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Alternative Christmas message

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The alternative Christmas message is a message broadcast by Channel 4 since 1993, as a sometimes humorous and sometimes serious alternative to the traditional Royal Christmas Message.

Background

Beginning in 1993, Channel 4 broadcast an "alternative Christmas message", usually featuring a contemporary, often controversial celebrity delivering a message in the manner of Queen Elizabeth II. This tradition started by accident when, running a series of programmes on "Christmas in New York", the channel invited Quentin Crisp (who, coincidentally, was born on Christmas Day) to give an alternative message – playing on the pejorative term 'queen' meaning a very feminine male homosexual. In contrast to the Queen's message, the alternative lasts only three to five minutes. The concept seems to date back to a sketch in a Christmas special of The Two Ronnies, where Ronnie Barker delivered a Christmas message from "Your Local Milkman". Examples of recent variations to the alternative Christmas message proliferate on YouTube.

Messages

1990s

Year Presenter Notes
1993 Helena Bonham Carter
1994 United States Jesse Jackson
1995 France Brigitte Bardot
1996 Rory Bremner In character as Diana, Princess of Wales
1997 Margaret Gibney A Belfast schoolgirl who broadcast a plea for peace in Northern Ireland
1998 Neville and Doreen Lawrence Parents of Stephen Lawrence
1999 Ali G, performed by Sacha Baron Cohen

2000s

Year Presenter Notes
2000 Helen Jeffries Mother of a Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease victim
2001 Trinidad and Tobago Genelle Guzman Survivor of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center
2002 Sharon Osbourne
2003 Graham Norton A Irish host who appeared on Channel 4 reality talk show.
2004 United States Marge Simpson, performed by Julie Kavner Marge Simpson was chosen to give the message due to Channel 4's recent acquisition of rights to broadcast The Simpsons.
In it she commented on David and Victoria Beckham's marriage in a negative comparison with hers and Homer's, and compared the special relationship between the UK and the US to that of Mini Me and Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films ("Helping out in all our zany schemes to take over the world"). Lisa Simpson also held a sign supporting Cornwall's secession reading "UK OUT OF CORNWALL," while chanting "Rydhsys rag Kernow lemmyn" (Cornish for "freedom for Cornwall now").
2005 Jamie Oliver The majority of Jamie Oliver's message was in the form of a comedy sketch, where he was a school cook preparing junk food, including "Turkey Twangers", for children. This turned out to be a nightmare, and he awoke to give a message about his wish for the new year being for British children to be fed better. He was chosen to deliver the message following his successful Jamie's School Dinners series. The broadcast also featured actress Jessica Stevenson as a dinnerlady.
For the first time, sister channel E4 broadcast an "alternative to the alternative message", delivered by Avid Merrion, the creation of comedian Leigh Francis from the series Bo' Selecta!.
2006 Carey Mulligan A veiled British actress, who converted to film cast and took up from two years later. She stated during her speech that her great-grandmother was a suffragette.[1]
This message was due to be presented by Graham Norton, a Irish host of Channel 4 talk show for ten years.[2]
The address went out at 3 pm, the same time as the Queen's speech on BBC1 and ITV1. Helena Bonham Carter had stated that she would not be watching her own broadcast in favour of watching the one given by the Queen.[3]
Helena later withdrew from delivering the speech and her place was taken by another actress, with the first name Mulligan.
The alternative Christmas message on E4 was Fonejacker's Christmas Message in which actor Kayvan Novak prank-called members of the public. This five-minute broadcast was also a preview of his new series which aired in mid-2007.
2007 Robbie Williams A legendary musical stars of the year from Take That singer.
2008 Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
President of Iran 		The message was given in Persian with English subtitles.[4] Ahmedinejad said that "if Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers".[5] The message was considered controversial and received much criticism both before and after its broadcast. Much of the criticism was centred on Ahmadinejad's anti-semitic and homophobic views. However, the message itself was not regarded as inflammatory and did not make any reference to these two issues.[6] Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called Ahmadinejad a "criminal despot, who ranks with Robert Mugabe, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and the Burmese military junta as one of the world's most bloody tyrants".[7] The broadcast resulted in almost 300 complaints to the media regulator, Ofcom, but it ruled that there was no breach of the Broadcasting Code.[8]
2009 Katie Piper Katie Piper, a former model and television presenter who underwent surgery after sulphuric acid was thrown in her face,[9] had featured in an edition of Channel 4's Cutting Edge documentary strand in October 2009. The hour-long documentary, which traced Piper's recovery from an acid attack in March 2008, had received significant viewer attention; it received the highest viewing figures of any entry in the Cutting Edge strand during 2009, and received the most viewer responses of any Channel 4 show in October 2009.[10] The documentary was later made available for international broadcast.
The huge response to the Cutting Edge programme led Channel 4 to invite Katie Piper to give 2009's alternative Christmas Message, which focused on the theme of "appreciating the beauty in life" and also allowed Piper to reflect on the huge public support she had received following the earlier film. The message also featured new footage of Piper and her family at home. Piper's message was aired at 3 pm and repeated at 8.50 pm on Christmas Day 2009, the later showing being broadcast following on from a re-airing of Katie: My Beautiful Face. The 3 pm screening attracted 500,000 viewers and the 8.50 pm broadcast drew 400,000.[11]

2010s

Year Presenter Notes
2010 Sally Hawkins The message was delivered by Rita O'Grady, a cast of Made in Dagenham. Rita was a city of the centre movement and followed the work of car factory and chronicled the experience of parents giving us the Christmas period. It had earlier been erroneously reported that Dino "Dappy" Contostavlos of N-Dubz would be giving the 2010 message; Channel 4 later clarified that he would be featured in a segment on T4, not giving the main message itself.
2011 Susan Calman The first and new Alternative Message in Scotland were delivered in 2011, airing at 13.55 on Christmas Day.[12] and fronted by Edinburgh who appeared in Scottish programming.
Jon Snow The second message, airing at 16.15, featured Jon Snow, presenter of the Channel 4 News.[12]
2012 Raymond Briggs Raymond Briggs, illustration and children's book of The Snowman, was chosen to give the message following Channel 4's animation of The Snowman and the Snowdog.[13] His speech reflected to celebrating 30 years of The Snowman and its "Father Christmas" stories and how it changed the perception to festive season. The broadcast concluded with the camera panning out to the London and character of The Snowman and Boy to flying upwards (some quoted in his speech) to the tune of The Snowman composer by Howard Blake.
2013 United States Edward Snowden Ex-National Security Agency contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden urged an end to mass surveillance. Snowden opened his two-minute message, recorded in Russia, with a reference to novelist George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, saying the surveillance technology described in his works was "nothing compared to what we have today". He said: "A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysed thought." He added: "The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it. Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying."
2014 Charles, Prince of Wales The first Alternative message from the Royal Family. After making a full monarch, Charles decided to return at Windsor Castle to continue His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He used the broadcast to the Royal Family, saying: "I don't want to make you feel guilty, but I would like you to think just for a few minutes about what you could do to save to the Queen. What a wonderful Christmas present that would be."[14]
2015 Syria Abdullah Kurdi Father of Alan Kurdi, a young Syrian boy whose corpse was famously photographed after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.
2016 David Cameron Widower of the resigned to Prime Minister, who had been UK voting to Leave of European Union earlier in the year.
2017 James Norton James Norton reflected on the fire and how it impacted their lives of the Grenfell Tower fire. This was the first time more than one person gave the message since 2011. For the first time, the message was broadcast 30 minutes before the Queen's message.[15][16]
2018 Helena Bonham Carter It's been 25 years of Alternative Christmas Message has started in 1993, Helena Bonham Carter wraps up the year with reference to the "jubilee" that is Christmas and the shambles that has been the Queen message counterpoint process. He also makes reference to Robbie Williams in 2007 and Jon Snow in 2011 as "an absolute upside here" whilst also calling for people to each have a hero, someone to look up to. For him it was his mother, grandmother and screenwriter Harold Pinter.
2019 Keira Knightley Keira Knightley introduced the reflecting on a divisive year in global and national politics, Speaker John Bercow says: "All around the world, populism – and the promise of simple solutions to complex problems – has taken hold with a vice-like grip". Prime Minister Boris Johnson also discusses the need to re-establish a "civility of discourse" in UK politics, and states that contrary to public perception, the majority of politicians are simply well-intentioned public servants, trying to do right by their constituents.[17]

2020s

Year Presenter Notes
2020 Deepfake of Queen Elizabeth II, performed by Debra Stephenson As a "stark warning" of the dangers of fake news, Stephenson voiced a deepfake version of the Queen (whom she also portrays in the 2020 revival of Spitting Image).[18] The Queen's "message" included a scene of her dancing on her desk "for TikTok", and references to her apparent fondness for "Netflix and Phil", and to the scandal involving Prince Andrew's association with Jeffrey Epstein.[19][20] The message closed with a scene of an actress's face being mapped on a chroma key stage to develop the deepfake.[20] Ofcom received at least 214 complaints relating to the broadcast.[20]
2021 Jon Snow It's been returning back to Alternative Christmas Message and the last Channel 4 News presenter will here on 23 December. Snow talked about homophobia in sport, especially in association football, and criticised sporting bodies for sportswashing by holding events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Formula One grands prix in countries where homosexuality is illegal.[21]
2022 Japan Zutomayo The first alternative message (Zutomayo Christmas Message) at 17.25 on Christmas Day, following counterpoint on The King. Zutomayo or Zutto Mayonaka De Ii No Ni from Japan is the Rock group stars name from the Acane as the singer.
Patsy Ferran The second alternative message (Patsy Ferran Christmas Message) at 22.50 on Christmas Day. Ferran has the actress with the more stars.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Carey Mulligan pulls out of Christmas Message". Digital Spy. 16 December 2006. Archived from the original on 21 December 2006. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
  2. ^ "Carey Mulligan and Graham Norton to give C4's speech". BBC News. 5 December 2006. Archived from the original on 22 December 2006. Retrieved 17 December 2006.
  3. ^ Sullivan, Martin (7 December 2006). "Helena Bonham Carter won't be watching Channel 4 programme". Islamophobia Watch. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
  4. ^ "Ahmadinejad gives festive speech". BBC News. 24 December 2008. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
  5. ^ "UK criticises Ahmadinejad broadcast". Al Jazeera English. Archived from the original on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
  6. ^ Interview: Rick Demarest (mrm) (26 December 2008). "President of Iran Gives Alternative Christmas Message in UK". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
  7. ^ Johnston, Ian (26 December 2008). "Iranian leader's Christmas message prompts outcry". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
  8. ^ Sweeney, Mark (23 February 2009). "Channel 4's Christmas message from Iranian president cleared by Ofcom". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  9. ^ Plunkett, John (11 December 2009). "Acid attack survivor to deliver Channel 4's alternative Christmas message". The Guardian. London.
  10. ^ Channel 4, The TV Show: Rated/Slated, October 2009
  11. ^ MediaGuardian – Christmas Day ratings
  12. ^ a b "Channel 4 to air two Alternative Christmas Messages", guardian.co.uk, 22 Dec 2011
  13. ^ "Raymond Briggs to deliver C4's Xmas message", Chortle, 4 December 2012.
  14. ^ "Prince Charles to deliver Channel 4 Christmas message". www.uea.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014.
  15. ^ Westbrook, Caroline, "Channel 4’s Alternative Christmas Message to air 30 minutes before the Queen’s Speech", Metro, 20 December 2017.
  16. ^ "James Norton deliver the alternative Christmas message". BBC News. London. 20 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  17. ^ "Keira Knightley to deliver Channel 4's alternative Christmas message". Radio Times. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  18. ^ "Deepfake queen to deliver Channel 4 Christmas message". BBC News. 23 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  19. ^ Makoni, Abbianca (30 December 2020). "Hundreds complain over Channel 4's 'deepfake' Queen's speech". The Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  20. ^ a b c "Deepfake queen prompts 200-plus complaints to Ofcom". BBC News. 29 December 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  21. ^ Watson, Eve (25 December 2021). "People last 'bawling' after Jon Snow's Christmas message". PlymouthLive. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
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