Christmas Day at Home

 Christmas Eve, as we often do, we had Donald and David Simmons over, and sent out for Chinese food. The Simmonses have family in Newfoundland, but for the last few years they’ve made their annual trip home in summer, when the weather is better and their sister isn’t so busy with holiday prep. We watched “The Blue Carbuncle,” from the restored blu-ray release of the Grenada Sherlock Holmes series (the 1980s ones with Jeremy Brett); and then, for comparison, we watched the 1968 adaptation with Peter Cushing as Holmes. We finished up with the early-60s “The Devil’s Foot” with Douglas Wilmer, which has nothing to do with the holidays but does feature a performance by Patrick Troughton, nearly unrecognizable behind a Cornish accent and Victorian side-whiskers.

Today I listened to the late Alan Maitland’s reading of Frederick Forsyth’s “The Shepherd,” which has been a CBC Radio Christmas tradition for at least twenty years, probably longer (their website says Maitland first read it on air in 1979, only a few years after the story was originally published.) An RAF ghost story might seem an odd Christmas tradition for Canada, but my guess is that everyone in this country can identify with a lone traveller trying to get home through deadly weather. Afterwards, I found the BBC recently did an adaptation as well — I think I’ve imprinted on the Maitland reading, the music in the BBC version feels superfluous to me; but they do have a British-accented narrator and engine noises recorded at an aircraft museum going for their broadcast. Links below for anyone else who wants to compare and contrast:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-the-shepherd-edition-2017-1.4455219 (32 minutes)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0858nv3 (45 minutes)

Andrew, earlier, started singing in his sleep, and appears to have composed a Batman-themed take on “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” I tried to transcribe the lyrics; with his permission (and corrections) here they are:


On the twelfth day of Batmas, my butler gave to me:

Twelve issues a year; (ETA this should be “twelve monthly issues”)

Eleven feet of Bat-rope;

Ten bandaids;

Nine mines exploding;

Eight death traps;

Seven Justice Leaguers;

Six Bob Kane ghosts (Andrew kept singing this as the FIVE GOLDEN RINGS part of the tune, and occasionally shouting “We want more money!” “Or we’ll sue!!”);

Five gas bombs;

Four Batmobile tires;

Three Batarangs;

Two sidekicks;

And a villain on a crime spree. ETA —Yuletide has brought, among other goodies, three new Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr. Quin stories. I particularly like the ambiguity of “And Even So Our Dreams” by Anonymous: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138920