Christmas: BBC TV Trailer

The BBC Press Office has released a nine minute trailer of goodies for this year’s Christmas on the BBC. And what an engaging piece of editing it is too.

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The One Ronnie featuring Ronnie Corbett, Harry Enfield and Catherine Tate looks surprisingly inventive and well cast. Come Fly With Me actually made me laugh out loud. Seeing Victoria Wood in the Eric and Ernie bio wotnot is surprising given her interview with the Guardian earlier in the year. And I’m a sucker for a bit of musical theatre, so Les Mis at 25 was always going to appeal. And even though I didn’t watch Downton Abbey, I will obviously give Upstairs Downstairs a go. Whenever I see a bandwagon I find it difficult not to resist jumping on it.

I’m less excited about ‘The Big Sing‘ – I’m always dubious about pre-filmed Christmas specials. If they’re in a trailer now that means they were a filmed at least a few weeks ago. The conceit is laid bare. The audience is surely going to think that too. The same has – regrettably – to be said for Rob Brydon’s show.

As for the christmas Doctor Who,  I’ve always been a little doubtful about marrying up the festive season witha  timelord adventure. Mind you, it’s a big hitter for the Beeb, so it’s hardly surprising they’ll want to see it feature in the Christmas schedules. I suspect I’m probably caught up far too much in the past thus find it difficult to shake off the present interpretation of the thing. Which in turn suggests I should be a little less grumpy. Personally, I can’t see myself achieving that particular goal in time for the holidays.

On the whole however – and on the basis of a trailer – Christmas looks like it might be good. Let’s hope the actual programmes sustain equal amounts of engagement.