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Screen Babble: Christmas Special 2023
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00:12welcome to the screen babble christmas special yay we are super excited to be here in the run
00:20up to arguably the best tv time of the year i'm sure there's some stats out there about
00:24how much more telly we watch over the festive period but we don't have them but i'm pretty
00:29sure that exists uh there's some fantastic stuff lined up for christmas 2023 both on streaming
00:35and tv and hopefully we're going to enlighten you all on this episode um stephen ross and benjamin
00:41jackson are here as you can see looking very festive thank you for making the efforts effort
00:46efforts we try we try don't we stephen we do they're here to keep you right on the road to
00:53tv enlightenment remember you can also catch us on shots freeview channel 276 where you'll find
00:59lots of other great content okay without further ado stephen you're going to start us off this year
01:05with films this year this year this yeah that's good isn't it this year because we do this every
01:10year it's it's felt like a year hasn't it since the start of the podcast
01:17over to you right what a what a stellar intro yeah i am going to kick us off with a
01:24selection
01:25of christmas films coming out this month uh ahead of the big day so the first one that i want
01:33to
01:33spotlight is the heist before christmas which is coming to sky max at a date to be confirmed but i
01:40have
01:40uh i did get a preview of it so i i can recommend it's uh a weirdly big cast for
01:49a film that is only
01:52going to come out on sky and i don't think a lot of people are going to see it's got
01:55timothy spall
01:57as santa and james nesbitt as a bank robber who's dressed as santa and essentially the plot surrounds
02:06a young boy from a very poor um single parent household who finds he witnesses uh james nesbitt
02:16rob a bank whilst dressed as santa and then escape into the woods where he then finds timothy spall
02:23as actual santa and confuses the two hopes to help santa in order to gain a cut of the loot
02:33that
02:33he's robbed from the bank because he wants to buy his younger brother a bike because his mum's very
02:38poor and they're not going to have a great christmas so it's that typical you know basic
02:46confusion that is the crux of the film the mix-up between the two santas
02:52it's weirdly less funny like it's not that's not criticism it's just not designed as a comedy
02:59it's you kind of expect a film like this and set at christmas to be
03:04very funny or at least like you know like the nativity films with all these like cheesy laughs
03:10but it's actually just very like social realist gritty mum's very poor he's buying a dog bun to cook
03:19dinner with um really hard up christmas is going to be grim this year james nesbitt's just playing santa as
03:27the bank robber sorry the bank robber dressed as santa is just you know a typical bank robber
03:34um timothy spall santa has his own issues going on and it it's more of a drama than a than
03:40a comedy
03:40which is a bit strange and it's quite heavy in places because of just the grueling um poverty of
03:48of the the main family involved um and you have the woman trying to hold down a couple of
03:54trying to hold down a job at a supermarket with her boss who is a real piece of work but
04:01because it is a christmas film it does all sort of come good at the end um it's something a
04:06bit
04:06different i think it probably would have benefited more from being a comedy a straight comedy rather
04:11than a cost of living drama i don't know how many people want to watch that this year you know
04:16be
04:16reminded of the the reality of it but it's out there and it is something a little bit different
04:22and then another christmas film an alternative christmas film very much is it's a wonderful knife
04:30which is as it sounds inspired by it's a wonderful life which is one of my favorite christmas films of
04:37time it's a purest favorite christmas film it's the gentleman loads of people loads of people yeah
04:44yeah yeah it's um yeah for the connoisseur um but this is about a person who saves a small town
04:52from
04:52a psychotic killer but then realizes after the fact that her life isn't all that wonderful
04:58and she wishes she'd never been born and then find herself in a parallel universe where without her
05:04things could be much much worse because of the psychotic killer etc so it's inspired by the
05:09jimmy stewart film obviously i've not seen this one i can't imagine it's as good as the jimmy stewart
05:15film but for people who were modern classic i don't know i do not know i don't know if i
05:21agree with
05:21that steven horror fans i suspect benji might fall into this camp who just they can't oh miss a festive
05:29season without injecting a bit of horror into it might want to catch this i imagine it's funny as well
05:35no i mean like the mean one that already it sounds like i've got a double bill with
05:40it's a wonderful knife followed by the mean one which was that grinch based horror movie wasn't it
05:46yeah but you know what it's a wonderful knife followed by it's a wonderful life or vice versa
05:51it might be a good double bill as well anyway it's a wonderful knife like the christmas barbenheimer
05:57it's a wonderful knife is on shudder which you might not have heard of i hadn't until recently
06:02it's a horror streaming service which is 4.99 a month so they're currently offering a seven-day
06:08free trial as well but if you're not too sure about it's a wonderful knife they've got a lot
06:14of dross on there but as well some big films like suspiria the wicker man the original not nick cage
06:19wrong turn etc they've got a fair amount of films if you are a big horror fan and this is
06:25maybe an
06:25opportunity to get a free trial for shudder it might be the perfect excuse
06:30um and then finally again back to more classical christmas vibes we have wonka the charlie and the
06:40chocolate factory or equal which yeah which comes to cinemas on december the 8th so this is obviously
06:50based on the character from royal dars charlie and the chocolate factory and it tells the wonderful
06:56story of how the world's greatest magical inventor um um bugger me how the world confectionary king
07:09confectionary king is great i'm going to go from wherever um so so wonka obviously based on the
07:16royal dahl book charlie and the chocolate factory it tells the story how of the how the world's greatest
07:22uh chocolate king confectionary king um came to came to be and how he got his oompa loompa slave army
07:33to
07:33run the chocolate factory for him and it's coming to cinemas on the 8th of december and of course it
07:40stars timothy chamolet better known for being kylie jenner's boyfriend as uh the titular wonka
07:51yeah i can't imagine he'll live up to the gene wilder uh interpretation but i do quite like
07:59timothy he he's been great in some of his his roles you'll know him from um june of course and
08:10call me by your name and uh don't look up and don't look up yeah he's been he's been an
08:17awful lot
08:18and he's going to be in a lot more going forward i think he's uh very much uh one to
08:23watch um
08:27yeah this this will be a big role for him because i presume is what you're about to say
08:32so i i did i heard a little bit about on the radio this morning and early reviews are positive
08:37as far
08:37as i can tell and apparently hugh grant's turn as the oompa loompa even though there was some criticism
08:45about the casting is apparently a scene stealer so there you go all yeah i mean oh oompa loompas
08:54aren't an actual people so i didn't really get why people were upset that he the the someone who
09:00wasn't an oompa loompa was playing him the the implication that only dwarves should play oompa loompas
09:06seems very very weird towards dwarves um to well i'll be looking forward to seeing what you grant
09:17does with it anyway i'm sure everybody else will too so that's brilliant three films for you to get
09:21your teeth into in the room to christmas there people okay i'm gonna do some children's tv just
09:28now so if you're not into children's tv you might want to skip forward but actually at this time of
09:33year children's tv is awesome it's you know the big things that come out i would agree this is
09:39the one for children's tv very watchable for for grown-ups so the first one is um the perennial
09:46children's animation by the bbc which is this year it's well every year they do a julia donaldson
09:53adaptation for christmas and this year it's going to be tabby mc tat so it's the 11th year of
09:59this um where they take on a julia donaldson book and illustrator alex and axel
10:04oh god scheffler i'll say that again this year's animated special the 11th of donaldson's and
10:12illustrator axel chef oh my god this is getting my own back now for all that is it
10:23scheffler it's scheffler this year's animated special is the 11th of the donaldson and illustrator
10:30axel scheffler's to be adapted it's based on the 2016 book tabby mc tat and its story is set on
10:37the
10:37streets of london about the friendship between a musical cat and a busker called fred i was reading
10:41it to my kids last night i know it very well uh so yeah as i say jodie whittaker is
10:46starring as is
10:47rob bryden who we all know from many things including gavin and stacy uh sope dearest sue
10:53from gangs of london um carrie ed lloyd from peep show and joanna scanlon from the thick of it and
10:59and many more familiar voices the official synopsis says fred a busker and his cat tabby mc tat who
11:05enjoyed contented life singing the streets of london to the light audience until one day when chasing a
11:10thief fred falls and breaks his leg and it's whisked away in an ambulance what will become of the busker's
11:14cat left alone on the city streets so yeah that as bbc likes to do at this time of year
11:21they don't
11:22tell you exactly when it's going to be on but it'll be on in sort of the week in the
11:24run-up to christmas
11:25that's usually what happens as is the case with their annual panto so um this year they are doing
11:33robin hood it's already been filmed they did that in october and the um adaptation is of the story which
11:41was written by andrew pollard while banks and wag have provided the music i'm sure everybody will
11:46be very excited to hear so okay that's us from part one we'll be back in part two with so
11:51much
11:52more christmas content it's going to be amazing
12:04okay welcome back to the christmas special everybody and the last thing to mention is
12:07netflix has chicken run dawn of the nugget coming out on december 15th
12:12um and that is uh having pulled off a debt-defying escape from tweedy's farm ginger has finally found
12:18her dream a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock far from the dangers of the human
12:22world when she and rocky hatch a little girl called molly ginger's happy ending seems complete
12:26but back on the mainland the whole of chicken kind faces a new and terrible threat for ginger and her
12:31team even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk this time they're breaking in
12:37they had me at nugget they had me at nugget that's dawn of the nugget december 15th netflix and if
12:44you
12:45want to go there with um kids and toys and that again uh i want to mention the lately toy
12:50show which
12:50i mentioned in the main pod last week and you get that on the rte player app right benji you're
12:55going
12:55to talk to us about the christmas specials love this chat you know do you know what would be fantastic
13:01right now if if craig could like embed some very nice christmas seasonal music as i inform our listeners
13:08and i mean that'll do i mean any more you have to sing of that and we'll have to pay
13:14royalties
13:15towards it but yes yeah ladies and gentlemen boys and girls is it truly a christmas television season
13:21without the return of the christmas special call the midwife absolutely not uh and as listeners of the
13:31podcast and viewers on shots might know this boy here he likes a bit of horror and he likes a
13:37bit of
13:37kaidu action but he also has a soft spot for call the midwife i absolutely love that show it's become
13:44a tradition um i think i only watch it as i've i've probably seen three or four called the midwife
13:50christmas specials because my mother would watch it and yeah they're you're on the couch at christmas
13:56at home and there's you've no choice but they're good like they're worth the watch you know it's it's
14:00it's mom's favorite isn't it it's kind of it's either going to be the king's speech or call the
14:07midwife that's that's you sit down have a watch with your family definitely the latter in our house
14:13but i mean the preview for this year's christmas special uh involves a delivery taking place
14:19during a snowstorm which i don't know if the snow bomb is going to arrive or not but it kind
14:26of
14:26are imitating life that will come out on christmas eve which will then be followed in the new year
14:33by season 13 if i remember correctly of called the midwife uh if that's not your kind of thing
14:41whatsoever though could i also suggest something that i watched last night which was the a very
14:47brassic christmas special oh my god i'm so excited for this i'm just i'm just in the i'm on episode
14:55three or four of the new series and i'm desperately trying to get it done before the christmas special
15:02and we haven't talked about it actually on the podcast recently but i love brassic i absolutely
15:08i just think it's it's i when people ask me about it i kind of compare it to like
15:15the canadian tv series trailer park boys which is kind of like a bunch of reprobates that are trying to
15:21make a living earn a crust and stuff like that and i'm not going to spoiler it for anyone especially
15:27kelly but he makes a crust in the end but the christmas special uh is basically the idea of
15:35vinnie played by the incredible joe gilgan once again who also created the show um not only is he
15:42having to put together a christmas nativity because some people destroyed the nativity set
15:51uh at his son's school but he also has to combine that with also looking after or overseeing uh the
16:00auntie of dominic west's character who happens to be an acapolco chasing skirt
16:06that that that that cast member happens to be emelda staunton who is absolutely brilliant in her role
16:16as a cantankerous kind of you know older person that had a bit of a bit of a family turmoil
16:24going on
16:25and that unfortunately leads into another guest role just basically being a real scrooge uh one craig
16:33davies who uh oh greg davies one yeah and that leads into uh her discovering that uh the villain
16:43i would guess of the piece played by greg davies who sky love at the minute because he's presenting
16:49never mind the buzzcox which also has a christmas special um playing if i remember the name correctly
16:55dick dolphin who is a celebrated actor in the area who opens a winter wonderland so
17:01of course vinny be vinny in the gang being vinny in the gang uh if they can't go through things
17:09in a
17:10less than nefarious process to get the items then they'll go by any means necessary to be honest like
17:16i mean the nativity plus uh bad guy opens winter wonderland like literally they're the laziest christmas
17:23tropes of all time 100 but brassic is like you just know their take on it is going to be
17:30so off the
17:31wall yeah i mean you i mean yeah admittedly on paper it's formulaic it's like oh no how are we
17:39going to save the nativity and you know this person's lonely for christmas will they reconcile
17:45with their family but you don't go into brassic to to see post-modern kind of work do you you
17:51go
17:52into brassic because the dialogue is incredible even the little when someone chimes in in the
17:57background so that is coming to it's the ad-libbing in the back it's the kind of
18:03murmuring and the i don't know how they do it i don't know how they write it but it's so
18:07well done
18:07like it's just obviously they write a good bit of it but there's something else going on there that
18:12i don't know if they film it lots of times or only once or whatever they just let me want
18:16this if
18:17it's kind of improv at times as well i think i think it is a little bit yeah because it's
18:22very
18:22natural it's got the same little um dialogue nuances that you get from this is england which
18:28was another series and film that joe gilgan was involved in so maybe his writing was informed by
18:35was it shane meadows that did that series yeah yeah but that's coming to sky showcase
18:43i can't keep up with the name changes anymore the channels december 21st and it will be available
18:47on demand and i know that you are looking forward to this one in particular steven
18:52doctor who the annual christmas special i think we're on the 11th christmas special now steven is
18:58that correct sounds about right we'll make it up as we go along i'll say it's the 11th um it's
19:05going to
19:05be the debut of the brand new doctor who i would imagine normally they transform over the christmas
19:13period anyway from like capaldi to whitaker and uh smith to ten and uh bits and pieces like that
19:21uh so we not only get introduced to the new doctor we also get introduced to the new companion it's
19:28the
19:2860th anniversary of doctor who anyway uh if you're regular readers on national world you'll know that
19:35steven is all over that stuff as well and much like called a midwife is it really christmas on the
19:43bbc
19:43without that doctor who special i agree you gotta have a so you know christmas eve you're back to
19:51backs ladies and gentlemen call the midwife doctor who christmas special but if you want a little bit
19:55of levity in between that or just before that a very brassic christmas is where you need to be
20:01but i imagine brassic as usual is definitely post-watershed so um yeah watch out for that
20:06although you know like a bear does his business in the woods of course you know it's definitely
20:13definitely post-watershed well if that's christmas eve then christmas day is over to me for the soaps
20:19ladies and gentlemen so i'm going to do this quite quickly because i know everybody's into the soaps but
20:24coming up on caro the big focus is going to be around peter barlow's exit from the soap which i'm
20:30sure is no secret by now he's been around for quite a long time um so that's going to be
20:35quite
20:35poignant and i think there's a sort of a uh episode long just two-hander with him and carola and
20:41sort
20:42of revisiting all their key moments so that might be good in the sense that there's probably going
20:46to be lots of flashbacks so it'll be nice little nostalgia buzz episode but i thought maybe that's
20:50a bit sedate for a christmas special but anyway there you go not with not a christmas special but you
20:54know the way like christmas special storylines at christmas and the other thing in two things
21:00worth mentioning in caro as well are ongoing deterioration of paul who is mnd bernie's got
21:07herself into trouble his mother probably going to end up in prison for christmas probably paul's last
21:11christmas very sad um all of that going on and then the return of and this is a spoiler the
21:18return of
21:20lucy fallon also known as bethany platt she's coming back after being away for five years and
21:26she had a little tryst with daniel barlow um in the past and this is potentially going to be revisited
21:34which is interesting because obviously daisy's been having a bit of an affair with ryan so there's all
21:40that going on in terms of romantic drama eastenders is probably the soap that has done the biggest job
21:47in terms of trailing its um christmas storylines they put out their first trailer for christmas in
21:55february this year people i mean come on like they're making an absolute job of this so that
22:01trailer showed us the six female characters that are going to be involved in the storyline
22:05sharon kathy stacy linda and suki and they were standing over a mysterious dead body at the queen
22:12vick uh stacy's blood in her hands she's holding a smash bottle ladies are looking on as shocked bride
22:18sharon bends down to hold the man's wrist and confirms he's dead so basically eastenders is going
22:24to be we don't know who the man is so this is and they're all they've all had different run
22:28-ins
22:30it's probably larry lamb exactly yeah i'd like sharon seems to have a bit of a habitual problem
22:36killing people over christmas specials right let's just hope they don't do it with the queen
22:41vick bust again um and finally emmerdale is um i i don't really watch emmerdale much anymore i used
22:49to love it but anyway apparently there's a serious love triangle going on at the moment between charity
22:54mackenzie and chloe that's going to come to a crescendo when chloe's dodgy dealing dad gangster
23:00dad turns up and i think somebody's going to end up dead basically but what happens what is happening
23:05with emmerdale is there is a huge storyline coming in the new year there's going to be a big disaster
23:09in the village and there's going to be two of the families are going to be really devastated as a
23:14result so there you go that's a preview to 2024 but that's a whole other episode people so thank
23:20you for listening to scream babble that was amazing like all the christmas content i mean we're only
23:24touching the surface there but obviously there's going to be loads coming up so stay tuned for weekend
23:30watch where we'll be letting you know any other new little bits and pieces that are coming on over the
23:33next few weeks we'll be letting you know the details of when and where things are going to be
23:37um previewing or where we'll let you know the details of when and where everything is going to
23:42be showing and we'll be getting excited for more christmas tv ourselves so thanks for tuning in
23:48and see you all next time bye merry christmas everybody
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