Christmas non-fare on BBC

photo: Jean-Christophe BENOIST [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

This year's Christmas schedule on BBC radio and TV is more meagre than ever, unless you really like animated cartoons.  Maybe that says something. Especially since the original Manchurian Candidate is being screened on BBC TV 2 at midnight tonight. That's the Cold War thriller from 1962, where men who were brainwashed by the nation's enemies come to realize that the bad guys have a much mor sinister plan.  Soon the whole nation will be brainwashed. Can movies become reality?  Be scared, be very, very scared.

At least we still have Carols from King's College, Cambridge, BBC TV2 24th December at 1700 hr. This will be repeated on 25th December on BBC Radio 3 at 1400.   King's College is magnificent. People visit year round, from all over the globe. It's in a league of its own. In musical terms no comparison to regular community church choirs, however loved they are.  King's is an institution that goes way beyond being religious. Being able to sing at this standard can get you fast tracked into Cambridge and set you up for life. Some alumni go on to careers in music, most go on to other things, but the experience of singing at this level, and in these surroundings is probably like nothing else.  The photo above shows what you see when you look upwards. It just happens to be the largest medieval fan vaulted ceiling in the world.