Christmas TV 1960

BBC

9.29 Headline News
9.30 On Christmas Day in the Morning
- songs and carols
10 Perry Como Music Hall
10.45 Christmas Morning Service
11.30 Max Jaffa invites you to a Christmas Party
12.5 The Adventures of Hiram Holliday - film comedy series
12.30 Sing We Now of Christmas - carols for Christmas Day
1 Christmas Message from Her Majesty the Queen
1.9 The George Mitchell Glee Club - A parade of Christmas Songs
1.44 Wells Fargo - Western series
2.9 Walt Disney - story told by David Jacobs
3.25 Appeal on behalf of the British Wireless for the Blind Fund
3.30 Billy Smarts' Christmas Circus
4.30 What's My Line - panel game
5 Tonight with Belafonte - music and song with Harry Belafonte
5.50 News, Weather
6 Christmas Night with the Stars
7.15 The Prisoner of Zenda - film
8.50 The Sunday Night Play - Tuppence in the Gods
10.20 Christmas at Dean's Yard - Ludovic Kennedy visits the Dean of Westminster
10.40 Late Night News
10.45 Celebrity Recital
11.5 Weather

London ITV

11 Christmas Communion - from Liverpool Cathedral
12.15 The Sunday Break - with Neville Barker
1 A Round Dozen - Story
1.25 Home for a While - Jo Douglas talks to members of the armed forces overseas
3 Christmas Message from Her Majesty the Queen
3.10 Grand Christmas Circus
4.5 Sleeping Beauty - Ice Pantomime Spectacular
4.45 Pathfinders to Mars
5.25 Seeing is Disbelieving - says David Berglas
5.45 News
5.55 Alice Through the Looking Box - a Christmas fantasy
7.25 News
7.30 Danger Man - Patrick McGoohan in "The Nurse"
8 The Tommy Steele Show
9 News
9.5 Armchair Theatre
10.10 Maverick - Jack Kelly in "The Marquess"
11.5 Roll Back the Carpet and Dance - with Cyril Stapleton and his Orchestra
11.35 Christmas in the Holy Land - the Holy Land in 1960

There are some of the usual staples here - TV westerns "Maverick" and "Wells Fargo"; "What's my Line" on BBC - this programme had been running for around ten years in 1960. There is "Danger Man" with Patrick McGoohan - later to star in "The Prisoner".

It's amazing how similar the programmes on offer are - religion in the morning - circuses in the afternoon. In the evening, the BBC offered classic cinema with "The Prisoner of Zenda" - films often secured large audiences in the sixties.

The ITV programme "Alice Through the Looking Box" is a modern adaptation of the Lewis Carol classic "Alice through the Looking Glass" - yes, you've guessed it, the "Looking Box" is a TV set!