The Snowman

Advent Calendar House - TV Holiday & Christmas Specials

☃️ It’s 1982, and we’re walking in the air. The Advent Calendar House takes flight for its 7th season as we melt over a British Christmas classic and a personal favorite I wish was more beloved stateside.

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🎙 Guest:

Adam Parker Sibun from the Merry Britsmas Podcast (@MerryBritsmas).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. New theme song! Thanks, Bronwen’s Ghost!

2. Merry Britsmas episode on Raymond Briggs.

3. The British Film Institute’s Top 100 British TV Programmes of the 20th Century.

4. The special’s 3 openings, featuring Briggs, David Bowie, and Mel Smith as Father Christmas.

5. The original Snowman original picture book wasn’t a Christmas story.

6. Other Briggs works mentioned: Father Christmas, Fungus the Bogeyman, Ethel and Ernest, and When the Wind Blows.

7. How The Snowman melted David Bowie’s heart (The Guardian, December 2016).

8. Duncan Jones finds his dad’s scarf.

9. Video of an owl flying over snow I eerily shared on Facebook the night David Bowie died.

10. The Maccabees cover Walking in the Air.

11. The Royal Pavilion and Brighton Palace Pier.

12. Today’s TV Trope: Polar Bears and Penguins.

13. The Snowman in a commercial for Barbour outerwear.

14. Irn-Bru soft drink’s parody commercial, and its sequel.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

1985 Toys “R” Us Snowman Commercial featuring Aled Jones covering Walking in the Air (sung in the special by Peter Auty).

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“The Snowman” © 1982 Snowman Enterprises Ltd.

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Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.