Christmas 1991

Writer and broadcaster Grace Dent takes a televisual trip back in time to Christmas 1991, as she immerses herself in the sights, sounds and TV schedules of the past.

Among Grace’s festive findings are the discovery that this was a time when the BBC schedules were still ruled by TV’s big beasts. Edmonds was the first Noel of broadcasting, Brucie was loved by all generations, and fresh-faced young whippersnappers Jeremy Clarkson, Phillip Schofield and Rob Brydon were starting to establish themselves as the stars of the future.

As well as checking out the year's music and fashion themes, the season’s most popular sitcoms and Barry Norman’s countdown of the year’s movie turkeys, Grace explores some of 1991's greatest Christmas controversies, including Mark Fowler’s HIV revelation on the EastEnders seasonal double bill, a retrospective of the comedy of Benny Hill, and most surprising of all, a Songs of Praise Christmas special that had the nation’s Grinches complaining in their droves to Anne Robinson’s Points of View.