The Laboratory

I'm sure we must be the only people still coding the Advent Calendar in HTML, but that's how it started in 2003 and it's too late to change it now. Sorry for the weekend delays, ironically the more time we have the harder it is to fit in the daily post. Some people fondly image we have it planned months in advance, but honestly it's whatever pops up on the day. And today it's all about The Box Of Delights, which we watch every year (and post about every year). There's a new Blu-Ray of it, though they thankfully haven't tried to do a Doctor Who and upgrade the special effects from the classic 1980s Quantel Paintbox and clunky phoenix animation. If you haven't seen it, it's on iPlayer again at  https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p00tjpwk/the-box-of-delights Kay Harker is a little posh boy going back to his guardian's house for the holidays, but mysterious strangers on a train, and a Punch and Judy man with a dog called Toby, set him off on a qu...

As well as this year being the 30th anniversary of the release of The Muppet Christmas Carol (now on Disney+, with an EXTRA SONG!) it's also 38 years since the televisual marvel that is The Box Of Delights. Shown over consecutive weeks leading up to Christmas Eve, it's stayed in the hearts of everyone who saw it. There's amazing child actors, appearances by the great Robert Stephens and Patricia Quinn, a police inspector with a recipe for posset, and cutting-edge (for 1984) visual effects. The theme tune is The First Nowell from Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony, and the whole thing was directed by Rennie Rye. There's a new Guardian article from the director and child star about how it was made, and it's available on DVD from BBC Films.  

Do you have a book that you always read at Christmas? A discussion on the Guardian blog threw up two old favourites, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, and The Box Of Delights by John Masefield. Anyone who was around in the 80s will recognise this TV sequence: Although Adam wasn't a big fan of the book, the music is fantastic, and is based on Victor Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony , an arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful, God Rest Ye Merry, and as we hear in the clip, The First Nowell.