Christmas Radio Times 1990

Following on from yesterday’s Christmas in the 80’s article, today, we are looking at the next decade on. The hairdos hadn’t improved much by the 90s but TV graphics were getting so much better as this clip from Christmas Eve on BBC1 in 1990 shows…

Gone are the wind up toys and the odd flickering candle as idents. A new era in computer graphics was dawning and the TV networks made the most of them! By 1995, Wallace and Gromit turned up on BBC idents too…

Mind you, Sky One didn’t go Christmas crackers with its idents back then. Take a look at this decidedly understated ident from 1993.

Even the weather forecasters had got in on computer graphics, and here’s what the weather was doing on Boxing Day 1993

The format of the Queen’s Christmas Day message hasn’t changed much over the years since her first TV Christmas broadcast in 1957. Here’s what she had to say in 1994.

That same year, Rab C Nesbitt broadcast his own message… contains naughty sweary words!

Another comedy favourite in the 90s was Birds of A Feather, and here’s a clip from their 1994 Christmas special

In the Queen Vic on Christmas Day 1997, a disillusioned – and thinner – Phil sold his half of the pub to Bianca’s dad Dan for £5! Peggy wasn’t impressed…

Over in Liverpool, Christmas 1998 didn’t bring a whole lot of peace to all men either, especially on Brookside Close…

In 1992, Cilla Black’s Christmas Blind Date was a vital ingredient of Christmas day and a lorra lorra people tuned in…

And by the late 90s, the Vicar of Dibley was as important to Christmas as trees and chocolate. Here’s a clip from one of my favourite Dibley specials, The Christmas Lunch Incident.

1999 saw the Christmas special of a Royle Family which was when Denise went into labour with baby David, but I wasn’t able to find a clip for it. I know! I was disappointed too, but instead, here’s a clip from the episode when Denise tells her mum and dad she’s pregnant.

If you were a kid in the 90s, you may well have seen this Christmas broadcast from the broom cupboard with Andi Peters on Christmas Eve 1990

You may also have seen Take That appearing on Live and Kicking

And it was almost obligatory to watch Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Here’s a clip from the 1992 show, It’s Christmastime Again Charlie Brown

By the time Christmas 1999 rolled around, we were all worried about the Y2K phenomenon and expected watches to go backwards, super-computers to implode and the general destruction of mankind at midnight. Turned out ok in the end though! Here’s a clip from BBC’s live coverage of our transition into the new Millennium.

Let us know if you have any special telly memories from the 90s!