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Miriam Margolyes, Charity Wakefield, Olly Smith and Jamie Cullum

Chris gets festive with BAFTA winner Miriam Margolyes, beverage boffin Olly Smith, actress Charity Wakefield and jazz performer and presenter Jamie Cullum performs live!

Chris gets in the Christmas spirit with special festive guests! BAFTA winning actress Miriam Margolyes drops by to tell us about her adventures on The Real Marigold On Tour. Jolly Olly Smith chats about his new TV show Ale Trails and festive Radio 2 show with Nadiya Hussain. Actress Charity Wakefield spills the beans on the Doctor Who Christmas special and her role in ITV's upcoming drama The Halcyon. Jamie Cullum gets the gang feeling merry as he tells us about the making of his brand new single Show Me the Magic and performs live in the studio. Methodist Minister Leslie Griffiths has the Pause For Thought.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Music Played

  • Queen

    A Kind Of Magic

    • Queen - Greatest Hits II.
    • Parlophone.
  • Robin Schulz & David Guetta

    Shed A Light (feat. Cheat Codes)

    • (CD Single).
    • 35079 - Tonspiel.
  • Shakin鈥 Stevens

    Merry Christmas Everyone

    • That's Christmas (Various Artists).
    • EMI.
  • Olly Murs

    You Don鈥檛 Know Love

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA.
  • Bellowhead

    Christmas Bells / Jingle Bells

    • (CD Single).
    • Navigator Records.
    • 2.
  • The Banana Splits

    The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)

    • Television's Greatest Hits Vol. 5: In Living Color (Various Artists).
    • TVT Records.
  • Chuck Berry

    Run Rudolph Run

    • Chuck Berry - The Chess Years (Cd 2).
    • Chess.
  • Robbie Williams

    Love My Life

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
  • The Bangles

    Walk Like An Egyptian

    • Take A Break (Various Artists).
    • Columbia.
  • Gabriella Cilmi

    Warm This Winter

    • (CD Single).
    • Universal.
    • 1.
  • Nat King Cole

    All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

    • Cole, Christmas & Kids.
    • Capitol.
    • 5.
  • Tom Chaplin

    Hardened Heart

    • The Wave.
    • Island.
  • Phil Collins

    Two Hearts

    • Singles.
    • Rhino.
  • Kool & the Gang

    Celebration

    • Kool & The Gang - The Singles Collect.
    • Phonogram.
  • Kool & the Gang

    Ladies' Night

    • And They Danced The Night Away.
    • Debutante.
  • Kool & the Gang

    Get Down On It

    • Eighties Legends (Various Artists).
    • Virgin.
    • 2.
  • Dean Martin

    Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

    • Christmas With The Rat Pack (Various).
    • Capitol.
    • 4.
  • Cliff Richard

    It's Better To Dream (Christmas Mix)

    • Just... Fabulous Rock 'n' Roll.
    • Sony Music.
  • KT Tunstall

    Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas in Hawaii)

    • The KT Tunstall Holiday Collection.
    • EMI.
  • Kaiser Chiefs

    We Stay Together

    • (CD Single).
    • Fiction.
  • Rag鈥檔鈥橞one Man

    Human

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
    • 001.
  • Jamie Cullum

    Show Me The Magic

  • Jamie Cullum

    Uptown Funk

  • Jamie Cullum

    These Are The Days

  • Jamie Cullum

    Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought

From Leslie Griffiths, Methodist Minister:

A few days ago I turned up at an end-of-term concert at one of our local schools. Once upon a time they鈥檇 have called it a 鈥淐hristmas Concert鈥 but now, in the fashion of our day, it was styled a 鈥淲inter Concert.鈥 Not too long ago, I鈥檇 have resented this as yet another way of side-lining and muting Christianity. 鈥淲inter Concert鈥 indeed!

For all that, this was an experience where I felt my heart strangely warmed. The programme was heavily into rock and roll with numbers by Chuck Berry, Kirk Franklin, Al Green and Prince. Before the end, we were all clapping our hands, tapping our feet and whooping our pleasure. It was a great evening but, you may well ask, what did all this have to do with Christmas?

Well pretty much everything actually. All the songs we heard were about the need for us to become the people we were meant to be, to know true happiness, to find a way of dispelling the darkness of despair. And rock music was interspersed brilliantly with a smattering of familiar Christmas numbers. We heard 鈥淪ilent Night,鈥 鈥淕od rest ye merry gentlemen鈥 and 鈥淚n the bleak midwinter鈥 - all movingly rendered. It鈥檚 as it should be when you come to think of it. God didn鈥檛 choose to reveal himself in a cathedral or a sacred place but out in the fields and in a back room, not to holy people but to the world at large. And so it was that these traditional lyrics seemed to carry extra meaning precisely because they were intermingled with contemporary music. The climax of it all for me came when a group of teenage boys, so patently sincere, sang words which sum it all up: 鈥淲hat can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part, yet what I can I give him. Give my heart.鈥

The happiest of happy Christmases to you all.

Broadcast

  • Tue 20 Dec 2016 06:30

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