It is often remarked that Santa Claus’ famous red suit was first popularised by the Coca-Cola company in 1931, however many other facets of our supposedly traditional Christmas are much more recent inventions than we might like to think. For example, Santa’s sleigh was thought to have been pulled by huskies before a highly successful but mean-spirited initiative led by Bernard Matthews in 1978 to undermine the then-lucrative Christmas venison market. Likewise the annual excitement for the Christmas number one single was manufactured in the mid-nineties following a disastrous and clearly drunken appearance on daytime television by Mr Blobby.
It is a little known fact that since 1996, all Christmas number one singles have been written by tax-averse Poundland Elton John impersonator Gary Barlow and then vetted by a committee of luminaries which includes Ant McPartland, Neil Morrissey and noted real estate expert Nicki Chapman. And so we come to the most recent of Yuletide traditions - The No Stairway Christmas Special.
In this most festive of episodes we take a look at the year’s play listing offerings and formulate our top 5 “ones that got away” from the Golden Shuffle the first time around and then offer up three festivus playlists for each others’ criticism. Bill’s crying corner takes a sinister turn at Christmas as he outs himself as a sprout-hating Scrooge, Carl gives his favourite post-Christmas sandwich recipe and Tim finally breaks Carl’s electronic apathy with a barnstorming 19-minute version of a Bing Crosby classic.
This Week’s Playlists:
