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Monthly Highlights - December 2009
It's Christmas and you know what that means - the best ever selection pack of Christmas programming old and new. Here on G.O.L.D. there's Only Fools And Horses, Jo Brand, Morecambe and Wise, Wallace & Gromit and The Royle Family. If you love British comedy, you won't need any other channel this December.
Throughout December G.O.L.D. provides a Christmas chuckle every day, by featuring some of the best seasonal comedy specials.
Some of G.O.L.D.’s shiny baubles include channel premieres of Green Green Grass 2006 and 2007 Christmas specials, My Family Christmas special from 2007 and After You’ve Gone, also from 2007.
Proving that you can take the boy out of Peckham but not the Peckham out of the boy, Only Fools And Horses’ Boycie and Marlene are still trying to come to terms with life in the country in Green Green Grass. In these Christmas specials Boycie manages to get two black eyes after causing a near riot in the village, and Boycie and Marlene are horrified when Earl digs up an unexploded hand grenade on their land. This find leads to the discovery that The Grange was once a US Army base in the 1970s. Ever the entrepreneur, Boycie decides to set up a military museum in his barn.
After You’ve Gone, starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Celia Imrie in a love-hate mother-in-law/son-in-law relationship, features a Christmas school play, some dodgy set design and a romantic reunion.
Then there’s the classic Absolutely Fabulous, whose 2004’s festive laugh-fest also makes its debut on G.O.L.D. in December.
It’s just another Christmas in Patsy and Edina’s home – Edina has decided to remodel the kitchen yet again and enlists friends Bettina and Max to help (Bettina is now divorced and insane, and Max is gay), while Patsy has developed health problems and walks around with an IV stand. Saffie, meanwhile, has returned from her wedding to John in Kenya and reveals to her mother that her new husband is a polygamist.
But that’s not the end of it. After visiting Terence Conran and Kunz for some kitchen inspiration, she also hires a ‘channeller’ to help get her creative juices flow. All this does is create more chaos in the house, and when Saffie snaps, she throws both of the arguing fashionistas out onto the streets.
Twenty five years after their hugely popular love-hate relationship was finally resolved in marriage, G.O.L.D. revisits the DeVeres in this Christmas anniversary special.
Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, To The Manor Born was one of the most popular sitcoms of the late 1970s and 80s. It pitted one of the country’s best loved comic actress – Keith – against the irresistible charm of Bowles to create some sizzling, class- clashing onscreen chemistry.
Reunited in this one-off, have the years been kind to the relationship between down-on-her-luck Lady Audrey Forbes-Hamilton and the new monied owner of her family home, and now husband, Richard DeVere?
As their Silver wedding anniversary approaches, aristocratic Audrey resumes command of the estate and the farms, while Richard has, to all appearances, settled down to the life of a definitive gentleman farmer. While Audrey’s old social circle have all been bought up by the big food syndicates and fled, they are proud survivors. The scene is set for a grand party, until an extraordinary confession gets in the way.
With the help of her long-suffering school friend Marjory, a fearless Audrey goes into battle to defend a community, safeguard 400 years of history and save her marriage.
Tim Burton’s forgotten classic comes to G.O.L.D. for the first time this Christmas.
Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) live in a beautiful house in New England. One day they become involved in a car crash, but manage to get out relatively unscathed and walk back to their house. When they get there they realise they are dead and are now haunting their own home.
When a new family buys the house, they feel the presence of something strange creaking in the floorboards. The family resort to desperate measures to get rid of Adam and Barbara – they hire unconventional and eccentric exorcist Beetlejuice, who uses sometimes dangerous methods to fulfil his brief. Soon, the Deetz themselves (including a young Winona Ryder) and Adam and Barbara team together to contain the mischievous exorcist. (1988)
Sandra Bullock and Sir Michael Caine star in this comedy crime caper.
A serial killer has earmarked the Miss United States beauty pageant as his next target, and the FBI decide they must have an undercover agent on the inside to snare the killer.
In steps bumbling FBI agent Gracie Hart, replacing Miss New Jersey. But so hopeless and two-left-footed is she the FBI assigns her a handler to smooth out those rough edges. But it’s not just the killer she has to worry about – as she makes her way through the pageant she also uncovers corruption and wrong doings aplenty.
Also starring Benjamin Bratt and William Shatner. (2000)
Like turkey and cranberry sauce, British comedy legends Morecambe and Wise are inextricably linked to Christmas. Now they’re back on G.O.L.D. with some of their best ever moments.
For over 40 years Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were partners. During the course of those four decades Eric and Ernie became Britain’s best-loved comedy double act, attracting huge viewing figures during the golden period of light entertainment.
Having honed their partnership through years on the club circuit and rising through the ranks until the peak of their powers saw them attract 28million viewers for one Christmas special. And these specials attracted some of the biggest names of the day, happy to send themselves up – Glenda Jackson as Cleopatra, Andre Previn on the piano, Angela Rippon high-kicking through her famous dance routine… all these sketches are just as loved today as they were back then.
Morecambe And Wise: The Greatest Moment lets contributors – including the wives of Eric and Ernie, writing partner Eddie Braben, and friends and co-stars Edward Woodward, Cliff Richard and Barry Norman – tell the story of their 40-year working relationship, as well as featuring their all-time best moments.
Morecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy, Bonnie and Clyde, yin and yang, a nice piece of Wensleydale and a slice of crusty bread… great double acts have always existed. Wallace and Gromit are one of the very best – Nick Park’s Oscar-winning creations are already national institutions.
Wallace and Gromit follows the adventures of an absent-minded, cheese-loving inventor (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his put upon canine companion. On Christmas Eve, G.O.L.D. broadcasts three of the duo’s best-known short films.
In A Grand Day Out, our dynamic duo has run out of cheese so decide to take a holiday on the moon to stock up. Meanwhile, in The Wrong Trousers, Gromit finds himself pushed out of his own room by a new lodger – a small, loveable penguin with a dark secret. The penguin needs Wallace and his mechanical remote controlled trousers to pull off the perfect robbery, and it comes down to Gromit to stop him.
Finally, in A Close Shave, when Wallace and Gromit start a window cleaning business trouble starts – Wallace falls for a wool store owner called Wendolene and Gromit is framed for killing sheep and put in jail. Can Wallace save Gromit for a change?
Christmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas without Del Boy. Through the 1980s and 1990s the Peckham wide boy and the Trotter family became the comedy rocks on which Christmas schedules were built upon. New Only Fools is on the horizon, but G.O.L.D. is the only place on British television to see some of the show’s best ever Christmas specials.
Across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day there are back-to-back episodes featuring some of Del Boy’s greatest festive moments. There’s the infamous Batman and Robin-featuring Heroes and Villains on Christmas Eve, the touching Modern Men (also on Christmas Eve), Fatal Attraction (where Del Boy inadvertently starts a riot on the estate) on Christmas Day, and Del Boy makes a mint by selling Peckham Spring Water in Mother Nature’s Son, also on Christmas Day.
The award-winning sitcom returns to G.O.L.D. with the channel premiere Christmas 2008 episode, which sees the nation’s favourite couch potatoes do what they do best – sit around the television and celebrate Christmas together.
As ever, the action is based around the living room, but this time there’s a new location for Jim and Barbara to relax into – Dave and Denise’s new house. Inspired by Nigella, Denise decides to cook Christmas dinner for the whole family, and that means Dave’s mum and dad are coming along for the meal too. What could go wrong?
After an absence of two years, it’s good to have the Royles back, however, you might not want to re-create Denise’s festive menu.
Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore star in this 80s retro romcom, which helps to see in the New Year on G.O.L.D.
Robbie Hart (Sandler) is an extremely talented wedding singer who is left standing at the altar on his own wedding day. Convinced by his friends to go back to work, Robbie befriends Julia Sullivan (Barrymore), a waitress who works at the reception hall where he sings, and who is about to marry her fiancé. As Robbie helps Julia plan for her wedding, they begin to fall for each other, and Robbie soon realises that if either of them are ever going to be happy, he's going to have to pull off the show of his life. (1998)
*24 Days Of Christmas*
Tuesday 1st to Thursday 24th December, 9pmThroughout December G.O.L.D. provides a Christmas chuckle every day, by featuring some of the best seasonal comedy specials.
Some of G.O.L.D.’s shiny baubles include channel premieres of Green Green Grass 2006 and 2007 Christmas specials, My Family Christmas special from 2007 and After You’ve Gone, also from 2007.
Proving that you can take the boy out of Peckham but not the Peckham out of the boy, Only Fools And Horses’ Boycie and Marlene are still trying to come to terms with life in the country in Green Green Grass. In these Christmas specials Boycie manages to get two black eyes after causing a near riot in the village, and Boycie and Marlene are horrified when Earl digs up an unexploded hand grenade on their land. This find leads to the discovery that The Grange was once a US Army base in the 1970s. Ever the entrepreneur, Boycie decides to set up a military museum in his barn.
After You’ve Gone, starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Celia Imrie in a love-hate mother-in-law/son-in-law relationship, features a Christmas school play, some dodgy set design and a romantic reunion.
Then there’s the classic Absolutely Fabulous, whose 2004’s festive laugh-fest also makes its debut on G.O.L.D. in December.
It’s just another Christmas in Patsy and Edina’s home – Edina has decided to remodel the kitchen yet again and enlists friends Bettina and Max to help (Bettina is now divorced and insane, and Max is gay), while Patsy has developed health problems and walks around with an IV stand. Saffie, meanwhile, has returned from her wedding to John in Kenya and reveals to her mother that her new husband is a polygamist.
But that’s not the end of it. After visiting Terence Conran and Kunz for some kitchen inspiration, she also hires a ‘channeller’ to help get her creative juices flow. All this does is create more chaos in the house, and when Saffie snaps, she throws both of the arguing fashionistas out onto the streets.
To The Manor Born *Channel Premiere*
Wednesday 16th December, 9pmTwenty five years after their hugely popular love-hate relationship was finally resolved in marriage, G.O.L.D. revisits the DeVeres in this Christmas anniversary special.
Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, To The Manor Born was one of the most popular sitcoms of the late 1970s and 80s. It pitted one of the country’s best loved comic actress – Keith – against the irresistible charm of Bowles to create some sizzling, class- clashing onscreen chemistry.
Reunited in this one-off, have the years been kind to the relationship between down-on-her-luck Lady Audrey Forbes-Hamilton and the new monied owner of her family home, and now husband, Richard DeVere?
As their Silver wedding anniversary approaches, aristocratic Audrey resumes command of the estate and the farms, while Richard has, to all appearances, settled down to the life of a definitive gentleman farmer. While Audrey’s old social circle have all been bought up by the big food syndicates and fled, they are proud survivors. The scene is set for a grand party, until an extraordinary confession gets in the way.
With the help of her long-suffering school friend Marjory, a fearless Audrey goes into battle to defend a community, safeguard 400 years of history and save her marriage.
Beetle Juice *Film* *Channel Premiere*
Friday 18th December, 10pmTim Burton’s forgotten classic comes to G.O.L.D. for the first time this Christmas.
Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) live in a beautiful house in New England. One day they become involved in a car crash, but manage to get out relatively unscathed and walk back to their house. When they get there they realise they are dead and are now haunting their own home.
When a new family buys the house, they feel the presence of something strange creaking in the floorboards. The family resort to desperate measures to get rid of Adam and Barbara – they hire unconventional and eccentric exorcist Beetlejuice, who uses sometimes dangerous methods to fulfil his brief. Soon, the Deetz themselves (including a young Winona Ryder) and Adam and Barbara team together to contain the mischievous exorcist. (1988)
Miss Congeniality *Film* *Channel Premiere*
Sunday 20th December, 6.45pmSandra Bullock and Sir Michael Caine star in this comedy crime caper.
A serial killer has earmarked the Miss United States beauty pageant as his next target, and the FBI decide they must have an undercover agent on the inside to snare the killer.
In steps bumbling FBI agent Gracie Hart, replacing Miss New Jersey. But so hopeless and two-left-footed is she the FBI assigns her a handler to smooth out those rough edges. But it’s not just the killer she has to worry about – as she makes her way through the pageant she also uncovers corruption and wrong doings aplenty.
Also starring Benjamin Bratt and William Shatner. (2000)
Morecambe And Wise: The Greatest Moment
Thursday 24th December, 3.30pmLike turkey and cranberry sauce, British comedy legends Morecambe and Wise are inextricably linked to Christmas. Now they’re back on G.O.L.D. with some of their best ever moments.
For over 40 years Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were partners. During the course of those four decades Eric and Ernie became Britain’s best-loved comedy double act, attracting huge viewing figures during the golden period of light entertainment.
Having honed their partnership through years on the club circuit and rising through the ranks until the peak of their powers saw them attract 28million viewers for one Christmas special. And these specials attracted some of the biggest names of the day, happy to send themselves up – Glenda Jackson as Cleopatra, Andre Previn on the piano, Angela Rippon high-kicking through her famous dance routine… all these sketches are just as loved today as they were back then.
Morecambe And Wise: The Greatest Moment lets contributors – including the wives of Eric and Ernie, writing partner Eddie Braben, and friends and co-stars Edward Woodward, Cliff Richard and Barry Norman – tell the story of their 40-year working relationship, as well as featuring their all-time best moments.
*Wallace & Gromit Triple Bill*
Thursday 24th December, from 5.05pmMorecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy, Bonnie and Clyde, yin and yang, a nice piece of Wensleydale and a slice of crusty bread… great double acts have always existed. Wallace and Gromit are one of the very best – Nick Park’s Oscar-winning creations are already national institutions.
Wallace and Gromit follows the adventures of an absent-minded, cheese-loving inventor (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his put upon canine companion. On Christmas Eve, G.O.L.D. broadcasts three of the duo’s best-known short films.
In A Grand Day Out, our dynamic duo has run out of cheese so decide to take a holiday on the moon to stock up. Meanwhile, in The Wrong Trousers, Gromit finds himself pushed out of his own room by a new lodger – a small, loveable penguin with a dark secret. The penguin needs Wallace and his mechanical remote controlled trousers to pull off the perfect robbery, and it comes down to Gromit to stop him.
Finally, in A Close Shave, when Wallace and Gromit start a window cleaning business trouble starts – Wallace falls for a wool store owner called Wendolene and Gromit is framed for killing sheep and put in jail. Can Wallace save Gromit for a change?
*Only Fools And Horses At Christmas*
Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th December, from 8amChristmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas without Del Boy. Through the 1980s and 1990s the Peckham wide boy and the Trotter family became the comedy rocks on which Christmas schedules were built upon. New Only Fools is on the horizon, but G.O.L.D. is the only place on British television to see some of the show’s best ever Christmas specials.
Across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day there are back-to-back episodes featuring some of Del Boy’s greatest festive moments. There’s the infamous Batman and Robin-featuring Heroes and Villains on Christmas Eve, the touching Modern Men (also on Christmas Eve), Fatal Attraction (where Del Boy inadvertently starts a riot on the estate) on Christmas Day, and Del Boy makes a mint by selling Peckham Spring Water in Mother Nature’s Son, also on Christmas Day.
The Royle Family: The New Sofa *Channel Premiere*
Wednesday 30th December, 9pmThe award-winning sitcom returns to G.O.L.D. with the channel premiere Christmas 2008 episode, which sees the nation’s favourite couch potatoes do what they do best – sit around the television and celebrate Christmas together.
As ever, the action is based around the living room, but this time there’s a new location for Jim and Barbara to relax into – Dave and Denise’s new house. Inspired by Nigella, Denise decides to cook Christmas dinner for the whole family, and that means Dave’s mum and dad are coming along for the meal too. What could go wrong?
After an absence of two years, it’s good to have the Royles back, however, you might not want to re-create Denise’s festive menu.
The Wedding Singer *Film*
Friday 1st January, 9pmAdam Sandler and Drew Barrymore star in this 80s retro romcom, which helps to see in the New Year on G.O.L.D.
Robbie Hart (Sandler) is an extremely talented wedding singer who is left standing at the altar on his own wedding day. Convinced by his friends to go back to work, Robbie befriends Julia Sullivan (Barrymore), a waitress who works at the reception hall where he sings, and who is about to marry her fiancé. As Robbie helps Julia plan for her wedding, they begin to fall for each other, and Robbie soon realises that if either of them are ever going to be happy, he's going to have to pull off the show of his life. (1998)
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