24 Nov 1998 |

ITV Christmas/Winter Schedule 1998-99

‘Tis the season to be jolly and so ITV reveals its Christmas presents and turkeys (and there are quite a few of the latter and not so many of the former). ITV unveiled its Christmas and Winter 99 programme schedules at a packed Fashion Café in the heart of London’s West End. A nice surprise is that ITV does have some half decent programmes to offer.

In what is starting to become as traditional as turkey, presents and family arguments, there are again festive specials of ITV main cash cows: Coronation Street, Heartbeat, Emmerdale and The Bill. Heaven forbid that we might not see enough of our favourite characters during the year and so ITV deems it fit to inflict/reward us with yet more chances.

The supposed jewel in ITV’s line would appear to be an adaption of Laurie Lee’s classic novel Cider With Rosie. ITV even dares to show something interesting (some might say controversial) in the first adaption of a Catherine Cookson story since she passed away earlier this year. Colour Blind deals with the problems faced by a mixed race couple in early 1900s Tyneside and those faced by their daughter slightly later in the 1930s.

Pantomime returns for the first time in years with Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye’s reworking of Jack And The Beanstalk. Featuring the talents of Paul Merton, Julie Walters, Neil Morrissey and Denise Van Outen, the production will surely appeal to all ages between 4 and 10. As if one dose of Ms Van Outen weren’t enough, ITV is also offering us a Babes In The Woods Christmas special.

There will also be a Christmas tribute to ‘one of Britain’s best loved comedians’ with Stanley Baxter In Person, which, if I’m not mistaken, is what Channel 4 did about two Christmases ago.

In what will probably drive some people to distraction, there will be a chance to see the Spice Girls in one of their Wembley Stadium concerts. Chris Tarrant will present an extended one-off edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. Denise Van Outen (again!) presents The Record Of The Year 1998, in which members of the public get to vote for their favourite record of the year (Celine Dion vs Run DMC or my personal favourite Brandy and Monica). To get us in the right mood for festive season there will be a one-off Christmases From Hell, a documentary to reflect ten years since the Lockerbie air disaster and Christmas From Omagh.

Of the cavalcade of programmes that were shown to journalists to showcase the Winter ’99 schedule, those that stick in my mind were: The Vice, yet another hard-hitting police drama this time set in the vice department of the Metropolitan Police; Stephen Lawrence, the dramatisation of the struggle faced by Doreen and Neville Lawrence to bring to justice the killers of their son; A Touch of Frost, which sees David Jason return to role of DI Jack Frost after a two year absence; The Grimelys which, following last year’s pilot, returns for a full series; the return of yet another docu-soap Airline; a new series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?; Better Homes, a blatant rip off of BBC1’s Changing Rooms; NBA Basketball, which transfers over from Channel 4 and the network premiere of ITV’s favourite spy, James Bond, in Goldeneye.