Seymour Hicks isn’t a name that resonates particularly these days but in his long career as a producer, playwright, actor-manager and particularly actor, he was both prolific and hugely successful. Born in 1871, he made his stage debut at the age of just nine, and started acting professionally at sixteen, He wrote and starred in … Continue reading
Every year people drag innumerable spruce, pine and fit trees out of their forest homes and into their front rooms to be dressed up in gaudy baubles as part of Christmas celebrations. And do those people spare a single thought for what the trees want? Of course not, though writer/director Jason Eisener (later director of … Continue reading
By 1988, Blackadder was into its third series and had transformed from a barely seen historical comedy in its first year to one of Britain’s best loved sitcoms. The addition of writer Ben Elton to support creator Richard Curtis (replacing Rowan Atkinson who co-wrote the first batch of episodes) from the second series onward had … Continue reading
This charming family drama (first broadcast on the BBC on 24 December 1999) just about sneaks in to EOFFTV territory thanks to a last-minute cameo from the “real” Santa Claus and one of his elves. The story follows the fortunes of an unconventional and eccentric family unit, single mum Geraldine (Dervla Kirwan) and her two … Continue reading
By necessity, this stripped down adaptation of the much loved Charles Dickens seasonal classic abandons most of the finer points of the novel (and does away with a good number of the not-so-finer points too) and pretty much cuts straight to the chase. After a fairly perfunctory bit of business demonstrating how awful a human … Continue reading
For a moment there, it seemed so hopeful. Netflix’s big Christmas film for 2018 came with the huge draw of Kurt Russell – old Snake Plissken himself – as Santa Claus. And indeed he is the best thing about former animator Clay Katis’ The Christmas Chronicles which rather disappointingly turns out very quickly to be … Continue reading
I’ll admit to coming to Jack Frost by accident. When I settled down to watch it I was under the mistaken impression that I was about to watch Michael Cooney’s “serial-killer-reincarnated-as-a-snowman” slasher from 1997. Instead I got Troy Miller’s “delinquent-rock-star-dad-reincarnated-as-snowman” schmaltz fest instead. Initially mildly disappointed, I decided to stick with it. After all, how … Continue reading
