Christmas Wrapping: Xmas at the BBC, 1976-1984

[MsBkirk]

'Pointy trees, pointy pointy' - a Steve Martin fan at all?

[MsBkirk]

The 'head of Santa' ident looks like a prototype for a recent Doctor Who villain with a smiley/frown y face mask on either side of his head...or am I thinking of the Mayor in The Nightmare Before Christmas?

[thx1138ga]

Greeat!  Well done!!!! Thanks alot.

[glrswalker100]

cheers i remembered a few of those

[FLEMISHDOG]

how do i find myself watching this every year in December without fail? it's a bloody christmas tradition for this sad ident lover

[MrBb100000]

WATCHING ALL THESE AGAIN

[DoubleDS9]

Enormously enjoyable. I love idents. great work :)

[vania1013]

poor sad man what happended to 1975 easy to find on you tube

[Applemask]

@vania1013 It is now. It wasn't two and a half years ago.

[allen1jeremy]

In early 1978 the Christmas pudding ident was given away as a prize on an edition of Swap Shop but only the pudding.

[Feisty1967]

I didn't like your comment about Timmy Mallett, but I'll let that go, I love your vids!

[ATVmidlands5581]

Hi

your right, these mechanical idents were part of the fun and were an event in themselves come xmas. Enjoyed relooking at these again. 'The severed head of father xmas' comment made me LOL.

ATVmidlands UK

[Feisty1967]

Thankyou Applemask that's the only time I've laughed today.

[Ropponmatsu2]

Thanks for these. It's the 29/12/09, and aren't we all fed up with David Tennant molesting reindeer. Gone by Boxing Day should be the policy.

The pudding IS the Citizen Kane of yuletide idents for the simple strength of it's memory. I mentioned looking at some of these old idents to my mother.....And guess which one she remembered, without any prompting at all, 32 YEARS AFTER IT WAS LAST SHOWN.

I've never worked in advertising, suffice to say I know you can't buy corporate branding like that.

[Applemask]

No, no, no, losing them by Boxing Day is far too depressing. It's like the telly is yelling "CHRISTMAS IS OVER YOU BAAAASTAAAARDS" right in your face. Idents should go back to the grind on January 2nd like everyone else in the nation.

[LANBritain1]

@Applemask

or when Christmas traditionally ended

on january 6th :)

[pistak09]

The David Tennant molesting reindeer is probably one of the worst ones i have seen but its shown as its DT's last Dr Who, the Beeb could always use the 1978 ident again :-) i wonder what the reaction could be in 2010.

[palang25]

With regards to the 1984 BBC1 ident. What did the cracker look like before the three snow people pulled it.

[Applemask]

@palang25 Well, that's the question. It was a static sculpture, we never saw the cracker being pulled.

[palang25]

I really enjoyed your videos.Well done. Have you made any about ITVs Xmas idents?

[pistak09]

Brilliant piece of work Applemask, just like your ITV in the Face presentations. The severed head of Father Christmas is a cracking way to put it, if i saw this when i was younger i'd probably ended up doin the same expression.

[rouens]

i dont get why matey with the british rail voice gives his opionion, you werent there you dont know

[LANbritain]

Such an excellent commentary

I was thinking of doing something like this....but you did it before me!

anyway - this is superb

well done! and merry xmas!

[jono546]

Did you have a cold when doing this voice over.The sniffs and gulps,suggest you need a vicks nasal spray.Good post,though.

[philipareed]

Surely the pudding isn't covered in icing - it's supposed to be cream!

[Applemask]

That occured to me after finishing the video. That was from the TV Cream article, though.

[trailerstrailers]

fascinating thanks

[UKSazzy67]

I've seen this video 100 times and it still makes me laugh like a drain! Especially the bit where it says "And BBC1 gave us another bloody snowflake!"..Has me in stitches everytime. Thankyou Applemask. And at this time of year, it is very seasonal.

[UKSazzy67]

There's something faintly disturbing about the 1984 Xmas ident. I think it's the way it speeds up and slows down then it suddenly goes dark. Am I correct in saying that there was a night-time version of this ident? Or have I imagined it?

[Applemask]

The speeding up/slowing down is my ninja editing skills at work. The darker ones are the evening version in crepuscular purple, and the night-time version. At the closedown it fades to black.

[JoeScaramanga]

I've never understood the UK's obsession with Victoriana at Christmas. It wasn't exactly a happy time.

Do you think in 100 years time, we'll have Christmas images portraying hooded street urchins mugging old ladies, and knifing people loaded down with Argos carrier bags?

[Applemask]

It's not just the BBC, it's a British thing. Victoriana = Christmassy. Maybe it's because that's when most of our traditions were first canonised (Albert brought things like Christmas Trees over from Germany)

[JoeScaramanga]

That's far too sensible an answer

[rouens]

no one is asking for a better microphone, just take your voice off there is no need for it

[Applemask]

Well, I think the narration is the whole point, otherwise it'd be a slideshow, and you can get that from TV Ark.

[rouens]

must admit he does have a point about the narrator loving himself , wouldnt be too bad if he had a good voice over but it sounds like someone on a british rail platform tanoy in 1972!

[Applemask]

You have no idea about the depths of my self-loathing and disgust. And I can't afford a better microphone.

[BNPCrusade]

Potentially great video ruined by fucking shit narrator. Oh, look at me I want to narrate a video, I want to be famous - but my voice is shit... oh, well, my ego wins I will talk shit anyway. Fuck you.

[Applemask]

Well, at least I'm white. I wish you wouldn't sully Brian's image by associating him with you. He'd kick your racist ass.

[linfits]

record your dialogue again without a cold and with a decent mic

[Applemask]

I don't have a decent mic and I always have a cold.

[johnson9dantheman]

He recorded it OK in my opinion, despite having a cold....

[pistak09]

I agree that Applemask is try so hard to entertain us with whatever equiptment that he can afford.

[snazzzzz]

genius....

[Nickyootoob]

Is there a possiblity this Christmas of a Christmas Wrapping Redux, with an update to 2008? Or even a version of ITV's xmas idents?

[Applemask]

Yeah, I think I'll do a fourt one this Christmas.

[TashkentFox]

I always thought the cracker with three halfs was rather disturbing too.

[UKSazzy67]

Did you have a bad cold when you made this commentary? It sounds like you have.

[Applemask]

No, I just have a nasal voice.

[wildenfree]

Good job mate, im old enough to remember these first time round. I love your dead pan delivery.

[BNCA70]

good effort mate, I remember getting dead excited about these when they came on. How sad?

[jaychristie909]

These videos are fantastic mate, sounds like something from Screenwipe. Very well done, you should take this further with regular idents from other channels as well as the BBC. They're hilarious.

[krakenwave]

Oooh mate, you sound like you got a cold. Call Malcolm's mum!

[Applemask]

No, that's just my voice, I'm afraid.

[fraserkatie]

Loving the sadism in this effort! You missed out numbers though "197"

[Applemask]

Actually, I did put them in, they just didn't come out, because Windows Movie Maker was presumably devloped by Franz Kafka.

[artvandelay1]

Marvellous. 'Pointy pointy' made me laugh like a drain for some reason.

[rouens]

brings tears to my eyes and how sad i miss it all

[TVCream]

Blimey. As the author of said TV Cream feature (six years ago, actually), can I just say this is rather excellently done?

[Applemask]

No, you bloody well can't. Obviously, yes, you can, and I'm incredibly grateful, especially as surprisingly little of the original article survived my relentless ad-libs and frustrated re-takes.

[AbiH31]

Awesome. Idents are pretty cool. I didn't watch the whole thing but it looks good. Thanks for posting!

[col2006ie]

Excellent. Will you be offering your views on other Christmas idents?