Ben Baker's Christmas Box Ben Baker

Wait, what? There's more?   

Welcome to a coal-carrying window into Christmas TV past in each short episode I talk to a guest about a programme that represents Christmas to them...hang on we've done all that, haven't we? Its New Years Eve, or as Tracey and slash or Steve Binnie up in Scotland would call it Hogmanay. And key to those celebrations for many years was Rikki Fulton's wonderful sketch series "Scotch and Wry" with its iconic characters Supercop, the Gallowgate Gourmet and I.M Jolly, the dour minister closing out most episodes. That is except for viewers in England who have their own programmes...sadly.

Watch the episode of "Scotch and Wry" we're talking about from Hogmanay 1985 here (just the first fifty minutes!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCOJuYEl7ZY

You can find Tracey on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/tracey_binnie

You can find Steve on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/evibenstein

And his hilarious 1980's music show "Off The Chart" with former guest Julian Sparrow every Tuesday at 9pm on Mad Wasp Radio: https://madwaspradio.com/ 

or here: https://offthechart.show/

Well, the series is over so it's time to close down the old Christmas Box factory for another year. But hark, what is that noise upon my door at this hour? Whoever could it be...?


Oh. It's you... (WARNING: CONTAINS TWO EFFS)

Welcome to an out of this world window into seasonally-sprinkled TV past. Broadcaster and all round enthusiast Julian Sparrow talks about the excitement of getting to see sci-fi blockbusters at Christmastime with a runthrough all the biggest ones to appear on the 25th itself including Disney's much maligned "The Black Hole", "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Back To The Future". Plus the joys of living on a small island, inappropriate youth reading and Duran Duran's place in the wider Star Wars canon. 

You can find Julian on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/babel17

And his hilarious 1980's music show "Off The Chart" with Steve Binnie every Tuesday at 9pm on Mad Wasp Radio: https://madwaspradio.com/ 

or here: https://offthechart.show/ 

And find him on Twitch on Monday nights here: https://www.twitch.tv/Babel_17

I've just released a new book all about the fables, fantasy and fluff that made up the British Christmas TV experience. You can find it here: https://linktr.ee/BenBakerBooks.  

Welcome to Ben Baker's Christmas Box, an unbelievable bimble through television's present-wrapping past. In this short episode I have with me the writer and researcher Justin Lewis who has chosen the 1983 My Life In Bins special with one of Stutz Bear Cats....sorry, that should've read "One Foot In The Grave" Christmas special from 1994, the hilarious but haunting "The Man Who Blew Away". There's lots more in here too that I'm not even going to spoil by describing. Its good though. You can believe it. 



See "The Man Who Blew Away" here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5veaxp



Find Justin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WhenIsBirths 

Or on Instagram with his wonderful (and commissionable!) When Is Births project here: https://www.instagram.com/whenisbirths/



I've just released a new book all about the faces, films and forgotten frippery that made up the British Christmas TV experience. You can find it here: https://linktr.ee/BenBakerBooks.  

Welcome to Ben Baker's Christmas Box, a grapple happy gamble through television's present past. In each short episode I talk to a guest about a programme that represents the gift giving period to them and today I'm joined by musician and podcaster Garreth Hirons. He's offering up a whole mixed bag of sweaty, trunk-wearing telly moments from various points and places in time, all connected by a tendency by the subjects to beat each other over the heads with a chair. There's WWF's creepy, beer-swilling none-more-2001 end of term party, TNA's truly appalling "Silent Night, Bloody Night" four-way with a barbed wire Christmas tree (and a boy dressed as a shark) plus the least appropriate spirit of Christmas: Bret "The Hitman" Hart being visited by a very special guest. WHAT?



See the WWF party here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roei3SldW88

Silent Night, Bloody Night here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD7mV84p9ys

And Bret at Survivor Series 1992 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwg-H74JmsM



Find Garreth on Twitter at https://twitter.com/InvaderAce1

I've just released a new book all about the raw, ribald and the ridiculous telly that made up the British Christmas TV experience. You can find it here: https://linktr.ee/BenBakerBooks.  

The podcast that remains a shimmying vision in red through TV's past returns as Ben Baker talks to a guest about a programme that represents the Christmas period to them in some way. Today we go way off the beaten dusty road with the wonderful Joanne Sheppard who has been tormented by a trail for BBC One's slate of festive light entertainment for 1993 for nigh on three decades. Some of these episodes are a love letter to telly gone by, some are brutally honest therapy sessions and some are just hysterically funny conversations about the weirdos that we unwittingly allowed into our collective homes for generations. Fetch a Noel wrangler, throw your lamp at Jim Davidson and just BE THERE.  



See the full promo here: https://youtu.be/DTcVpT0GQ1Y?t=33



Find Joanne on Twitter at https://twitter.com/redskyatnight

And visit her brilliant book review website here: https://www.breakfastatlibraries.com/



I've just released a new book all about the faces, films and forgotten frippery that made up the British Christmas TV experience. You can find it here: https://linktr.ee/BenBakerBooks.