Picture from Time Out
I can't claim to have been a fan of Val Doonican, nothing against him but he simply hasn't really entered my radar apart from looking out at me from all of the charity shop LP piles that I sift through on a regular basis. He belonged in a different era before rock and roll and somehow managed to keep going through the 1970s thanks mainly to his Christmas television specials. Working his way up through caberet, theatre, radio and eventually telly, he was popular for his easy listening style and is quite possibly the last one of his ilk. Last Christmas we watched one of his shows on BBC4 and I was astonished at how slow it seemed to be. Yesterday I watched a few clips on YouTube to refresh my memory and wondered to myself where these Christmas entertainment specials went. Bing Crosby used to do one and the likes of Perry Como can't be visualised without a Christmas jumper and a jolly ditty. While trying to write about this I looked at the website UK Christmas TV for some idea of what sort of telly the public used to be served up on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. In the 1950s until the 1980s entertainers used to record these shows and (in the days of only three channels) scored massive ratings.
Although the Val Doonican show that we watched was very tame, as were the ones hosted by Perry Como or Acker Bilk but it did make me wonder if the Christmas special could make a comeback. We are short of family entertainment these days and at the time of the year when we spend more time together indoors, the television companies have a captive audience. Perhaps this explains the high ratings, this was also the time when the pub was open for two hours on Christmas Day lunchtime and no shops opened for three days so the telly was your salvation. Today we have Michael Buble and special guests, no wonder I don't like Christmas.
You may think this a strange topic for July, but when you settle down in front of the box on December 25th, remember that the Christmassy stuff is being filmed now. I'm recording a kazoo Christmas album, soon you will hate Christmas too.
The Sunday Alternative #45 is available from here.
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July Housekeeping
Bags and T-Shirts are still available from here. All money goes in the fund. Feel free to browse the shop page while you're there.
If you donate £5 or more, you get to choose a song for me to cover on kazoo for a YouTube video, details here.
Seriously, I am grateful for the donations so if you haven't got round to it yet, I thank you in advance.
steveEoliver@gmail.com
