|
 ABC
starts Christmas Day in the North and Midlands - fortuitously a
Saturday - with a service from Lichfield Cathedral.
The
choice of cathedrals and churches for these services, and their
counterparts on Sunday mornings, was always one of economics
rather than piety. Lichfield is an obvious choice for ABC
for two clear reasons - it is easily reached from the Alpha
Television Studios in Aston, Birmingham, and it is within sight of
the Midlands transmitter of the ITA. This gives ABC cheap
and easy access to the Post Office network that links the
transmitters without using miles of cable or expensive microwave
relays.
A
second influence on the choice of church is based on the logistics
of running an outside broadcast unit - especially one the size of
ABC's. For Sunday services, it was always the rule that the
church featured in the morning would be an easy drive - or even in
sight of - the football ground where ABC Weekend's World of Sport
was filming the previous afternoon. This saved dispatching a
second crew to another location for a loss-leader 'averaging'
programme like the Morning Service. |
A
'Christmas Special' from the nation's favourite crime- and
spy-fighting duo, 'The Avengers'. This week's episode is
designed to be repeated at any time of the year, but works
especially well tonight as Steed and Mrs Peel deal with Too Many
Christmas Trees.
Part
'Panorama', part "That Was The Week That Was", part
'That's Life!', ABC Weekend saw three commentators saying things
that were seemingly designed to have readers of the Daily
Telegraph foaming at the mouth when the paper reacted with shock
at the contents the following Monday.
