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Jenny Morrill Dec 20, 2016

Russ Abbot, Bullseye, Noel Edmonds and a film we all watched in the same room. Christmas TV was more exciting in the 80s...

Cast your mind back to when Christmas Day wasn't about Doctor Who followed by sticking something on Netflix until it was time to go watch the annual fist fight outside the pub.

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In the 80s, Christmas was about seeing which fantastic fare the TV had decided to bless us with. Of course, the more prepared among us knew this well in advance, having eagerly pored over the Radio Times/TV Times to check that Jimmy Cricket's Family Laugh 'n' Waz would be shown. There it was – right after Reflections On The Eucharist With The Reverend Paul Leyland.

Val Doonican, the esteemed Irish singer and TV entertainer, has died. He was 88. Van Doonican Dies Doonican passed away “peacefully” at his home in South East England, his family confirmed Thursday morning. He was not suffering from any particular illness at the time of his death, according to his daughter Sarah. “It was just […]

The post Val Doonican, Famed Irish Singer, Dies At 88 appeared first on uInterview.

He is the whitest of the white trash, the kind of man who dumps raw sewage in a storm drain and kidnaps your boss as a Christmas present. And the only man to ever combine a leather belt with a bathrobe.

Randy Quaid has played lovable moocher ‘Cousin Eddie’ in four separate National Lampoon films, but his most famous performance still resides at yuletide. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, directed by Jeremiah C. Chechik) has weathered years of apathy to become something of a seasonal favourite. Watching Chevy Chase’s bipolar family man Clark Griswold lose his rag every December is now a festive tradition .

Yet Clark is not really the star of the movie at all, no that honour falls to Cousin Eddie Johnson arriving just past the half hour point wearing an insane grin and vinyl trooper hat. One of the reasons we love Eddie so much is his lack of self awareness.

Stone slacks, leather cardigan, pale denim – who wouldn’t want to dress like Alan Partridge? This may be dad brand clothing, but it announces you as the most confident man in the room. Driving gloves? That’s nothing. Try removing your coat and jacket then leaving the driving gloves until last. That takes guts, or failing that a complete lack of personal awareness. In other words it takes a Partridge.

Steve Coogan co-created and has played sports-journalist-turned-chat-show-host-turned-dj Alan Partridge on and off for 22 years. Nothing his character wears is random. For costume designer Julian Day (Berberian Sound Studio, Rush), working alongside perfectionist Coogan on Alpha Papa must have been a disciplined and probably quite demanding affair. But let their hard graft guide you to new heights of sartorial enlightenment. If you can’t pull off the powder blue short sleeved safari suit and suede moccasins Coogan wore (in character) to the premiere,...

The Box of Delights

N Conrad

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Over the years, the British TV networks have aired some amazing shows over the festive season. People will inevitably argue over the Christmas dinner table as to which of these shows are the best. In order to spare you all from such fierce debates we have decided to put together our list of the 10 best ever British TV Christmas shows.

1. The Snowman. As the debate about the best Christmas show rages on, it is ironic that the best ever British TV Christmas show is the one that contains absolutely no dialogue unless you count David Bowie’s cheesy intro scene. Raymond Briggs’ artwork and Aled Jones singing have ensured that this 80s cartoon will always remain at the top of this list.

2. The Box of Delights. Money was...

You could have heard a body drop when news reached the Filmshaft office that Dagenham was hosting a cauldron of gangster violence, sexual deviance and the supernatural. “What’s the story there? Why don’t we go the whole hog and report on the f—king local buses?” was just one response but when Filmshaft informed Ed Whitfield that there were vampires and free sandwiches involved, his mood changed. “I suppose I could go and take a look…”

It’s a freezing cold November morning in Dagenham, East London and I’m lost in a labyrinthine maze of industrial hangers and silver gilded fences. “Where the f—k am I?” is my question to a stray dog and I reach for the I-phone map app. This technological marvel, coded by a bastard evidently, tells me that my destination is the other side of an imposing 12 foot wall of perforated corrugated sheeting.