Christmas Night with the Stars (partially found annual BBC television series; 1958-1972)
Title card of the 1972 edition of the program.
Status: Partially Found
Christmas Night with the Stars was an annual television program produced by the BBC that was broadcast on Christmas day every year from 1958 to 1972 (with the exception of 1961, 1965, and 1966). The program was a variety show designed to celebrate the Christmas season, and featured performances from popular musicians of the day such as Cilla Black, Adam Faith, and Russ Conway alongside specially produced, Christmas themed short episodes of other well known BBC programs like Steptoe and Son, The Likely Lads, and On the Buses among other.
The program proved to be immensely popular in its heyday, with 12 editions ultimately being produced over the course of 14 years. Such was the programs popularity that it would later be ranked as the 24th greatest Christmas moment in a program broadcast by UK TV network Channel 4 in 2005.
Availability
But despite its popularity with audiences and its status as a UK Christmas tradition for decades, Christmas Night with the Stars would later become another victim of the BBC's infamous tape wiping practices that similarly left other popular BBC programs such as Doctor Who and Dad's Army with missing episodes. As a result of these procedures, only the 1964 and 1972 editions of the program are available to be viewed in full, with video and audio segments from the 1958, 1967, 1968, and 1970 programs also being accessible. A full copy of the 1958 program and the Dad's Army segment from the 1969 program are also known to exist with the archives of the British Film Institute, but these copies have not yet been made publicly viewable. To date, the 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, and 1971 editions of the program remain completely lost with no known archives, and may remain so indefinitely.
List of Episodes
| # | Air Date | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | December 25th, 1958 | Partially Found [1] [2] | Full copy known to exist within BFI archives.[1] Previous online upload of full episode known to exist, but no functioning archives are available.[2] |
| 2 | December 25th, 1959 | Lost | |
| 3 | December 25th, 1960 | Lost | |
| 4 | December 25th, 1962 | Lost | Recreation of Steptoe and Son segment. |
| 5 | December 25th, 1963 | Lost | |
| 6 | December 25th, 1964 | Found | |
| 7 | December 25th, 1967 | Footage: Lost / Audio: Partially Found | Audio mistakenly labelled as being from 1962. |
| 8 | December 25th, 1968 | Footage: Lost / Audio: Partially Found | Audio from Dad's Army segment available on Dad's Army: The Lost Tapes CD. |
| 9 | December 25th, 1969 | Lost | Full copy of Dad's Army segment known to exist within BFI archives.[3] |
| 10 | December 25th, 1970 | Footage: Lost / Audio: Partially Found | Audio from Dad's Army segment available on Dad's Army: The Lost Tapes CD. |
| 11 | December 25th, 1971 | Lost | |
| 12 | December 25th, 1972 | Found |
External Links
References
- ↑ Page for the 1958 edition of Christmas Night with the Stars on the BFI archives' website. Retrieved 21 Dec '22
- ↑ (Non-functioning) archive of a YouTube upload of the full 1958 edition of Christmas Night with the Stars. Retrieved 21 Dec '22
- ↑ Page for an extract of the 1969 edition of Christmas Night with the Stars on the BFI archives' website. Retrieved 21 Dec '22