Christmas Day shows

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33106, 22 December 1972, Page 4

Christmas Day shows

A wide variety of special shows marks television on Christmas Day. They include:— A variety of Reg Varney Before Reg Varney became an • internationally popular comedy star with “On The Buses,” he was well-known as a top rate variety performer In this show he gets the chance to prove it as he is Joined by David Lodge, Frank Thornton and Pat Coombs in ; comedy sketches while Richard Barnes, Margaret i Burton and Stephane Grapelli I provide the music. The Spinners While pop groups fall from ' favour, and big-name international artists fail to fill concert halls up and down (Britain, the Spinners—withiout the drum beating and noisy publicity of some—continue to play to packed audii ences wherever they perform. This popular folk group went home to Liverpool for its customary Merseyside Christmas concert, and more than 2000 "scousers” (socalled from the city’s favourite dish) indulged in a great sing-in in the Philharmonic Hall. What is their secret? The producer, Nick Hunter, says: “Support for the Spinners almost amounts to an underground' movement. Spinners fans don’t go about shouting the odds—you couldn’t pick one out in a crowd. But when the group is in concert, they turn up in their thousands. “They have all-round family appeal too. Their con- : certs are packed with child- , ren, mums and dads, and I grandparents—whole families , in fact. And how many artists ' can you name today who ' appeal to every age group?” Among the songs the Spinners sing are “Twelve Days of Christmas,” “Amen” — an American carol, “Calypso Carol,” and “Shalom.” “Miracle on 34th Street” This Christmas story about a Santa Claus who is considered to be insane by a crass commercial world stars Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood. The film concerns Kris Kringle, a store Santa Claus, who causes a

series of sensations first by advising potential customers o go elsewhere when the store he works at can’t supply what they want. This, coupled with his insistence that he really is Santa, leads the personnel manager Maureen O’Hara) to doubt iis sanity* and have him tested by the store psychologist. After a series of events which includes a trial to determine his sanity the film winds up with the inevitable happy ending. “Hollywood the Dream Factory” For older viewers this programme will be a nostalgic trip back to the days of the boom years of Hollywood—the decades from the 1920 s to the 19505. Stars and scenes from many of the great films from MGM are brought together in the programme which is narrated by Dick Cavett. Included are the Marx Brothers, Garbo, Gene Kelly, Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor and many many more. “It’s a Terrible Waste of an Egg”

On Christmas Day in 1966 the "Horizon” team produced a programme called “Hand Me My Sword, Humphrey” and as a result hundreds of British milkmen were presented with a Christmas bonus of boiled eggs inmas bonus of boiled eggs inside empty milk bottles. It seemed an unavoidable end to the success of the programme in that a number of viewers had repeated at least one of the simple Victorian scientific tricks demonstrated to them on the programme. “It’s a Terrible Waste of An Egg” demonstrates among other “astounding phe-. nomena” how to get that egg back out of the bottle again. As in the previous programme, Dudley Foster plays Humphrey Hastings, the father of an Edwardian family who demonstrates little scientific tricks to amuse his family after Christmas dinner. The setting is completely Edwardian, and children and relations watch and try their hand at experiments with candles, baking powder, vinegar, ice, flat irons, boiled eggs and decanters.

“The Fastest Man on Earth”

A two-year search of film libraries, automobile archives and private collections resulted in the gathering of all the worth-while film footage ever shot about the group of brave dedicated men who have pursued one of the most dangerous occupations known to man throughout the twentieth century—the breaking of the speed record on land.

“The Fastest Men on Earth” is the authoritative and absorbing portrayal of man’s pursuit of speed, the tragedies and successes from the early electric and steam cars to the jet turbines and rocketpowered machines of 1970, such as the 58,000 horsepower Blue Flame.

Robert Vaughn narrates this programme. , Vai Doonican ■ Vai Doonican is a welcome Christmas Day guest with a special Christmas edition o£ his popular show. f Villa Maria Choir A short programme fe?rtures the Villa Maria Girlls College Choir in a recital off Christmas songs. Features! will be the four Christmas; songs of the Ralph Vaughati Williams “Four Seasons” cant tata, written in two and three; parts with and without pianc> accompaniment. | Queen’s Message The traditional Christmas Message from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II can b b heard from all channels o.U Christmas Day.

CHTV3

2.00 p.m.: News. 2.03: Marcus Welby, M.D. Drama (repeat). 2.53: On Reflection. Sir Tyrone Guthrie on Gilbert and Sullivan. 3.18: The Beverley Hillbillies. Comedy. 3.42: Country Calendar (repeat, final). 3.57: Hopalong Cassidy. Western. 4.59: Little Rascals. Comedy. 5.09: The Flaxton Boys. Adventure. 5.33: Pebbles and Bamm Bamm. Cartoon. 5.52: Is This Your Career?—Veterinary science (repeat). 6.03: News, weather. 6.06: Private Lives—the Siamese fighting fish. 6.30: World Scene. News (final). 6.50: Sports Magazine. 7.00: Network news. 7.15: Weather.

The South Tonight. 7.35: The Bill Cosby Show. Comedy. 8.00: Gunsmoke. Western. 8.50: Pupuri Ra. Christmas songs by the Auckland Anglican Maori Club. 9.18: Newsbrief.

9.20: Film (1957) — “The Little Hut” (Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, David Niven). Comedy. 10.48: Late news, weather. 10.54: Mannix. Drama. 11.43: Summer with Monika (repeat).

NATIONAL LINK [lncluding 3YA Christchurch (690 kilohertz); 2YA Wellington (570 kilohertz); 4YA Dunedin (750 kilohertz); and 3YZ Greymouth (950 kilohertz).) 7 p.m.: Sports News. 7.30: Time For Music. A special Christmas selection with the emphasis on the joy of the festive season. 8.30: Weather and News. Checkpoint (final for 1972). 9.0: Sing a Happy Song. 9.15: Music of the Maori. 9.30: Jazz Scene. 10.30: N.Z.B.C. News, Comment, Weather. 10.45: Folk Hits from the Brothers Four. 11.0: 8.8. C. News and Commentary. 11.15: (continuous). 11.45: Open Country. 3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilohertz)

7 p.m.: Schubert: Dietrich Fischer - Dieskau (baritone), Gerald Moore (piano). 7.19: Dietrich Prost (organ of the St Marien Church, Stralsund). 7.35: Agnes Giebel

(soprano), Aachen Choir under Rudolf Pohl. 8.7:| Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Concerto No. 1 in D (1939) —-j Ernesto Bitetti (guitar),! Madrid Concert Orchestral) under Jose Buenago. 8.30:! David Oistrakh (violin),, 1 Sviatoslav Richter (piano),! Prokofiev: Sonata No. 1 in F) minor, Op. 80. 9.0: Friendship! Centre, by Robert Lord. 9.35:! Auber: Overture: Fra Diavolo—Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra under Louis Fremaux. 9.44: Mozart: Cantata: Loudly proclaim our joy. 9.58: Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A— New Philharmonia Orchestra under Otto Klemperer. 3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilohertz) 7.30 p.m.: Buy, sell and exchange. 8.30: Night Beat.. 9.2: Sounds Nice. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilohertz) 7 p.m.: Sounds Right Now.. 11.0: Masters Music Machine..