"The Secret Story of the BBC Christmas Tapes"

[Brundle-Fly]

A good laugh but very salty language if you decide to watch it with your octogenarian parents, which I did. They didn't seem to mind hearing Tom Baker effin' and jeffin' but I blushed a few times. It was the strip club scene from Minder in 1980 all over again.

That Grace Dent What We Watched For Christmas TV 1988 show on before was honest about how dated and shit LE tv was back then but the clips selection was mostly limp rather than enjoyably cringeworthy.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I watched this the other day. It's only half an hour long, but I felt that was enough time to cover an interesting if fairly slight subject. As for the talking heads, they're all people who were actually involved in the making of the tapes, so you do get some insight into the things you mentioned, BH.

I liked it a fair bit but did find Phillip Schofield really irritating when he tried to make it all sound far more dramatic than it really was. The guys behind the tapes were far more interesting like you say and it's a shame it didn't just feature them. Still, the clips themselves were a lot of fun and I'm glad I watched the show in general.

[daf]

That Grace Dent What We Watched For Christmas TV 1988 show

Wonder if they're going to do an annual one of these - so 1989 next year?

[Norton Canes]

As long as they don't let Grace Dent present it, slurring and flaunting her gaucherie like a sloshed lush.

[Brundle-Fly]

As long as they don't let Grace Dent present it, slurring and flaunting her gaucherie like a sloshed lush.

I watched this with my folks and the entire show they couldn't get their heads around Dent: her face, delivery, manner and revealing dress. "Who is this weird person?" uttered at every one of her links.

[greencalx]

A good laugh but very salty language if you decide to watch it with your octogenarian parents, which I did. They didn't seem to mind hearing Tom Baker effin' and jeffin' but I blushed a few times.

Ditto in my household. I Was a bit disappointed the tapes weren't  a bit  more imaginative than well known faces being liberal with their Fs and Cs.

[kalowski]

Random screen grab from White Power Christmas:

Little and Large racists?

[the]

Bit of a cheek to claim that Noel Edmonds/Auntie's Bloomers created a new genre by showing the outtakes on TV in the 80s and 90s, when It'll Be Alright on the Night had been doing it since 1977.

This thought crossed my mind too as I watched, but I concluded that it was referring specifically to BBC clips. I don't think IBAONT used BBC clips (or if it did, very rarely), and it wasn't until Auntie's Bloomers in 1991 that there was any programming based on BBC outtakes.

This was an enjoyable show, made a decent attempt to fill in the story behind the more famous tapes. There was an element of the talking heads trying to tell you how to feel but it was thankfully minimal.

Nicely put together by Rhys Thomas and well researched (including archive work - didn't spot a single clip that looked like it was sourced from Youtube). Used a decent selection of the funniest moments whilst keeping the sexually-frustrated beardy engineer atmosphere in full view. There were also some clips snuck in from other Xmas tapes (such as the YTV one with the angry old man on it).

[olliebean]

This thought crossed my mind too as I watched, but I concluded that it was referring specifically to BBC clips. I don't think IBAONT used BBC clips (or if it did, very rarely), and it wasn't until Auntie's Bloomers in 1991 that there was any programming based on BBC outtakes.

Yes, although they did use the word "genre" and BBC outtakes are not a genre in themselves. IBAotN used clips from ITV Christmas tapes, which were not exclusively filth as this programme sought to imply.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

As long as they let Grace Dent present it, with her fucking brilliant, massive knockers front and centre.

FTFY.

[Norton Canes]

She's back on, doing summer TV stuff this time.

[Norton Canes]

Still acting like an old soak. Keep your hands still!

[Rev+]

Nice to see a clip from the now legendary EastEnders 'Gutbuster' sequence, though.

[Chriddof]

Are there ever any outtakes of Denis Norden saying "Welcome to It'll Be Alright On The Night 7 *OH BOLLOCKS I GOT THE NUMBER WRONG MAY WE DO IT AGAIN PLEASE*."

Always got the sense he was somehow a bit aloof from having his own outtakes existing.

Somehow I didn't see this post back in 2018, but I can think of two examples of actual Norden outtakes appearing on that programme. One from a 70s / 80s advert he was doing for toffee or something, and he messes up his line because his mouth's full; and there was a more relatively recent one from the late 90s / early 2000s where he accidentally photobombs some presenter's piece to camera as they both go down the same escalator in a shopping centre. (Norden suddenly realizes he's messed up this bloke's shot simply from standing behind him, and makes the very unwise decision to attempt to save it by looking "casual" - in other words, turning to the side and leaning his back against the rail, which makes everything much more ridiculous. And the presenter delivers his line perfectly...)

[non capisco]

Nice to see a clip from the now legendary EastEnders 'Gutbuster' sequence, though.

Was it all punishingly slow and avant garde and had sort of pixie music playing over the top of it?

I mean I can take or leave Grace Dent but if this also featured an ostrich running in slow motion to the Chariots Of Fire music then we're laughing.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

We only saw the gutbusters being ordered, not consumed. Extremely disappointing.

One thing that was " punishingly slow" was Grace Dent's presenting of the clips. She appeared to be on the same mogadon that Tony Hart used to take.

[touchingcloth]

I can't believe they broadcast Bungle fucking Zippy up the arse for kids to see.

[Chriddof]

We only saw the gutbusters being ordered, not consumed. Extremely disappointing.

I've managed to track down the "Gutbuster" episode on Youtube (thanks to that Grace Dent programme identifying the year). This is a link to an omnibus edition, and the episode within it seems to be the one from Monday 24th July 1995:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Degyg1sqWHs

And here's the BBC Genome link...

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1995-07-24

At 9 min 52 seconds into that Youtube upload, you get the bit that was in Grace Dent's Slow-Motion Video Show. And at 10 min 46 secs (after RICKEEEE and Bianca have had another tiff) we get the aftermath. Sorry to say this, but it's a little bit of a Mandela situation. A quick recap:

It opens on a shot of this other character who's with the Mitchells (don't know who it is) who's been defeated by the Gutbuster, and putting his knife and fork down. Then we cut to the Mitchells having cleaned their plates. Phil asks the third man "You not hungry?", despite the fact that the other man has clearly done his level best to eat a Gutbuster, and is not a cockney bin bag on legs. Said bloke replies, "Where'd you put all that?" Grant says: "Actually, I could go for another one... how 'bout you, bruv?" Phil declines - one Gutbuster was all he felt like having today.

There's no endless circling tracking shot, no repeated grunting or chewing or burping, no pixie music or anything. You just get what I described, and then it segues into Grant asking the owner of the cafe about the best place to pull birds or whatever bloody thing the character of Grant Mitchell would usually ask. (I didn't watch much farther into the following bit.) There is the vague possibility that a punishingly avant garde segment may have been edited out for the omnibus edition, but I have no way of proving that.

[non capisco]

Yeah, in my heart of hearts I knew all that to be the case. 2020 is the fucking worst, man.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

So, all the avant garde cockney hardman munching that the boy capisco has described lovingly on more than one occasion...never actually happened?

[non capisco]

Seems not, mate. Cast me out into raw nowhere if you must. Memory is a capricious and pliant thing.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Seems not, mate. Cast me out into raw nowhere if you must. Memory is a capricious and pliant thing.

You might have been conflating it with a memory of a scene a few years down the line ,from " The Royle Family", with Ralf Little and his mate who looked like one of The Fall's latter day guitarists having a right old munching session in the Royle Family kitchen.That went on for a bit, if memory serves.

[Chriddof]

Oh god. Have I made a fool of myself by taking a CaB in-joke at face value? Because if I have, that's another inconsequential embarrassment that'll pop back into my mind years from now, and cause me to cringe inside out.

[non capisco]

Oh god. Have I made a fool of myself by taking a CaB in-joke at face value? Because if I have, that's another inconsequential embarrassment that'll pop back into my mind years from now, and cause me to cringe inside out.

No, not at all! You've merely provided the final, inevitable, crushing proof that I've clearly been talking out of my aris all these fucking years about this Gutbuster sequence in Eastenders. God knows how I misremembered it as some kind of arthouse thing that they all ate in real time but I genuinely did. I must point out that it was also misremembered and added to by my friend and colleague Ruaraidh and it was him that came up with the celebrated "pixie music in the background" flourish. Humouring me, obviously. ARRGHH MATE NO I SAW IT this is Jaws' girlfriend in Moonraker not having braces all over again. C3-PO and his silver leg. Everything's ending and why should this ludicrous saga be any different?

[pigamus]

We only saw the gutbusters being ordered, not consumed. Extremely disappointing.

One thing that was " punishingly slow" was Grace Dent's presenting of the clips. She appeared to be on the same mogadon that Tony Hart used to take.

She herself has often pointed out her strong resemblance to Fenella from Chorlton and the Wheelies and once you see it

[Dead Soon]

You might have been conflating it with a memory of a scene a few years down the line ,from " The Royle Family", with Ralf Little and his mate who looked like one of The Fall's latter day guitarists having a right old munching session in the Royle Family kitchen.That went on for a bit, if memory serves.

He's right, you know? Here's the scene in question, ''celebrated pixie music'' and all:

https://youtu.be/k-Zmi9WJqbY