The other day I looked online to see when it was available and found this.....................
When is the Christmas Radio Times out this year?
There are actually a couple of release dates for the Christmas Radio Times this year, with London and the south east getting the issue early, on Saturday 8 December.The rest of the country will be able to get their hands on a copy on Tuesday 11 December.
The cover of the issue is a closely guarded secret by the Radio Times, so we don’t know who or what will have the honour this year just yet.
WHY? does London and the South East get it earlier than everywhere else .......Harumph!
There's a website with all the Double Issue Christmas Covers going back to 1969, it didn't like me copying them very much so it's HERE if you want to look
This is more dated - pre 1969, when cigars and cigarettes were often given as Christmas presents!
Here's another pre-decimal cover
Much better than recent years when it's just been Raymond Briggs's Snowman or Father Christmas - a bit of a cop out I reckon, doesn't take much designing to copy things from books!
The price of the double issue has jumped up to £4.90 and the free Snowman book is available only from Rymans which would mean a trip to Ipswich, with diesel and parking charges it's probably cheaper to find a copy from a charity shop!
Many thanks for comments yesterday, sorry I didn't get to reply to later ones.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
£4.90!! Blimey! Think we'll be getting one of the budget versions this year. And yes, the old style covers were so much better than the modern ones.
ReplyDeleteI got it on Sunday in WHSmith, so it was available earlier than they said. I wrote that it cost £4.50 but seems it was more than I thought. Not surprising I got it wrong though, it disappeared on Sunday - no doubt being marked up in secret - and I haven't seen it since.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting because I don't live in London or the south east and my husband bought ours in Lidl on Saturday 8th. I do love those old covers. x
ReplyDeleteHaven't bought it for years. But it was and is the best tv guide out, Xmas of course has all the goodies.
ReplyDeleteI've got mine (sorry!). Now I have the up to date Virgin box and record with a couple of clicks, I shall be stocking up with TV goodies to watch all through January! There seems to be a lot of stuff I'd like to watch.
ReplyDeletexx
I have mine but I've not looked through it yet apart from checking out the crossword which is my favourite bit :)
ReplyDeleteHugs-x-
The cost of English magazines here is practically double and they whack the price up on the subscriptions too, just not worth it xcx
ReplyDeleteRadio Times? Never have heard of that. Is it a monthly magazine?
ReplyDeleteIt's a weekly TV and Radio Guide - the oldest one around and a tradition in lots of homes to buy just at Christmas to see whats on TV. Years ago it was only BBC programmes - hence the radio times for before TV appeared.
DeleteIn our house growing up we never bought television mags - there just wasn't the money (and not that many channels lol) BUT at Christmas time I remember we got the Radio Times. I remember going through it and seeing what was on and what we were going to watch. There really isn't much difference here in television shows at Christmas but in England there are Christmas episodes and specials and the showing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. That film really scared me lol.
ReplyDeleteThat Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was pretty scary! We only had the Radio Times and TV Times at Christmas too, back then you needed both as the Radio Times was only BBC- seems a long time ago now
DeleteI used to buy the radio times at Christmas but in recent years apart from the high price the radio section wasn't so good. So for the last couple of years I have carried on buying the Saturday Mail. I think the double edition will be out this week.
ReplyDeleteI notice they no longer have famous BBC TV celebrities on the cover. Well, you can't be too careful can you?
ReplyDeleteI do remember The Snowman cover best of all - lovely and cheerful.
ReplyDeleteWe got our copy, so now we are ready.
ReplyDeleteMy father always used to mark up the Radio Times for me, using colour coded highlighter pens, picking out programmes which he thought each person would enjoy. I wish I were as organised!
ReplyDelete"The Snowman" was a must-see when my kids were small...and I loved it too!
ReplyDeleteMy parents always bought the Radio and TV Times at Christmas, then once each magazine had all TV programmes in instead of just their own, they had the TV times only. For years I bought it too, but then the Daily Mail started doing a 2 week TV guide and since we buy the newspaper, we've been using that for years. We watched the Snowman for years and always look out for the carols from Kings.
ReplyDeleteI buy the Radio Times every Tuesday; it’s got a wonderful Enigma crossword that really stretches the brain! I’ve got the Christmas double ready for some holiday viewing. I like the articles and the fact that it covers radio so well too.
ReplyDeleteThose old style covers are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.