Channel 4 Unveils Festive Crackers

Channel 4 has announced its Christmas schedule, which it says provides its traditional mix of the untraditional for a fortnight of alternative festive viewing. Following the trend of Christmas pasts, Channel 4 will again be showing an alternative to the Queen’s Speech. Rory Bremner will be impersonating Princess Diana in what the station says will be his usual mimicry underpinned with some serious points.

From the creators of The Snowman and Father Christmas comes Famous Fred, an animated version of a cat who leads a double life as a rock star whilst pretending to be a lazy house pet. Gaby Roslin presents a festive edition of her Real Holiday Show, called surprisingly Real Christmas Show which follows the fortunes of seven families and how they spend Christmas 1995. There will be Christmas specials from Father Ted, Jo Brand and Stanley Baxter plus the first showing of Eddie Izzard’s new comedy Cows.

Brookside will be shown daily through Christmas week, with a special 90-minute feature length episode based around an arson attack on one of the homes in the Close.

Films shown over the Christmas period include: the Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley thriller Death and the Maiden; Bandit Queen, a controversial Indian film; the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera; Toys, which stars Robin Williams; 1492: Conquest of Paradise and the Clint Eastwood directed White Hunter, Black Heart.

Unlike previous Christmases Channel 4 will not have a theme for its festive period, it will instead have a brief season called Doctors and Nurses around the New Year. The season will include classic episodes of Ben Casey and St Elsewhere and leads onto the third season of the US medical drama ER.

Channel 4: 0171 306 8666