did all those great BBC2 indents, furry 2 etc.I can't remember much about how we got the job, but I think that tune/arrangement was our first idea and the BBC liked it. We did quite a few variations of the music. I was in touch with Rory today - he found a DAT tape of all the versions. Someone at the BBC asked if we had a copy. That's how I arrived at your page. Very interesting to see. Watched with my wife of 20 years who had no idea i'd co-written it but could remember it!

[@KEITHMU]

Excellent. Interesting that the BBC were after a copy. I wonder what that was for? Would love to hear the variations that exist. By the way I must owe you and Rory a significant sum in humming rights! :)

[@fraserkatie]

Mark Russell Thats fabulous would love to hear all the variations too

[@fraserkatie]

Mark Russell If you would be kind enough to let me have a copy of the variations let me know! Please? Im a telly and theatre music anorak

[@chrisevans5259]

The 80s and 90s was a golden time for tv programming at Christmastime......great shows, and wonderful entertainment guaranteed,....I grew up to these vintage shows.....great, great memories

[@Bane80]

ahh the good old days when blockbuster films were more important than the soaps. now Christmas is over run by how many episodes they can cram in of soaps over the xmas period

[@vxrdrummer]

Amazing. Better times.

[@koksy]

This is the BBC Christmas that I remember above all others. The best continuity and the best programs. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.🤗

[@Embracing01]

As much as I hate the BBC and any majnstream.media.and the biased news, you have to thank them for these wonderful and charming xmas idents. They do make you feel warm and fuzzy inside:)

[@fraserkatie]

Christmas 1990 continuity was my favourite as I love how they got a magician to open a book and he discovers magical things. I remember watching the Take Two programme which you can see here on youtube on how they made the ident!

[@andrewbashford9786]

I remember that year 1990 it was a World Cup year Italia 90. ⚽ .. I was 26 a young Father of 2 working every hour God sent ..I certainly remember the Christmas line up on BBC that year 👍🏼⭐ 📺

[@Robert_Manners]

I remember this from when I was a 16 years old lad. It was the first truly remarkable one to be produced in my view. Great to be able to watch it again 29 years after I first got to see it. Makes me feel old writing messages like this.

[@angelacooper2661]

I am four years older than you as I was twenty back then, so now aged 52!

[@Robert_Manners]

@@angelacooper2661 plus its three years ago since I posted that comment as well.

[@angelacooper2661]

​@@Robert_Manners I'm still four years older than you, Robert!

[@Robert_Manners]

@@angelacooper2661 So you have had your birthday 🎂 already this year 🐾

[@angelacooper2661]

​@@Robert_MannersYes, Robert - three months ago!

[@chrisw1018]

I remember this. Most people would think you are an anarak to hunt things like this down, but I love 'em. This xmas BBC1 ident has a great little tune, and is good quality. Thanks for the upload.

[@KEITHMU]

I am more an anorak for recording them in the first place, but have a look around youtube there are some great TV Continuity clips on here. Thanks for your comment.

[@Embracing01]

@@KEITHMU Ive been going through lots of old recordings, sadly though none are from Xmas (theyve long since been taped over). Ive uploaded a few to youtube. Love searching through stuff like this. Do you by any chance of a recording of Only Fools and Horses from xmas.day?. Not just 1990 but 1991?. Would love to get hold of a copy of the Miami Twice episode where Del and Rodney go to Miami from xmas day 91. Every DVD and VHS version (and even UKGold and Netflix) are cut.

[@Robert_Manners]

@@Embracing01 That is interesting, do you have any insight into why this has happened and the original Transmission version is never shown? I don't have a good enough memory of the original to spot omitted scenes after 30 years now,however I can appreciate your frustrations. I know its not the same however I was so fed up of Crocodile Dundee been cut during UK screenings that I had to import the Blu-ray release from the US to avoid having to watch the cut down version anymore 😔

[@Embracing01]

​@@Robert_Manners If you're meaning Only Fools and Horses, yes quite a few of the released on home video (and even later repeats in some cases) have been cut, some with small scenes cut but others, such as the 1991 Miami ep several scenes have been cut, many are allegedly due to copyright issues of the music used or for political correctness. Many fans of the show know about these cuts and would love to have the original versions released uncut, but I'm doubtful that will ever happen.

[@jamesmcgrath578]

@@Embracing01 the Miami xmas OFAH was a 2 parter, shown on xmas day and boxing day I think

[@AlisonBryen]

Haha I remember watching Bergerac with my nan and grandad...the House of Eliot too!

[@AlisonBryen]

Oh wow !!! I watched ET on Christmas day 1990...My whole family came around our house for dinner. It was the premiere if I remember correctly.

[@FromtheHerts81]

We got 2 cats in 1994, both females, who I suggested we named Beatrice and Evangeline, because my mother enjoyed watching the Eliot sisters too.

[@AlisonBryen]

@@FromtheHerts81 Love it! Peak 1990s! 🙂

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

Ah - the TV premiere of "ET". Very big at the time, I remember the Radio Times plugging it.

[@chrisrowe7503]

Hearing this reminded me of my childhood and how much I used to absolutely love Christmas. Now I'm 37 years old? I can give or take it lol.

[@davetourle4250]

This is just beautiful, I have just relived the whole of Christmas day, bbc was the only channel my mum and dad ever watched..... I was 14. One of the best ever.

[@DarrenJCalvert]

Same as me, I was 18 but still at home classic Christmas lunch, designed almost around the BBC! The good old Days

[@angelacooper2661]

I would have been older than both of you as I was twenty at the time. Takes me back to early adulthood!

[@javiergomez9970]

On the only fools and horses trailer, after Rodney said that was her last chance, they cut out where Raquel said good evening Rodney before he said I have never been so insulted in my life. His wife Cassandra accused him of being childish after he came back from work to see that Cassandra had not made anything for him to eat. It was the 3rd time they had broken up.

[@markgenner1747]

Tuesday 25th December 1990.

[@mumble.jumbles]

Merry Christmas to all. I hope 1990 was a good year for you and that 1991 will be even better.

[@ultimatemagic2125]

Hulk Hogan regained the WWF title in March 1991, it was a pretty good year.

[@FromtheHerts81]

Back To The Future was the first Christmas movie I remember sitting down to watch. From then on I remembered Christmas by the big TV premiere that year. There was E.T. in 1990, Batman in 1991, Last Crusade in 1992, Hook in 1995, Jurassic Park in 1996, Jumanji in 1999, Titanic in 2000... The list goes on. But it isn't only the newer movies I remember. I saw Oliver! for the first time on Christmas Day 2017. Such a fantastic movie, with memorable songs and a narrative true to the source material.

[@Embracing01]

Now its repeat after repeat of the same films with the exception of the premiere which gets shown about 2 months later. It was a treat to watch a film that you waited ages to see, which made it more exciting and memorable. Back to the Future has been shown about 3 times in the last couple.of.weeks, and itll probably be shown on one of the freeview channels over xmas another half a dozen times.

[@AlisonBryen]

People forget how much of a big deal these premieres were because everything is automatically available these days. In 1990 it was a *huge* event when me and my family watched ET and Back To The Future together.

[@FromtheHerts81]

@@AlisonBryen E.T., which I first saw that year, was my introduction to the popular toilet humour joke about the 7th planet AND the concept of a defibrillator (which they use to try and save E.T.).

[@AlisonBryen]

@@FromtheHerts81 Oh yes the infamous Uranus joke 😂. I first learned about the concept of being drunk from watching ET, and that you cheat a thermometer with a lightbulb.

[@ravensthorne4631]

I remember when Jaws and Star Wars premiered on ITV in the early 80s. It was an *event*.

[@johnking5174]

0:01 - As Christmas 1990 was the first Christmas I really still have memories of, as I was just 5 years old, I remember this ident package so well. So magical. Just lovely. Why has BBC One plummeted downhill in their presentation since 2017? One word - "Oneness".

[@angelacooper2661]

I would have been twenty, so 15 years older than you. Old enough to remember some of the 70s and the 80s as well!

[@johnking5174]

@@angelacooper2661 Very late 80s and all of the 90s are my best childhood memories of TV

[@michellezimmermann9160]

Ahhhh One foot in the grave, Only fools and horses. What more could you have wanted at Christmas? Really miss these days 😢❤

[@IMEEntertainment]

There was a welsh version that was used during one closedown, with very cheesy animated sparkles added in, and when the ident fades out, the sparkles are still there!

[@gavinn6905]

I thought the ident and promos, and music, were wonderful that Christmas - and particularly deserving of more than just the 3-4 days the ident appeared in those days.

[@unexpectedmediauk]

I can't believe this bbc1 Christmas ident is 30 years old. I do remember this from my childhood. They don't make idents like that anymore

[@linedwell]

That animation looks better than the new Watership Down

[@bighairydel]

i remember these!

[@David-h4z2s]

Simpler days ❤

[@jamestulloch-knight7252]

2:37 Close that book.

[@jamieholmes4675]

Did we really wait 8 years before ET got a UK TV premier?😮

[@rickyj5547]

Makes you want to the video tape shop.

[@tardistime6857]

When the bbc actually made decent tv

[@Robert_Manners]

Or weren't afraid to repeat some of the best from the past either.

[@LA90598]

This was sublime BBC Xmas presentation with the wizard, so festive! nowadays it's politically correct, sensitive, not overly too Christmasy for fearing of offending, woke rubbish

[@Embracing01]

Yeah Im.sick of this woke rubbish being pushed. Every person on the ads is black.

[@stephenkissane4268]

Oh god last if the summer wine

[@leechipper2496]

I would have swore blind that purple Wizard/Magician thing twirling around was Christmas 1991 not 1990.

[@lippyfrybender4622]

A great Xmas

[@Foebane72]

Wow, Back to the Future is SOOOO dated now, seeing as how the most futuristic time in that franchise, 2015, is the distant past now!

[@TheCarman47]

Ah those were the days were we got good entertainment t!... Now all it is is bloody EastEnders or EastEnders or EastEnders! Ahhhhhhhhh!!

[@BermondseyBoy]

A time when you used to watch one movie, whilst recording another show on VHS

[@stephenkissane4268]

They had just completed the trilogy when back to the future was shown again here

[@AndysGamingThoughts]

30 years ago..

[@lucyschoon5585]

Having seen old videos like this, I've come to the conclusion that BBC announcers need to come with movie spoiler warnings

[@hungrywolffilms]

Announcer = Rosanne Macmillan

[@kengeorgejones6855]

Thanks. Love the EE cast shot. Is it me or did they speed up that BTTF promo?

[@anothertrackmom]

BBC Video 1990

[@anothertrackmom]

BBC Video 1990

[@retrogamerarcadebuilder4185]

I remember this year well its the chistmas that back to the future e.t and the lost boys were shown for the first time on british tv i remember rushing out to buy some basf vhs blank tapes ready and cutting my hand open trying to break the seal on a tin of quality street with a sharp knife just as e.t was starting great days its not the same now nobody looks forward to any of that its all catch up tv and all that rubbish and film downloading in those days you caught the film or you missed it until at least next christmas

[@81chipper89]

Is this really the Christmas when Back to the Future was first shown? I thought it would have been around 88/89? I remember seeing the advert for it and my older cousin telling me to watch as i would really enjoy it. She was right.

[@Robert_Manners]

@@81chipper89 I wish I could say, however I do recall that some films took ages to get onto terrestrial television back in the late 1980's and early 90's so it is very possible as it was only 5 years old in 1990.

[@81chipper89]

@@Robert_Manners yeah, I remember his you'd have to wait ages for a film to come out on video let alone be shown on telly. It made it more special really. Christmas tv used to be amazing but now we have so much choice that it's just taken for granted.

[@Robert_Manners]

@@81chipper89 Yes you had the American 525 NTSC VHS 📼 market, then the European 625 PAL VHS 📼 market. Plus some early D-mat Satellite broadcasts before final it would reach terrestrial television and a you say it would often be the main Christmas day film costing the BBC a lot of licensing fee payers money 💷

[@Robert_Manners]

No illegal or official downloads back then, you either went to the cinema, purchased the VHS 📼 release from £14.99 (That's late 1980's £14.99 to you know, inflation) or finally made an offair VHS 📼 recording on Christmas day some good years after the cinema release. I remember some less well off friends used to have to wait for a film to be shown on television 📺, they waited years most often. Today I have all three back to the future films on Blu-ray and available on streaming service. We are literally in a different world now compared to only 30 years ago 💫

[@anothertrackmom]

1990-1997

[@anothertrackmom]

1990-1997

[@80srenaissance67]

What has a wizard got to do with xmas though ?

[@anothertrackmom]

(C) BBC

[@anothertrackmom]

(C) BBC

[@anothertrackmom]

2007

[@anothertrackmom]

2007

[@Horsley-Green]

Adding "Christmas" to the title of One Foot In The Grave doesn't really make sense. One Foot In The Christmas Grave? If we're doing this why not "Only Fools And Christmas Horses"? Or "Last Of The Winter Wine"? Because it's stupid, that's why!

[@jivebunny3765]

The static ident has nothing to do with Christmas, and the face in the moon is rather evil looking. I remember the wizard and the music. That was quite good, but again, not really Christmassy.

[@pagesinyellow]

That wizard is creepy.