Festive Televigion

Merry Interim to you all!

It’s after Christmas and somewhere near the other one I don’t really go in for¹. For a little context, if you’ve not been reading my far-too-excited Notes posts on Substack, my family and I are on a trip to New Hampshire for Christmas and New Year. My sister and brother-in-law live here, and we try to visit once a year if we can. I’ve always felt immediately at home here in the US, probably because my brain is wired fully to the sitcoms, films and other American TV shows I grew up on. I’m so indoctrinated that I even enjoy Hershey’s chocolate.

Somehow we ended up in this dream house, carved into the woods and snow.

I realise how fortunate we are to be able to do such a big trip all together, and stay in a ridiculously comfortable house for two weeks². I’m currently drinking Peanut Butter Banana Milkshake New England Coffee that I got delivered to my sister’s house early in December. There are Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Cookies and Kilwin’s Sour Gummi Bears in easy reach. Yesterday we ice skated then I had a monstrously good pastrami sandwich with waffle fries followed by Scrambled Pancakes for lunch³.

All of which is to say, I think my critical faculties might be entirely swayed by the magic of the season. This post hopes to give you some Televigion to tide you over to 2025, a summary of what we’ve managed to watch in amongst the magical cold, the plethora of baked, fried and peanut butter deliciousness, and the highly troubling incoming leadership.

1. Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Christmas Fishing – This was the first full family watch in the holiday house, and was as calming, warm and gently hilarious as ever. It didn’t even suffer too much from the poor video quality I was able to achieve at this early stage of foreign TV exploration⁴.
2. Tiddler – This year’s Julia Donaldson adaptation, these half hour animations are generally very good and occasionally a bit rubbish⁵. This year felt like they took it back to basics after a slightly unsuccessful Tabby McTat, and it was all the better for it. We’ve watched it at many a bedtime, sometimes while wearing the matching pyjamas.
3. The Wonderful World of Disney Holiday Spectacular/Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade – On one of the first nights here, when jetlag had sent most of the family to bed, I searched the Holiday section on the Roku box that provides the TV in this house, and came across the Disney Parks Holiday Spectacular. It felt like the right sort of easily consumed background light and sound to see the stragglers through to bedtime. But oh god, the awkwardness… The actual musical performances were fine, but the links and staged sections could not be more cringeworthy. I don’t really know who the audience is supposed to be, but it’s like the worst moments of live TV in the UK, taped and presented as genuinely entertaining. I’m glad that the US can sometimes remind me that a little bit of UK self-awareness is vital in presenters. The Christmas Day Parade got more of a pass as it was on the TV once we’d opened presents on the big day and were basking in the glow of oversized cinnamon buns.
4. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl⁶ – Brilliant, hilarious and requested on repeat by various members of the family. I’m very pleased there is a vehicle for terrible puns and nostalgic Britishness, and long may it continue.
5. Beat Saber VR – Boxing Day was an expansion of our holiday group to include some of my sister’s friends. One of them brought their Oculus VR headset and got Beat Saber going. We have it at home on our PlayStation VR, but haven’t loaded it up since my wife was pregnant in 2020 (though she did play during that time!) It turns out that our 4 year old is a complete natural, and was not phased at all. It reminded me that the world advances and we stay still, unless we drag ourselves along. Expect some more VR chat in the coming year! It’s as valid a Televigion screen as any.
6. Doctor Who: Joy to the World – Somehow I lasted until the 27th December to watch this. I hope it is clear that I am a huge Doctor Who fan⁷. The delay from broadcast to watching was helped by my lack of social media time while on holiday, a very welcome break from spoilers and the worst of the news in the world. We ended up watching all together, seven of us on various far too slouchy sofas that don’t permit sitting up straight. I’m the only mega-fan these days, though my dad is the reason I watch at all and watched from the very first episode, literally hiding behind the sofa as the cliche goes. The rest of the group have dipped in and out, but all of us enjoyed this Christmas romp. It was properly funny, and Ncuti Gatwa won over those who hadn’t seen him yet. Personally, I thought Nicola Coughlan was underused, and it has the perennial Steven Moffat problem of an absolutely terrific setup and a muddled conclusion. Also, I’m still not used to the level of tears that flow from the Fifteenth Doctor. He did feel much more confident and settled in though. I’m very excited for this Season 2.
7. Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone – These Ghost Stories are always enjoyable, and a bit of tradition for me and the Televigion Mum. This year’s offering was atmospheric but completely predictable. I bought this book in Reedmor Books in Portsmouth to get my spooky Christmas fix.
8. North by Northwest – This was a suggestion of my brother-in-law, based on the Hitchcock Collection being on the Criterion Channel. Maybe even five years ago, I’d have loved to watch this Hitchcock classic as part of my filmic education, but for some reason I find anything that exists solely in the real world much less engaging these days (unless it has a lot of comedy to save it). I ended up heading up to bed after 45 mins, and listened to the Adam Buxton Christmas Podcast with Joe Cornish⁸. I did also fall asleep while listening, so maybe my general energy levels were also a factor in my enjoyment.
9. Gavin and Stacey: The Finale – I have watched all of Gavin and Stacey, but it does not particularly linger in my memory as a classic. As of this post, we have watched the first hour of the 90-minute finale (pausing only for the requirement for sleep after a few rounds of an amazing new board game I bought, Phantom Ink⁹) I’ve always found the setup and characters a little cliched and, even more so now in 2024, outdated. But it is also much funnier than that would suggest. I suppose some of it is familiarity. But it is so clear what the expected outcome is, the bride to be Sonia is a caricature that no-one will root for¹⁰ but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt to see where it all ends up, and will probably laugh out loud a few more times in the final thirty minutes.

So there we have it, a summary of the Televigion times. I’ll be getting back to exploring Fancy Falls in the new year. There will be alternating weekly posts of Televigion deeper dives and more involved or evolved Fancy Falls stories for your enterjoyment.

Happy New Day to you all, whenever you are reading.

Footnotes

1. If you’re celebrating a new year, you might as well celebrate every new month, week, or day. I try to, but don’t always stay up past midnight for no good reason. An example of a good reason would be if there was some incredibly enthralling television, the first episode of Wolf Hall for example. ↩︎
2. This year more than ever, it was necessary to do something wildly different and make some happiness. I hope you can forgive the indulgence. ↩︎
3. The Friendly Toast have a house-made maple turmeric habanero hot sauce that they don’t yet sell, but are working on bottling for purchase. I fell in love with it. We snuck some into one of our individual maple syrup bottles to take home. They also provide table dinosaurs for any young diners. ↩︎
4. I was casting, not plugged in via HDMI. Rookie error. ↩︎
5. The Highway Rat. Urgh. ↩︎
6. It is coming to US Netflix on 31st December, for anyone not UK based. I mean, there are also things called VPNs, don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them? I certainly haven’t. ↩︎
7. 6ft1 in fact. ↩︎
8. I don’t think it will ever happen, but I think my perfect Christmas Day would pause for 90 mins to let me listen to this on Christmas morning. I love these silly men so dearly, and sometimes forget how much they fit my exact comedy, film and TV tastes. ↩︎
9. Somehow I bought a locally produced board game. Yep, I’m accidentally very hipster. ↩︎
10. Except with the male stripper at the hen, I think that her reaction was fair enough and our group of characters are a bit regressive. ↩︎