A year to the day after 'I Love A '70's Christmas', B.B.C.-2 gave us another helping of seasonal nostalgia with this offering, linked by Brian Blessed as Father Christmas. Amongst the topics under discussion were 'The Railway Children', 'Some Mothers Do Ave Em', pantomimes and 'Thunderbirds'. Noel Edmonds launched a ferocious attack on the latter that left me speechless. He claimed that whenever one of the Tracy family puppets turned sideways, they overshot their mark because the puppeteers couldn't handle the strings properly. Not only was this inaccurate, but an insult to the puppetry skills of the late Christine Glanville and others. I thought it a bit rich that the man responsible for the inane 'Mr.Blobby' should be rude about a television show whose popularity has endured for forty years. Seeing how 'Noel's House Party' had recently been cancelled, you'd think Noel would be sympathetic to ex-T.V. stars forced to earn a crust by doing pantomime. Instead he came out with "Chronic! I'd rather do lap dancing!". Charming! Perhaps Noel could play 'Scrooge' one day?
