FROM THE ARCHIVES: Christmas Special (3/12/08)

Welcome once again to From The Archives - and a Merry Christmas to you all!

Why do I say this? Because we've reached the last episode of The Yesterday Show's first series, which as you may have gathered by now is a Christmas special. In the manner of so many Christmas specials before it, on this occasion we find Thomas joined by four of his old guests - Sir Anthony Gerald Fasbender III, Hank Timbuck II, Professor Frederick Snore and Croaking Chris Armstrong, who will be singing at the end.
There isn't a great deal to say about this episode, since we weren't introducing any new characters. Some of the jokes in this episode are quite nice, such as Sir Anthony's revealing description of his involvement in paganism, or Professor Snore confusing Christmas and Easter and his justification for this. But others are pretty lazy in hindsight, with the whole "shooting" section from Hank Timbuck II feeling like a regurgitated Top Gear episode (and in fairness, it probably came from the American road trip episode of that show).
http://cdn.bbcamerica.com/brightcove/16764841001/16764841001_793951163001_vs-793931702001.jpg?pubId=16764841001
My favourite bit of this episode, and the bit that I think works best, is the song. I can't remember why we settled on Shakin' Stevens, but it just seemed to fit when we came to layering the different voices over the top and gradually speeding it up. When this episode first aired, the RaW Manager Ben Anderson was in the building; he poked his head round the studio door and said something along the lines of "good stuff guys, I wish I'd thought of that." That meant an awful lot to me: not only was Ben effectively my boss, but he was the main host of The Big Chewsie, RaW flagship show that won a whole bunch of awards.
http://cache.vevo.com/Content/VevoImages/video/D471F76F73E64E5FEE48E7B76ADF870A.jpg
If you want a rough idea of what happened on The Big Chewsie, you can hear clips on their MySpace page here. Ben currently works for Capital FM's breakfast show in Birmingham; you can follow his various hijinks via Twitter (@posh_ben) or via his Tumblr here. Otherwise, sit back and treat yourself to either a very early or a very late Christmas. Enjoy, and see you next week when we'll begin our look at Series 2!
Daniel

Comments