Oh What A Time... - #154 Christmas Special (Part 1)

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

This week we have a Christmas special for you in which we’ll take a good look at a whole array of festive traditions. This history of the Christmas annual, the history of the Christmas film and how about the history of our favourite Christmas stories.This week we’re still obsessed with keys, scams and grand pianos. If you’d like to get involved with the conversation you can reach us here: [e-mail]! The comedy history podcast that has spent as much time talking about the invention of custard as it has the industrial revolution is here with its first ever live show! Thursday 15th January at the Underbelly Boulevard in London’s Soho. 🎟 Tickets are on sale now: https://underbellyboulevard.com/tickets/oh-what-a-time/And thank you so much for subscribing guys!You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

O Watertime is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else, ad free, plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets and access to the O Watertime Group chat. Plus if you become an O Watertime All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis, will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you might have popped up.

For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash O-Watertime. Hello and welcome to, oh, what a time, welcome to a special Christmas episode. And on this podcast, we discuss all things history related, and sometimes subjects of jobs comes up. And tomorrow, I'll be picking up at the phone and calling a locksmith. Why? Because about two hours ago, the lock just fell off my front door. door. I'm not saying it's Fort Knox around here, but it just fell off. What happened? Did you step us through how that happened? It wasn't like a strong gust of weird. What happened? I closed the door. I had a clunking noise and I looked and I saw where the chamber, where the key should go, there was just nothing there. Okay. The whole lock had just fallen out.

On to your mat or onto the path outside. Inside the house. Security-wise, because you live on the rough-tuff streets of East London, are you going to be up all night with a baseball bat? Just in front of the door. It'll either be that or I'm going to get the chob out. Yes. I'm sorry.

I'm not sure that's going to help, mate. Sure. Because it's the original Edwardian door. My house has built like 1910 or something. So it's actually got like multiple locks. Some of them I don't have the keys for. Oh, wow. But it's actually got like little bars and like there's old, proper old key locks.

I don't even have the key for. But there's these chubs and stuff like that. So I won't have to sit on the porch with the shotgun. As someone who had to have their lock to change last year, it is going to cost you a billion pounds. So just be aware. Locksmith's a great trade. It's been a great trade for 2,000 years.

I watched an interview with a guy who was heavily involved. in creation of AI and he gave locksmith as one of the jobs people should move into now before it all collapses. Although the job is going to change, isn't it? It's all going to be like electronic key fobs in the future.

It should be. It should be electronic key fobs. Yeah. So you're going to have old-fashioned keys. Because like when we were kids, cars had keys like houses. Yep. And now it's just a and you know, my car detects when

the key is near it and opens anyway, which again, as Thomas found out, an imperfect system. Exactly. Do you know a new thing about that, by the way, talking of, you know, worry and crime and all this sort of stuff, if you leave your beat beat car key near the door, you can turn up with like this special thing, exactly. And then they can imitate your key by holding up this device outside and then go and unlock your car. So you have to leave it away from your front door. Yeah. How is that better than having just a normal key, like for a medieval door for your car, which worked well for a sense? Like, how is that better? It was never a bind, was it?

Just unlocking the car door. No, how much time are we saving across a year? I'd say maximum half an hour across a whole year. Well, I think half an hour is very generous. Defends. Also, Britain, you know, from what in San, Britain's productivity is stalling. With all of these labour-saving devices, what are we doing with all this time? What are we doing instead?

Do you want to hear my best car key store? Oh, yes, please. How many have you got? That's the gesture you've got like 12 of them. Do you top five? Do you top five car key stories? Welcome to Carkey Pod. My friend Gary Keely, this is about 1993, his dad, John, was picking me up from Scouts.

I guess it would have been beavers then, or Cubs even. He was picking me up. And he was picking me up in his blue fiesta. And he walked down the road, got his car key out, got in the blue fiesta, drove down the road for about 90 seconds, then realized he was in someone else's car. What, the keys just work in other cars? It just worked.

He turned around and came back and realized there was another blue, his blue fiesta was behind the blue fiesta he got in. This happened. This actually, I always thought these car keys had like a million different varieties, but I think if you had a blue fiesta, all the keys worked.

But I had a blue fiesta in the late night. just after I passed my test. And I remember there was a lady and she'd parked her blue fiesta next to mine. And for ages, I was trying to get into her car and she was in there waiting for her husband. And I remember she knocked on the window and said, sorry, I'm in this car.

And I said, it looked like she had been very polite to her sort of car thief. And I said, yeah, sorry, I'm in the car next door. But that is, that's great. For a point, do you know why in London this was a big thing about two years ago

Prius drivers basically have to lock all their doors when they're driving around No I'm sure it happens in other cities I just read about this

in relationship to London Like even in standard or something Yeah Why do Prius drivers need to lock their doors When they're driving around Take a guess

I don't know This feels like one of those Facebook statuses That gets copied and pasted around Oh yeah Elon Musk will have your data If you don't put a status update

Tonight saying that he's not allowed Do you want Elon must have your data? Do you? I don't. And that's why I'm sharing this because I'm brave enough to share it. Facebook, own all your photos

unless you copy and paste this. Exactly. No, the reason is because Priuses will slow down at traffic lights, people will assume it's their Uber because 85% of Uber's are Priuses and people will just get in the back. And then you have to go,

no, I'm not your Uber, you need to get out. That's so funny. And this is happening so much that basically if you drive a Prius in a big city, have to lock your doors. If you stop anywhere, someone will get in and assume you're their lift. That is fantastic. There you go.

No Elon must nonsense. Just cold, hard fact. Right. Welcome to Oh, at a time, as Chris says. This should be a fun episode, shouldn't it? I think it's a good one. It's all Christmas-themed stuff. Before we get into correspondence, should we talk about what we're talking about today?

I'm talking about the history of Christmas stories. A bit of Dickin stuff in there. Oh, lovely. I'm talking about the history of the Christmas annual. And I'll be giving you a brief history of the Christmas film Oh, that's a good one Nice I've got very strong feelings on my favourite Christmas film

We'll come to that later Shindler's List Jurassic Park Absolutely Oh actually Jurassic Park I would watch at Christmas Not that it's festive but it's sort of has It's fun, isn't it? It was my daughter's Christmas concert today this morning

Big gig There were little kids, they were reading doing things out before the sort of the choir in each class sang a song and there was a little girl she was in year four I think she's very small very little of a very sort of sweet gentle voice and she just started her little recital and someone's phone went off and it was the indiana jones theme music right really really loud but he didn't answer it and say i'm in a christmas concert i'll go back he just very slowly walked to the exit as the as as his ringtone completely completely droned out this little girl.

I thought, come on, come on me. Picked up his whip and his brown hat. And then ran across the playground being chased by a massive boulder. Rolled away from a massive boulder. I thought, come on, mate. He'd absolutely fucked it. That's, yeah.

What have you got, at that point, well, you have to immediately press quiet and give a sort of a little nod to other parents to say, I'm aware that that was unacceptable and it won't happen again. Yeah. A simple nod that says, I've been a twat.

Never mind. No. Right. Shall we crack in some correspondence before we head into the actual history? Let's do that. A bit of a different one today. The reason I'm reading this out is because I thought it's quite a fun thing for people to email in about. We consistently get mad scam emails that go straight to our junk for this podcast.

And one came today that didn't go into a junk and somehow made it through into the main inbox. I don't know how. But I'm going to read it out to you because I just think it's such a mad idea. that this would work. And my question to you, the listener, is, basically, what's the maddest scam email you've ever received? Is there anything you think can compete with this? I think this is brilliant.

Have you ever fallen for one? I haven't, no. I have friends, I have. I know I won't name names, but good friends of us, a comedian. Lost a lot of money, falling to one. So it can happen. Can't happen quite easy.

Have you? No, I came very close to falling for what was a very realistic one from the TV licensing agency. Okay, yeah. And then I looked at the... It was all great. And then I looked at the email address. That's the big one, isn't it?

Yeah, click on that. And it was like, EPSH7 at. And I thought, no, that's... No, no, no, no. Something's going on here. I'll only pay them half for money to be gorgeous. So this one says,

Hello, I hope this message finds you well. I am looking for a new home for my late husband's Yamaha Baby Grand Piano. No. Well, then I'm in. I'm in. Because I need one. And I would love it for to go to someone who will truly appreciate and care for this beautiful instrument. That's me. If you or anyone you know might be interested in giving it a cherished home, please feel free to get in touch with me at, and then it has the email address.

Warm regards, Andrea. So, yes. I love the idea that this person's husband has apparently passed away and there's a great big grand piano. And rather than linking, A, I'll give it to someone I love. B, I'll sell this. they've gone with the option of emailing a podcast A history podcast On the off chance that someone just wants a piano

Tom do me a favour What is it? Point out exactly what makes you think That that is a scam I'm genuinely I don't see the scam I do not see the scam in this One of us is going to end up with a piano

And let it be me And if she needs my details So help me God let me give her my details I love the piano Is the scam that I've got to find somewhere to hold a grand piano? Well, let's imagine a situation now. I'm Andrea, and you've both got to reply to try and get this baby grand piano. I want to hear from you first, Ellis.

What's your email saying? Let's see if you land this baby grand that definitely exists. Andrea, my daughter is learning the piano as we speak. We've got the room. I've always wanted a Yamaha grand piano. This is such a kind offer. Please let me pay you. To make things easier, I'm going to give you my bank details, and then you can take it from there.

At no point if you said my condolences, I find, for six, you've just skimmed over the death of the husband. My condolence is so sorry, L. All the best. Sort code, 30-20. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, Chris, rival email, to see if you get the bank, Grand Piano. Hello, my neighbour is a little fella called Bernie Torpies. And since the retirement of Elton John, he is scratching around. he's frustrated he's got all these brilliant lyrics

he needs someone to tinkle some ivories if you sim with that grand piano I'll knock up a few songs to Bernie's lyrics and the world will be restored there will be a better place you can point out the fact that Elton John's tour is coming to a close you all liked his we all enjoyed his music

this is a chance to create more of that this will be better I'm not sure that is a scam of course it is I've googled it it is there's hundreds of people is it a scam the old grand piano scam You don't genuinely think that someone has lost their husband, has a grand piano and is emailing podcast on the off chance someone wants a grand piano. Tom, she's grieving. She's gone mad.

To use your phrase, Ellis, are you thick? That's what you said to me a few times with that intonation, really punching the cup at the end. And I'm saying it to you guys, are you thick? No, I just can't wait to play. It's going to save me so much money. Talk me through the scam. The scam is, you reply going, I'm really sorry to hear about your husband I'm definitely interested in the baby grand piano

they say oh that's fantastic all we need to do is cover the costs to transport it to you sounds legit yeah can you do that I wish she's not going to do it herself is she what are your bank details at which point she got funerals to organise which point you guys apparently surrender all information

yes well how else would it work and I go I'll pick it up myself yeah and she go then what she goes fair enough I'm slightly nervous around people. I'm going through the grieving process at the moment. As I mentioned, my husband has just died.

I'd rather I sent it to you if that's all the same. Yeah, Tom. Yeah, I'd say, well, if she is a listener and she's trying to give one of the three of us her baby grand piano and you think it's a scam, shame on you. Shame on you. Well, Andrew, if you are, if it is genuine, please send a photo of you by the baby grand piano, holding up today's newspaper. And with a picture of a screenshot of your phone listening to the podcast. Exactly.

And after that, we're interested. If this was a Richard Curtis film, Tom, having cast aspersions on that email, you sat there at home, Christmas Day, tuck it into turkey, knock at the door. Two fellas, brown overcoats, lorry outside, here comes the grand piano. Sounds like absolute bliss. Playing a grand piano. before walking away and refusing it to bring it into my house because that's not their job and they haven't been paid for that.

And now I'm spending the entirety of Christmas Day trying to get a baby grand piano down my corridor. And the in-laws were annoyed. The turkey's going cold. Just looking at the spot where no grand piano is going to go. I need to find the photo of when someone tried to deliver our kitchen table and I'll put it on our group if I can. It's incredible.

We bought a kitchen table on eBay once. It was delivered to our house by two removal men who tried to move it down the corridor into our kitchen but got it wedged and could it get through the front door and left it off the ground so his feet to work at least two feet off the ground wedged between the two walls of the hall at an angle and we just had to it stayed there for like five days we couldn't move it forward or backwards

disgrace like it was hovering in the middle of the corridor to get to the kitchen we had to crawl under the table I'll see if I could find a photo that's got fun not okay is it no it What does they say as they left? They just basically, they've been there about half an hour and they were like, we just can't, we can't, I'm sorry, it's, it's, it's, it's there now. And then they just left and we had a kitchen table at chin height on the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, uh, in the, uh, in the, uh, in the, uh, in the, that is preposterous.

Crawling in and out. Yeah. My mother-in-law, who's in a late 70s crawling under the, under the kitchen table to get into the kitchen. That is unbelievable. to a kitchen which didn't have a kitchen table because it was stuck there. So genuinely, if you have received any scam emails that made you laugh and are just remarkable and terrible, the sort that probably would fool Ellis and Chris,

do email in with them. Well, it fool, he says. There are many ways to get in contact with the show and here's how. All right, you horrible luck. Here's how you can stay in touch with the show. You can email us at hello at oh what a time.com

and you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at oh what a time pod now clear off okay quick shout out for our patrons if you are a patron oh what's a time all timer we will postulate where in history your name may have been before

we've got a name for you this week and that name is Guy Fraser that's nice I think maybe like a commentator in the sort of mid-90s? Yeah. Like match for the day, that sort of thing, I'm guessing. Oh, like George Soros, someone who made millions on the markets in one night. Oh, in the 80s.

Yeah, I like that. The golden age of stockbrook. Yeah, and you're like, Guy Frazier. Yeah. I don't even know what he looks like. Where do I know Guy Fraser from? Oh, you know him because there was a piece on him in the Sunday Telegraph. He's worth 900 million pounds.

Really? Oh, yeah. He just had a great day. Like the anti-Nickleason, Guy Fraser. What's he do now? Does he do any charity work? Absolutely none. He just sits there.

Nothing at all. He just sits there with his enormous fortune and he's done absolutely no good with it at all. What you think? He hasn't given it? No, no. He pays the least amount of tax he can possibly get away with and the rest he just spent.

and he loves it. And then he lost all his money after replying to an email about a free baby grand Yamaha, he loves a bargain. All 900 million of it. Despite being a multi-multimillionaire. Absolutely.

Yeah, there you are. Guy Frazier, that's great. It's much better than commentator. I agree with that. I'll take that. So there you go. If you want to become a know-what-time All-Timer, we'll tell you where in history

you may have been as well. And if you want to subscribe to the page and get two bonus episodes every month, here's what you need to do. Hello again, you horrible lot, enjoying the show. Well, why not show the love by becoming a Patreon supporter today? For a mere handful of farthings, you can get ad-free shows, two bonus subscriber episodes each month,

access to all the past bonus eps, first dibs on live tickets, and even help decide what subjects the boys cover next. Your support makes everything possible, so sign up today at patreon.com slash oh what's the time or oh what's the time.com. What are you waiting for? Stop dawdling. The most important thing I'm going to tell you isn't how you can become an oh what a time, full-timer and subscribe to the podcast for all those lovely benefits.

The most important thing I'm going to tell you is that we are doing a gig on January the 15th at the Underbelly Boulevard in London's fashionable West End. It's a 7.30pm start. We've never done a gig before. We're very, very excited about it. So, yeah, you can buy tickets on the Oh, What a Time website or on the Underbelly Boulevard website. It's been a long time coming. We've talked a lot about this gig.

And finally, it's happening. I was looking at the ticket says there's actually an enormous amount left. So get stuck in, if you fancy it, because it's going to be all of the stuff you like from the podcast. But you get to see how handsome I am, how handsome Chris is. And how incredibly... All right, where's this going, Ellis? Just to be clear, I've been writing comedy for 18 years, and I can tell from the structure of this that this isn't going to be complementary.

It doesn't take a mathematician to work out when it's getting. The old rule of what? Yeah, absolutely. Come on. And how incredibly tight Tom Stroses are. Because he dresses like Freddie Mercury and sort of live aid era. So you'll get to see Tom and is painted on trousers. It's worth it just for that. What a show.

It's like I'm having an x-ray. Leaves nothing to doubt. Too honest, too honest, my trousers. But I think it should be really fun. I do. I'm really looking forward to this. Tom's on his trousers, live. That's a good bit of the live show.

I put something in my pocket. You have to try and guess what's in my two honest trousers. Is it a whisk? I hope it's a whisk. Yeah, yeah. he's very excited. God's sake, I hope that's a banana. Oh dear.

Well, there you go. Yeah. If you want to see this live, you can click the link in the episode description on this episode, or you can go to Oh What a Time.com, or you can go to the Annabelle Boulevard website. But shall we remind everyone what we're talking about this week? Absolutely. I will be talking to you in this Christmas-themed episode, as I say, all about Christmas stories. Dickens, you name it.

It's going to be in there. Oh, lovely. And I'll be giving you a potted history of the Christmas film. And I am going to get things started by talking about Christmas gift annuals in particular. Now, if you're going to any bookshop in the round of Christmas, it's a staple of the holiday season, the old Christmas annual. Or almanac, as was sometimes known, words that's gone out of fashion a little bit, brought back, heroically, I thought, by Back to the Future, I don't think I'd ever heard the word almanac until... That's such a good point. until the first Back to the Future film.

Brought back and then let go again by Back to the Future, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you looked at the Oxford English Dictionary, they sort of monitor word usage. And I reckon in the last hundred years, the word Almanac has been used exclusively in relation to Back to the Future. I, before you get into this, was a massive fan of a Christmas annual when I was younger.

Me too, yeah. My one was Rupert the Bear, and I used to get so excited by my Christmas Rupert the Bear, more than any other gift. I just loved it. That feeling of waiting for the year, that hardback thing, that you just,

oh, God, I still makes me feel really, genuinely, makes you feel sort of warm and safe and just, I just love it. It's such a happy thing. Yeah.

That's one of the examples Daryl Leworthy, Dr. Dahl Leworthy, our fantastic historians given, actually, because over the years, such books have featured the latest characters

from cinema on television, Disney classics, Doctor Who, Rupert the Bear, I mean, football teams at annuals, And then, of course, you've got your Barbies, your Cindy's, your action man. Your action men.

So what childhood would be complete without an annual in a stocking? Now, these sort of commercial cash-ins go back more than a century. So the classic Rupert the Bernanual, which Tom loved so much when he was young, this year celebrates his 90th edition, first launched in 1936, some 16 years after the cartoon character first appeared in the Daily Express newspaper. Meanwhile, now, you might have... I've heard of this person, Tom. I hadn't, because obviously you're the Rupert the Bear fan amongst us.

Rupert's great rival Bobby Bear. Yes, so named Rachel. Now, I'd never heard of Bobby Bear. First appeared in print in 1990, and he became an annual as long ago as 1923. Oh, so he's an annual rival as opposed to Rupert's narrative rival. Yeah, sort of a rival cartoon bear rival, because it was a... It was a cartoon in the paper. It was like a daily cartoon, Rupert the Bear.

Yeah. As was Bobby Bear, because Rupert the Bear was in the Daily Express and Bobby the Bay was in the Daily Herald. Very distinctive outfit, Rupert the Bear. I'd say quite a snazzy dresser. Yeah. The checked yellow trousers, the red top, the scarf. Real look.

It's a little bit I enjoy fox hunting. Isn't it? I think it's more sort of I'm studying creative writing at Edinburgh. No. It has that sort of like coffee shop, copy of Sartre under your arm. That's what it makes me feel. I'm cycling around and I'm quite an old-fashioned fixy. No, no, no, no.

For me, it's... Yeah, well, what these new Labour Party townies don't understand is that foxhending is actually a really important part of rural culture. And yes, I am a member of the countryside alliance. You know, that standing up for rural valleys is a crime, the bloody shoot me is what it says to me. Yes, I'm a bear, but I can still. It doesn't mean I have to be pro-nature.

People who dress like Rupert the Bear have an amazing amount of time to go watch England play cricket. Yes. They don't seem to have any other commitments. Wimbledon in the summer. How do I have all this time? Yes, I went to watch Surrey play Yorkshire on a stagdoo in the summer. County cricket, county championship game. and I was there on the Friday

I do the show of John on a Friday It was about six years It was a really good laugh Oh wow But I turned up at about half us four And there were six thousand people then At the awful I remember thinking

You can't all be podcasters Who just knocked off What's going on here? Who is this person Who is got 60 people going on their snag to? It was the Guardian Excellent Guardian football writer Jonathan Wilson Wow

Yeah yes You just invited everyone he liked And we all and then we got 55 of us went for a curry and it was fantastic yeah i thought it could say carnage no well i mean i mean getting the bill was sort of a challenge because it was so many of us but yeah it was it was a really good laugh so we're splitting one noun between us what we're thinking we get between 55 we think what two pill out rice with that what you're there'll always be one guy on a group meal like that who in my mind massively

oh yeah it's what far much foods needed i um i i didn't actually have my morsel of narn so I sort of my narn flake yeah yeah I didn't have my narn flick now the express was right wing and the Daily Herald was a newspaper the left so parents could guide their children even at Christmas towards the correct

ideological perspective all according to your particular choice of bear I can't think of any Liberal Democrat cartoon bears but yeah there was a bear of the left and the bear of the right Winnie the Pooh he's a bear isn't he? Maybe he's a He's a bit more liberal. He's not wearing any trousers for start.

He suggests he's quite liberal. I mean, he's South American. He's either going to be hard left or hard rights, isn't he? Well, you can tell because he's not wearing any trousers. He's not. I think Chris has got it. I turn me here, actually. Such a quite good gag, that.

That's nice. You've absolutely ruined a British icon there. Apologies. Pallington's big hard on. My God. With the advent of children's programmes on the radio and then series at the cinema and finally television,

the Christmas annual moved into other worlds of entertainment. How best to show that you were a fan of a particular series. Why were the Christmas annual, of course. The golden age of this phenomenon was 1960 through to the 1980s, when every major children's programme and plenty of programmes intended for adults, match of the day included,

have their own annual tie-in. That certainly, that ties in with my experience than our experience, I was a big annual receiver as a kid. Always got an annual for my grandparents. There was the SUTTY annual from 1956, as in SUTTY and Sweep,

not my wife. For instance, huge fan, weren't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been having easy Sutty annuals every Christmas since 1956. And finally, listeners, in 2024, I married her.

And then the Blue Puppie. Peter Annual from 1964. It was back in 1928 that the BBC first launched an annual to link up with Children's Hour. That early? The radio show that there was the basis, yeah, of dedicated broadcast programming for children in the UK. That's amazing. And then with a television service up and running by the 50s, the BBC Children's Annual arrived in 1958. So, for the match of the day, it's soccer annual, and it was called a soccer annual rather than football.

First appeared in 1979, some 15 years after the original edition of the programme at Ed. Inside, was an interview. with that noted switched-on fan of the game, Eric Morkham. Have you seen the video of him commentating on Luton? No. He was a Luton fan. Right. And they score a goal and he's doing co-coms just for a bit of fun.

And he loses his mind. Does he? Adorable. Yeah, I love that. Really? Yeah, it's a great video. My favourite Eric Morkham fact is that at Kenneworth Road, the chairman's lounge, is called the Eric Morkum Suite,

where the boardroom is. Love that. It's like a plaque that says Eric. Like a big comedy figure. You've chosen that guy to name your boardroom. Yeah, yeah. You know, if Eric Morkham had been a massive fan of Manoran United in Liverpool, you can't imagine that happened in there, can you?

Yeah, the Eric Morkham suite. There is no Jimmy Tarbuck suite on Phil had done. Now, it may or not, of course, be a coincidence that ITV had launched its world of sport. annual the year before. But the idea of the annual for all its strong associations with 20th century broadcast entertainment was in fact much older. So the earliest example was the Almanac de Mues first published in France. It's 1765. What? Now considering that Tom's, I don't know what my favourite annual was at a kid. It was probably shoot. It was probably the shoot annual, but Thomas

was Rupert the Bear, I don't know what Chris's was. This annual had contributions from writers such as Voltaire and the Marquis de Sars. And it's a slightly different vibe. As a playboy annual. So the French Almanac was eventually mimicked in Germany from 1796 across the channel to Britain in 1822 and an American variant appeared a few years later in 1826. And these Anglo-American variants were not quite the annuals

that are familiar to us today, but a kind of gift book. So it's something marketed at middle-class women to give or to receive and then a junior edition was launched in the UK in 1828. So by the end of the 1820s, there was both, Forget Me Not, the original 1822 annual for middle-class women, and the juvenile, forget-me-not, for the children of those women.

And the latter survived for 11 editions to the popularity waned, publication ceased in 1838. The next time anyone ventured to publish a juvenile forget-me-not annual again was in 1862. But the date was very telling, because after the late Georgian experiment with gift books, It was the mid-Victorian ponchant for mass production and gaudy design that sent the annuals market back into overdrive.

Interesting. And also increased literacy added to the appeals. And so in the 1860s, you got Beaton's Christmas annual, which survived in print until 1898 and gave Sherlock Holmes his first runout. A study in Scarlet in 1887, which is a fantastic book, first appeared in a Beaton's Christmas annual. Wow. And Beaton was the husband of the culinary queen Mrs. Beaten.

So the revived annual market was driven once again by adults rather than kids. But it wasn't too long before children's annuals returned. So early examples from this period include the boys' Christmas annual, published by the Boys Journal from the early 1860s, and Aunt Judi's, again from the 1860s, with contributors such as Hans Christian Anderson and Lewis Carroll. What a signing that is? Yeah.

Wow. Well, that's amazing, isn't it? Can you imagine that? Yeah, that's amazing. An exclusive story from Hans Christian Anderson. Well, I mean, you got that in print. I mean, Dickens, of course, his stories were printed in newspapers to begin with. Yeah, yeah, periodicals and things.

Historically, even more recently, let's look at George Orwell, who much of his writing was done through the press and, you know. Yeah, he's right for the new statesman. Admitted, not in storytelling, but still, these incredible writers that have written through sort of in journalistic ways and had their stories printed through the press. Bridget Jones's diary was a column in the independent. Was it? Yeah.

Was it? Either the independent or the independent on the cinema. It was a column in the independent that became hugely popular. But was it a real column about someone which then turned into a story? No. Or was it actually a serialised fiction? I think it was serialised fiction, which then became hugely popular and then the book came up. Wow.

And then obviously the films and this, I mean, they're still making films that they've. So, what a great fact. In 1879, we got the boy's own. Christmas special, followed a year later by the girls' own equivalent. And all of these animals were full of jokes and stories, practical advice. In the case of the boys' own and girls' own editions of the sort likely to be promoted by the religious tract society, values instilled in Christmas presents, as you can see, didn't begin with cartoon bears in their newspapers.

Publishers competed to produce the biggest, cheapest, best illustrated, most popular product. And then they would call on their staple of writers to help with sales. It's the kind of thing, Crane, I can imagine you would have done as a sort of writer for hire. Yeah. In like, probably in the summer, because they'd all need to be, you know, printed in by end of September at the latest to be sold in terms of Christmas. And I'll be honest, if the money's right, I'll do it now if anyone's listening. Yeah. I'm interested as to, in terms of their use as gifts as well, because I think that what's quite useful, well, part of the reason they're successful, I think often it's one of those gifts where you're not quite.

sure what to buy a friend's child or a nephew. The annual's the thing you go for. It's colourful front. Oh, I think he's vaguely into sport, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll get that. So you're picking up a lot of sales that way. But also, incidentally, it's something they overproduced hugely in terms of the numbers

they print. And you can tell that because after every Christmas, if you go into a W. Smith or whatever, the piles of reduced annuals is bonkers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yes. Like the height of a man, each one, with 75% off. But yes, so, you know, commercial tie-ins, they weren't a cynical product of the valueless 20th century.

The Victorians had grown quite accustomed to buying annuals, published by companies such as pears soap or beechums. Even local newspapers got in on the act. So the value to readers lay in getting original stories from popular writers and all in a very accessible and above all, most importantly, cheap format. So as the advert for One Brown put it, warns Christmas annual, aims to be a companion that will be joyfully read by all in all circles. Its pages breathe the glad tidings of Christmas time and fun and merriment

roll along in the charades, the acrostics, the riddles and the magical tricks. That's a good gift. Yeah, absolutely. By sort of Victorian Christmas standards. Bridget Jones, it was initially a column in the Independence, sat in 1995, and it didn't carry a byline. So it seemed to be an actual personal diary. Oh, that's amazing. Wow.

So it became enormously popular, chronicling the life of Jones, who people assumed was a journalist working for the paper, as a 30-something single woman in London. Brilliant. She tries to make sense of, you know, relationships and her love life and all that kind of stuff. Bridget Jones is 60, though.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. So, yeah, she would be 60 now. She's nearly retired. I mean, Dennis the Menace would be about 110. The guy needs to grow up. Nash's dead Nash has been dead for about 95 years

We're on Nashar 6 now Yeah Nipper's gone the same way They're all dead Yeah exactly Yeah yeah yeah Desperate Dan's about 150 It was a lampoon

Of the kind of articles You'd seen in Cosmopolitan Ah okay So then she was able to publish a novelisation of it in 1996, which was massively. Imagine writing about your love life

in the cosmopolitan cra. Absolutely, you'd have to have to be very skilled to do that, wouldn't you? Oh, yeah, yeah. Once again, as I say, the money was right, so I did the job. In terms of that Christmas experience of annuals, and this speaks to the fact

that I didn't have a TV, my Christmas evening, I would get, and this makes me sound like I grew up in the late 19th century, but I would get a good stick and I would make a little wigwam out of my duvet so I'd stick it in the bed to you see what I mean to create a conical shape

do you mean a teepee? A teepee, that's right and then I would sit in this makeshift teepee and I put on a torch and I would read Rupert Bear that's what I'd do and I'd wait I'd love that feeling of the end of Christmas Day going upstairs to make my little teepee and read Rupert the Bear where other kids were watching television in their houses

Please don't tell Izzy this, because that is what she thinks childhood should be. And she's right. And then you hit your teenage years, and your parents put their head into your bedroom. There was the teepee, there was the light, rustling around inside, and they looked and see the Rupert the bearer, and you wasn't inside the TP. It was a magazine of another description. What's that rustling in the TP, Tom? What's going on in there?

Nothing. Reading, but the bear. Yeah. And then it was at that moment they realised, Christmas is cancelled. And they'd say, Tom, take down the stick. And I'd say, there isn't a stick. Very good. I never got Christmas annual. So what I would be allowed every Christmas Eve was the Guinness Book of Records.

Great. Quality. Yes, yes. And I would open it up. I'd flick straight to who's got the longest fingernails. Yeah, that Indian guy. Yeah, Indian guy. It was always that Indian guy.

And you'd narrowly miss out, yeah again, wouldn't you, Chris, with your three-meter-long fingernail. Next year. Next year. Oldest person was different every year. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was always a, it's quite a fresh category to keep an eye on, actually.

Dennis A menace, wasn't it? It was a Welsh guy for a long time. I was really proud of that. Yeah, a guy called John from Swansea. He was like 112. Wow. Yeah, he was the oldest surviving man and then there was the woman in France

who lived until she was like 121 or something. Two things make me patriotic, war and Britain having the oldest person alive at any particular time. I genuinely, whenever I read, the world's oldest man is now from Derby. I'm like, yes. Land of hope and glory.

And you always read about them. And they fought in two wars and worked down the mines. And they're 150. And they drank every day. Yeah. It smoked 50 bags a day for 100 years. Well, that's it for part one. We're back tomorrow for part two.

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