[rick]

His Dark Materials returns on Sun 18th Dec at 7pm, but not for NI, Scotland and some regions. I wonder why?

[AJB39]

His Dark Materials returns on Sun 18th Dec at 7pm, but not for NI, Scotland and some regions. I wonder why?

I suspect it is on everywhere. They haven’t loaded the schedules for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland up yet.

[PATV Scunthorpe]

I see in addition to Motherland (as previously mentioned), the Christmas special of Two Doors Down also moves to BBC One.

One absence I've noticed that usually appeared in recent years are the Only Connect specials during the week leading up to New Year.

[Argyess]

Re Top of The Pops don't forget Christmas Day is a Friday and Jack Saunders will be announcing the Christmas Number 1 on Christmas Day afternoon from 4pm on BBC Radio 1

Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year.

[Blubatt]

I am looking forward to The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse. Having never read the book, and loving hand drawn animation as a medium, I think its going to be a highlight of the season. Ghosts is solid too, but I do feel a bit disappointed that there's no Doctor Who, for the first time at/around Christmas.

[tellyblues]

Motherland moves to BBC One for their Christmas Special.    I thought it may be a bit too niche for BBC One, but it has been another cult favourite.

I assume it's the last episode, they're not planning on making another series

---

I've seen Christmas House of Games listed as being on BBC1 on Boxing Day at 7pm. Surprising given how it has flopped there before.

The BBC1 version was a different format and on later in the evening. Boxing Day at 7 is different to Friday night at 8 or whenever it was on

It's not what people want on BBC1 though.

TOTP has suffered from not being a fixture all year round (which could still work) and being underpromoted. The absence of live action films on Christmas Day on BBC1 which would be watched by older viewers (teenagers upwards) hasn't helped it either.

[Moz]

No lens effect on this years christmas idents.

Well that's a stupid decision. It's the channel's motif now, and pretty easy to do.

[SteveRW]

No lens effect on this years christmas idents.

Well that's a stupid decision. It's the channel's motif now, and pretty easy to do.

They did the same thing when they adopted the  balloon as their motif. For the first two years they had no balloon in their Christmas idents. Unlike 1997 though, I suspect that the lens will still feature in the endboards and trails. So they are not entirely abandoning it this time.

[Flux]

Well that's a stupid decision. It's the channel's motif now, and pretty easy to do.

They did the same thing when they adopted the  balloon as their motif. For the first two years they had no balloon in their Christmas idents. Unlike 1997 though, I suspect that the lens will still feature in the endboards and trails. So they are not entirely abandoning it this time.

A bit of a shame they didn’t plan ahead and make bespoke Christmas versions of the existing set for the first year of the lens to keep it running. A Christmas Market, A Christmas party in the hall, Snow on the Farmland, Santa flying across the Sky ident. I can see them working really nicely.

I’m never a fan of pres that’s all built around one show (Doctor Who/Gruffalo) as it ends up feeling like one big and repetitive promotion.

[guineye]

I see in addition to Motherland (as previously mentioned), the Christmas special of Two Doors Down also moves to BBC One.

One absence I've noticed that usually appeared in recent years are the Only Connect specials during the week leading up to New Year.

The first Only Connect special (1 of 4) is scheduled for Dec 23rd