It was obviously a bit of forward planning. The BBC knew that if they chucked out the tinsel it wouldn't look out of place when they replay it 30 years later in April.

It was an interesting historical piece I thought. The past is another country as they say, and I'm glad I don't live there anymore.

It was certainly of its time wasn't it and its easy to see why Peter Gabriel never became a light entertainment specialist! Its hard not to look at it through 21st century eyes. In 1979 I would have been 19 and I suspect that this would still have seemed quite bizarre even then.

High spot for me was the rendition of the second best ever Christmas song (December will be magic again). When she's behind a piano or simply standing and singing, I think she works brilliantly. I'd certainly pay to see her at the 02 come the inevitable gig in 10 years time. The jerky dance style wore a bit thin after the first few numbers and its difficult to recall a time when that would have seemed stylish.

Earlier in the evening there was a Cilla Black special from the mid 1960's. A great piece of nostalgia for those who grew up on it. Before colour television Cilla was considered to be quite the thing. I particularly like the guest spots on these shows. Two of the goodies and one of the pythons (before there were such things) provided the comedy slots. Interestingly it was Tim Brook Taylor who seemed to be the leading man in that group. Other musical spots came from Georgie Fame and Dusty Springfield. Both of whom had to duet with Cilla in light entertainment style. All in all a fascinating look back to some television gold. It's very difficult to imagine anyone from the recent charts crossing into this sort of territory.

Once again BBC4 doing us proud on a Saturday night!

was the eldest, Garden and Chapman were in the year below at Cambridge...probably something to do with that

Sure was a bizarre show with all that dodgy dancing, a lot of her stuff was just too quirky but but nice to see her at the piano doing a lovely Man With The Child In His Eyes amongst others. You've reminded me I occasionally used to see her down the Cricketers at the Oval watching the odd pub-rock gig late 70's...

I wonder what the BBC budget for this was? I find it hard to believe that if the beeb were to do something this xmas for say Duffy or Amy Winehouse it would look so cheap!

i went so far as to download iplayergrabber, grab the show, and stick in itunes for my ipod. then i watched it. it's deleted now.