Crackers or just TV turkey?

In years gone by, Christmas Day television was full of opera, circuses and musicals. Now it's repeats, films and spin-offs. Mark Andrews asks if TV in the past was better than it is now.

When BJ Hulbert lifted his carving knife on December 25, 1936, it was a moment in TV history.

Christmas Turkey, a 15-minute slot featuring a man carving his Christmas turkey, may not sound the sort of programme you would stay in to watch, but it has the distinction of being the first TV programme to be broadcast on Christmas Day - in the world.

In those days, the audience was restricted to around 400 households in the London area, and the BBC shut down at 4pm, before returning five hours later with a carol service.

It shut down at 10pm, following a Seasonal Tour Through the Empire.

Of course, television didn't really catch on until the 1950s, by which time a definite formula of music hall-style variety with comedy and song-and-dance acts had been established.

Audience

On Christmas Day, 1957, prime time on the BBC meant Gene Kelly's Song and Dances, featuring music from Kelly's films and co-starring Debbie Reynolds, followed by Pantomania, a production of Babes in the Wood with an all-star cast including Tony Hancock, Kenneth Connor, Charlie Drake, Benny Hill, Sid James and Ted Ray.

Aimed, perhaps, at a slightly more high-brow audience, Act One of Mozart's Don Juan, performed in Munich, was screened at 6.15pm.

Billy Smart's circus appeared for the first time at 3.15pm, and would become the mainstay of the BBC's mid-afternoon slot into the late 1970s.

By the 1960s, the pantomimes had become an established part of Christmas television, with Arthur Askey, Angela Richards and Roy Castle appearing in the 1966 production of Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp.

One programme from this time that will probably not be mourned by too many was the Black and White Minstrel show, which ran until 1973.

Different people will have their own views on what was the golden age of Christmas television, but there has to be a strong argument that it was the 1970s: can you really have Christmas television without Morecambe and Wise, Mike Yarwood and Bruce Forsyth?

Mike Yarwood's Christmas Show, where he would impersonate topical figures such as Terry Wogan, Eammon Andrews and, of course, Harold Wilson, was a guaranteed treat, as well as a sure-fire ratings winner.

Basil Brush would be a winner with children, who would then plead with their parents to let them stay up for Morecambe and Wise.

In December 1981, the BBC started a new Christmas institution when it launched a new sit-com called Only Fools and Horses. Starring David Jason, who had previously appeared in Open All Hours and A Sharp Intake of Breath, as wide-boy wheeler-dealer Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, and his dopey younger brother Rodney, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst out of Butterflies, the show perfectly captured the get-rich-quick culture of the 1980s. It spawned a number of memorable feature-length Christmas specials, including the 1985 show To Hull and Back, where the bungling pair smuggled a consignment of diamonds from Amsterdam only to find they had been taken in by a bent copper who made off with their haul.

And who could forget the 1996 trilogy where they finally achieved their dreams of becoming millionaires - having scared the wits out of a pair of muggers by running through the streets of Peckham dressed as Batman and Robin, along the way?

Another series which captured the enterprise culture of the time was Minder, and in 1985, ITV screened a feature film Minder on the Orient Express at the same time as Only Fools and Horses.

Special

Even at this time, wholesome family viewing was the name of the game. Other programmes shown on Christmas Day in 1985 included All Creatures Great and Small, holiday camp sit-com Hi-de-Hi!, as well as the obligatory Two Ronnies Christmas special.

Comedy became much more acidic during the 1990s, with One Foot in the Grave - starring Richard Wilson as a cantankerous and vengeful pensioner - and Men Behaving Badly dominating the schedules.

Sadly, it was also a time when the dumbing-down of television began to take hold, with Auntie's Festive Bloomers - a low-budget compilation of embarrassing out-takes fronted by Terry Wogan.

Unfortunately, it is hard to see their being many fond memories of this year's offerings. The Green, Green Grass - a below-par spin-off from Only Fools and Horses, which is not a patch on the original - and the mildly amusing, if slightly bland sit-com My Family are among the highlights.

Little Britain Abroad will certainly divide opinion, but sadly it looks like the best programme will be at 1am on Boxing Day - a compilation of scenes from old Carry On films.

This year, Christmas television will continue throughout the night, with scores of channels competing for millions of viewers. And judging from this year's schedule, the standard of programmes has not progressed since Mr Hulbert and his Christmas turkey.