Merry Christmas 2009

Today is the 25th anniversary of the broadcast of the final episode of The Box of Delights on BBC TV. Instead of Christmas cards (for I only post a few) here's a rather twee tribute this anniversary and to Christmas too.

A very merry Christmas to all of you at home.




For those of you who may be interested - the box animation was put together in Swift 3d then Flash and Adobe Premiere Elements. The music is the original piece taken by the BBC for The Box of Delights - a segment from Victor Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony. The pictures were all taken in the heavy snow of February this year in and around Crystal Palace Park.

48 Hour Bloopers

Following on from our 48-hour film challenge entry Pressure Valve, here are the out-takes:

Pressure Valve

On a sunny weekend in early April 2009, The Middlemen assembled to make a film; an entry for the Sci Fi London 48 Hour film challenge.

We were given as our pre-requisites:

Title Pressure Valve

Dialogue I do not speak your language and you don't speak mine

Prop Five ring doughnuts

This is what we made:

(best full screen, and HQ of course)

Here we go a wassailing

I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions, but I think I'll make a small exception - I really must keep up with this blogging lark a lot more...

Anyway. Christmas is over for another year and to officially mark the occasion a bunch of us joined many hundreds of others on the South Bank of the Thames for Twelfth Night festivities performed by the Lions Part company.

Starting with the Green Man of holly coming from a cutter on the Thames, we the crowd were then led in the traditional wassails or toasting of the people, river and nearby Globe Theatre to bring luck in the coming year.

With a golden biscuit (gingerbread sprinkled with gold glitter) as an interval snack we were led next to the Mummers play. This was a strange mix of old stories and music interspersed with modern jokes and a cast of characters ranging from old Father Christmas and Saint George to the villains Beelzebub and Turkey Sniper. By this point Messrs. 0 tra la la?, TDB and M decided they couldn't see much through the crowds and accidentally "fell into the pub". W and I soldiered on though and were treated to Saint George's fight with Turkey Sniper, his resurrection by tooth extraction!

More images from the festivities are here on Flickr.