FACTORALY - CHRISTMAS: DAY 8 - RADIO TIMES

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

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Merry Christmas, Simon. Merry Christmas, Bruce. Welcome to Factorial, everyone. Yes, hello, everyone. This is a special because we are going to be giving you 12 in 12 days, because there are 12 days of Christmas. Indeed, instead of the usual one a week, you get one every single day for the whole 12 days of Christmas. But because it's one a day, they're obviously not as long as they normally are. Indeed. So these are going to be relatively short, relatively punchy, quick little snippets of festive Christmassy informative fun.

Yeah, of course we're going to take a subject every day. Yes. But the subjects will be Christmas relevant. Indeed. So that's the plot. Let's get on with it. Off we go. So what is our Christmassy topic for today, Bruce? Well, our Christmassy topic for today is something which most households will have one of. Toilets.

It's not very Christmassy. That's very nearly every household, inside toilet. No, it's the Radio Times, the Christmas special double edition. Oh, the Radio Times. The Radio Times is great. Wow. Special double edition. Oh, the Radio Times. The Radio Times is great. Wow. Started in 1923 with a message from John Reith, who was in charge of the BBC at the time. OK. And Radio Times was originally invented because there was radio and none of the newspapers would put any radio listings in the newspapers because they figured that it would take away from people reading newspapers.

Oh, really? Brilliant. So the Radio Times had to print its own listings to tell people when stuff was on the radio i see and obviously back then you said 1923 didn't you so yes it was just radio it wasn't tv programs but listings as to what times different shows were available on the wireless exactly and you and you could get your highlight pen out and highlight which radio shows you wanted to watch. Do you ever do the Radio Times double edition? I used to. I haven't actually done it for a couple of years, but I used to religiously go through with a highlighter and go, oh, look, Christmas Doctor Who special and this, that and the other. I think with the advent of streaming devices, the whole thing has become a

little bit pointless yes well also with uh on-screen tv program guys yes of course yeah so so you don't need it but it's a tradition isn't it it is well at one point the radio times christmas special was the world's biggest selling magazine. No, really? Yeah. Wow. Because every house, I mean, there was something like 20 million households in the UK. And pretty much every single household would have a, I mean, they sometimes even bought like the double edition of the Radio Times and the TV Times one. Wow, belt and braces. Apparently, the Radio Times started including tv listings in 1936 yeah by

which point this this newfangled thing was becoming more popular um i'd never read this before but apparently tv was taken off air for the whole of world war ii yes there was no tv whatsoever and therefore radio times just went back to doing radio again and then resumed the TV listings thereafter. I had a look at the different covers because the Christmas issues have beautiful illustrations on the front, often depicting sort of families gather round a fire or Santa Claus or things like that. Occasionally photographs of what was on TV at the time, so Morecambe and Wise, things like that appear. Well, this year they've got Wallace and Gromit on the front.

Oh, have they? Yes. Good for them. I should point out that I have my own copy. You've got it already, yes, of course, yeah. But the wartime issues were quite interesting. They carried on producing them during the war, but the pictures were largely black and white. They were printed on lower quality paper, you know, because of rationing.

And it's quite interesting to sort of look at the styles as they've changed through the years. The first one, back in 1923, was a beautiful hand-drawn picture of a family sitting next to a fireplace, huddled around the wireless. Fathers there smoking a pipe, children sitting quietly and inhaling exactly yes all that sort of thing um and uh yes they've sort of varied over the years but um you you know exactly what you're picking up don't you when you go into the shop and you see that thing sitting there it's yeah unmistakable and i i love the fact that it still exists yes yeah it's such a great thing apparently the two-week issue uh started in 1969 uh up until that it was just a one week

um issue and you bought two of them yeah one week after another in 1969 there was just so much on tv and and the radio that they decided to bundle two weeks together in one. And it's been the same ever since. They've been quite clever because there's a lot of holiday ads. Because traditionally, the commercials you see on TV at this time of year are very much about, you know, sort of book your holiday. Of course, yeah. Or there's medication ones. Yeah.

Or part work. I used to play a game where a group of you are watching TV. You used to shout out part work or holidays or meds or whatever. Advertising bingo. Yes, exactly. It was great fun. I found that the best-selling edition of the Christmas Radio Times was 1988. For whatever reason, that's the one that sold the most copies. 11,220,666 copies were sold in 1988,

getting them a Guinness record as the biggest-selling edition of any British magazine in history before or since. Goodness. Yeah. Well, quite right too. So go and get your copy of the Radio Times. Yes. Oh, and a highlighter pen.

Yes, of course. Mind you, depending on when this episode comes out, you might have already missed Christmas. Yes, but it's a double issue. Yes, so it'll put you in good stead for New Year's. Exactly. Well, thank you for listening to this Christmas special. Indeed. Thank you very much for coming along.

We hope you'll join us again next time for another fun-filled episode of Fact or Really. Bye-bye. Au revoir.