Hello and a warm welcome to a special festive edition of My 70’s TV Childhood! This episode is releasing just after Christmas, and I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas Day and that you’re enjoying the festive period.
We’ve spoken in previous festive episodes about some of the great (and not so great) presents we all had as children. But one thing we haven’t spoken about that much is the Christmas annual. As a child, I loved getting a few annuals alongside my presents, and this time between Christmas and New Year was spent not only playing with toys but also reading the new annuals from cover to cover.
Just before Christmas, I caught up with longtime listener Lee, who suggested that annuals, particularly those with TV tie-ins, would be a great thing to talk about. Lee describes himself as a “TV child,” with all his toys being TV related: The Six Million Dollar Man, Dinky Thunderbirds, Evel Knievel, and Starsky and Hutch cars. His mum used to moan, “How are you ever gonna learn to read? ‘Cause you watch so much TV all the time!”
Lee did a bit of delving and was quite amazed at the sheer number of annuals produced. The Magic Roundabout had 15 annuals! Black Beauty had 10. Basil Brush had 11. Even the PG Tips chimps had annuals! And then there were annuals for very short-lived shows like Gemini Man, which only lasted a few weeks in America.
What made a typical 70s annual? Lee shares his Space: 1999 annual as the perfect example. There were boring space facts (which he never read), the obligatory board game in the centre pages, humour sections using photographs from the show, and comic strips.
But the pièce de résistance is the 1976 Doctor Who annual, considered the worst of the series. The artwork was farmed out to an Italian company who were only given about four reference photographs. So the whole annual has the same two or three pictures of Tom Baker reused at slightly different angles. The artwork is absolutely bonkers, with characters that look nothing like the actors. It’s so bad, it’s good!
Of course, as kids, we didn’t realise there was a cynical marketing ploy going on. But despite this, these annuals hold a special place in our hearts. Lee recalls his late grandfather painting a copy of the James Arness picture from the back of the Gunsmoke annual, which hung in his bedroom. Little things like that really connect us to our childhood and our families.
What was your favourite Christmas annual?
What memories do they bring back for you? Let us know!
Happy New Year!
Oliver
📲 Connect & Follow
Email Oliver: Oliver@My70sTVChildhood.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/my70stvchildhood
X/Twitter: https://x.com/70stvchildhood
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/my70stvchildhood/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@my70stvchildhood
