Band Aid voted best Christmas moment
The original version of Band Aid hit Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been voted the favourite Christmas Moment of all time.
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure’s song, which went on to raise more than £100m for famine relief after its release in 1984, topped the list compiled for the Channel 4 show The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments.
Voters were asked to pick their best Christmas TV moment from a selection of Christmas movies, songs, TV specials and annual fixtures like the Queen’s speech.
A Christmassy Ted, the 1996 Father Ted special which sees Ted, Dougal and other misfit priests get lost in Europe’s largest lingerie department, was voted second.
The Snowman, the heart-warming Raymond Briggs cartoon famous for the theme tune We’re Walking in the Air, came third.
Last year’s The Office Christmas Special – which saw Dawn and Tim finally get together – was voted fourth.
The Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses – screened in 1996 after a three-year hiatus – came fifth.
More than 24 million people tuned into the three-part story to see the Trotters striking it rich.
Christmas episodes of the Vicar of Dibley, starring Dawn French, is sixth followed by Slade’s 1973 hit Merry Xmas Everybody.
A Close Shave (1995) – the episode of Wallace and Gromit which sees the claymation heroes having a run-in with sheep rustlers during a wool shortage - bags eighth place.
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol – the Eighties variation of the Charles Dickens story featuring Ebenezer Blackadder – is ninth.
Frank Capra’s timeless feel-good classic It’s a Wonderful Life – which sees Jimmy Stewart contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve before meeting an Angel who shows him the world would be a worse place without him – is tenth.
The Pogues Fairytale of New York featuring Kirsty MacColl – often billed as the best Christmas record never to reach number one – is eleventh.
The Simpsons Christmas Specials, featuring guest stars like Richard Gere and Tim Robbins, are twelfth.
The Life of Brian – the 1979 Python team’s hilarious take on organised religion – is number 13.
Wizzard’s I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday is 14, followed by EastEnders at Christmas, including the episode in which Dirty Den hands divorce papers to Angie, which attracted 29 million viewers.
Also in the top 100 are The Morecambe and Wise Show Christmas Specials (18), the Royle Family Christmas Special (22), the Chronicles of Narnia (23), the TV adaptation of the CS Lewis novels which reached their peak over Christmas, and The Sound of Music (26).
Ellen MacArthur’s Sailing Through Heaven and Hell, the Bafta nominated broadcast which saw the record-breaking yachtswoman spending Christmas alone on her boat, is number 30.
The Queen’s Speech only reaches number 40, but the monarch does pip the Alternative Christmas Message, made by the likes of Ali G, Sharon Osbourne, Brigitte Bardot and a September 11 survivor, which is number 42.
The broadcast announcing that Apollo Eight astronauts had orbited the moon during Christmas 1968 is on the list at number 44.
The Peter Pan of pop, Sir Cliff Richard, is number 50 for Christmas singles like Mistletoe and Wine and Millennium Prayer and TV specials like Cliff Richard the Event.
Wham!’s 1984 hit Last Christmas is also in the top 100, with the Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show and The Darkness Song Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End).
The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments is presented by Jimmy Carr on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve.
The 100 greatest Christmas moments in order are:
1. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas?
2. Father Ted – A Christmassy Ted
3. The Snowman
4. The Office – Christmas specials
5. Only Fools and Horses – Christmas specials
6. The Vicar of Dibley – Christmas specials
7. Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody
8. Wallace & Gromit – A Close Shave
9. Blackadder’s Christmas Carol
10. It’s A Wonderful Life
11. The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale of New York
12. The Simpsons – Christmas specials
13. The Life Of Brian
14. Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
15. EastEnders at Christmas
16. White Christmas
17. Home Alone
18. The Morecambe and Wise Show – Christmas specials
19. French and Saunders – Christmas specials
20. Knowing Me, Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge
21. South Park – Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo
22. The Royle Family Christmas Special
23. The Chronicles of Narnia
24. Rising Damp – For the Man Who Has Everything
25. Stars In Their Eyes – Celebrity Christmas specials
26. The Sound of Music
27. John Lennon and Yoko Ono – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
28. One Foot in the Grave – Christmas episodes
29. Robbie The Reindeer – Hooves of Fire
30. Ellen MacArthur – Sailing Through Heaven and Hell
31. The Osbournes – A Very Ozzy Christmas
32. The League Of Gentlemen – Christmas Special
33. Christmas on Coronation Street
34. Harry Enfield’s Christmas Chums
35. Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas (David Bowie & Bing duet)
36. The Good Life – Silly But It’s Fun
37. Men Behaving Badly – Performance
38. The Fast Show – Christmas specials
39. Are You Being Served? – Christmas specials
40. The Queen’s Speech
41. Posh and Becks’ Big Impression
42. The Alternative Christmas Message
43. Greg Lake – I Believe in Father Christmas
44. Apollo Eight Orbits the Moon
45. EastEnders Christmas Party
46. Dad’s Army – My Brother & I
47. The X-Files – How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
48. The Flint Street Nativity
49. Jackass – Christmas Special
50. Cliff at Christmas
51. Trigger Happy TV – Christmas specials
52. Carols From King’s
53. Porridge – No Way Out
54. Noel’s Christmas Presents
55. An Audience With ... Dame Edna Everage
56. Carry On Christmas
57. The Avengers – Too Many Christmas Trees
58. Scrooge (starring Alastair Sim)
59. That’s Christmas – Sez Les
60. Casualty – The Golden Hour
61. Blue Peter’s Grange Hill Competition
62. Banzai – Christmas Special
63. Moonlighting – ‘Twas the Episode Before Christmas
64. Smack The Pony – Christmas Special
65. Some Mothers Do ’Ave Em – Christmas specials
66. Shooting Stars – Christmas specials
67. The World’s Strongest Man
68. Christmas Celebrity Blind Date
69. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? – Celebrity Christmas Special
70. Celebrity TV pantomimes
71. Jona Lewie – Stop the Cavalry
72. Emmerdale at Christmas
73. Goodness Gracious Me – Christmas Special
74. Spitting Image – Christmas specials
75. Thunderbirds – Give or Take a Million
76. Natural World – On the Path of the Reindeer
77. Celebrity Visits to Children’s Hospitals
78. Eurotrash Christmas Special
79. It’s a Christmas Knockout
80. Graham Goes to Dollywood
81. This Morning – The Nativity
82. The Bill – Twanky
83. Treasure Hunt – Christmas Special
84. TFI Friday – Christmas specials
85. The Ghosts of Oxford Street
86. Wham! – Last Christmas
87. Ho Ho Ho Selecta!
88. Teletubbies – Christmas specials
89. Till Death Us Do Part – Christmas specials
90. Camp Christmas
91. Upstairs Downstairs – Goodwill to All Men
92. Pop Goes Christmas
93. Desmond’s – O Little Town of Peckham
94. The Fight (Bovey v Gervais)
95. Countdown – Christmas Special
96. Do Not Adjust Your Stocking
97. Noel Edmonds’ Live Live Christmas Breakfast Show
98. The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show
99. The Darkness – Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)
100. The Mrs Merton Christmas Show
