Christmas tape
Encyclopedia
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
, Christmas tapes are unendorsed videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
s compiled by technical staff for their personal amusement. The name originates from the 1950s, when the material was filmed at the staff's Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
parties where impromptu sketches were carried out. As time progressed, other types of material (such as outtake
Blooper
A blooper, also known as an outtake or boner is a short sequence of a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms of misspoken words...
s and deliberate misbehaviour) were included on the videos.
As videotape gradually overtook film as the dominant medium for television recording, the proliferation of Christmas tapes grew. Early Christmas tapes were plundered for outtake shows like LWT's It'll be Alright on the Night
It'll be Alright on the Night
It'll be Alright on the Night is a British television bloopers show screened on ITV and produced by London Weekend Television. It was one of the first shows created with the specific purpose of showing behind the scenes bloopers from film and TV and it has been running since 18 September 1977...
, presented by Denis Norden
Denis Norden
Denis Mostyn Norden CBE is a former English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during World War II. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme Take It from Here with Frank Muir...
, which started life as an occasional treat in the schedules and eventually grew to become a genre in their own right. Copies of the tapes gradually started appearing on the private collector's circuit, a phenomenon which led to an incident in 1978 when a mocked-up sequence featuring Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
in that year's BBC Christmas tape, "White Powder Christmas", came to the attention of the Sunday People newspaper. Several references to the previous year's Christmas tape were made in the 1979 BBC Christmas tape, "Good King Memorex".
Some of the best examples of the Christmas tape genre were made in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before the digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
era, when it was genuinely surprising to hear television stars making mistakes and swearing onscreen.
Since then greater control of production facilities along with the deregulation of ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
has all but killed off the Christmas tape phenomenon.
Classic examples of the genre include the 1978 Christmas tape from staff at Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
which included an especially contrived innuendo
Innuendo
An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging , that works obliquely by allusion...
-laden edition of the children's show Rainbow
Rainbow (TV series)
Rainbow is a British children's television series, created by Pamela Lonsdale, which ran twice weekly at 12:10 on Tuesdays and Fridays on the ITV network, from 16 October 1972 to 6 March 1992...
and a 1979 Christmas tape from employees of Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
which included a send-up of the popular ITV quiz 3-2-1
3-2-1
3–2–1 was a popular British game show that was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It ran for ten years, between 29 July 1978 and 24 December 1988. Throughout its run, the show was hosted by former Butlins Redcoat Ted Rogers. It was based on a Spanish gameshow called Un, dos, tres.....
, an adaptation of a popular television commercial of the time from the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
car manufacturer Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
and comments about YTV management following the strike which had put the network off the air a few months previously.