BBC Radio Five Live has revealed details of their festive programming. They include Kelvin MacKenzie reviewing the best of the year's news and a Sports Review of the Year looking back at some of the greatest, worst and best forgotten key sporting moments from 2006 .
Festive highlights include:
- The Schumacher Years, which takes an in depth look at the famous and infamous career of the Formula 1 legend;
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Richard Bacon chairs a special news-led version of Fighting Talk;
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606 Action Replay looks back at the last year of football through the opinions of listeners;
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A Year In Premiership Square, football's only soap, from Eamonn Holmes' Saturday show, takes a hilarious imagined look at life behind the scenes at the elite end of football.
Here are some of the schedule highlights are below:
[b]Christmas Eve[/b]
1.00pm: Five Live Sports Review Of The Year
Steve Bunce presents a wry look back at the sporting year gone by including the best and worst moments, and nuggets you may have forgotten. Across 12 categories, top guest and archive footage will aid the countdown to the winners.
3.00—6.00pm: Phil Williams Christmas Special
Phil Williams presents a mixture of fun, music and comedy to get you in the festive spirit. He will be joined by some musical names you already know and some that you'll hear a lot more from in 2007. Chuck in a mix of interviews with people who've been in the news in 2006 and a guide to what you should be buying if you're doing that last minute dash around the shops and you've got the Phil Williams Christmas Special 2006.
6.00—7.00pm: 606 — Action Replay
Review show of the best of 606, Five Live's original football phone-in show, taking a look at the 2006 season so far. The programme rounds up the most talked about stories that have driven listener calls and comment, including West Ham beating Arsenal, Spurs beating Chelsea, Southend in the Carling Cup, referee Graham Poll, the Ben Thatcher incident plus more.
7.00-8.00pm: Fighting Talk — AOB
Richard Bacon is judge and jury in this special news-focussed edition of the popular panel show.
[b]Christmas Day[/b]
7.00—10.00am: Ashes Breakfast Live From Australia
On the eve of the fourth test, Julian Worricker celebrates Christmas in Melbourne with fans who have travelled to Australia to follow the cricket. As we wake up in Britain, they will have finished Christmas lunch "down under" so tune in to hear all about a Barmy Army Christmas and get all the news ahead of the Melbourne Test.
10.00am—noon: The Listeners' Year
Taking a look back at the stories and issues that got listeners hot under the collar in 2006, The Listeners' Year is a review of the stories that provoked the greatest response on Victoria Derbyshire's phone-in show, and an analysis of what has happened to them since. The programme features topics including immigration, who was to blame for the collapse of Christmas club Farepak, to the debate over whether Muslim women in Britain should wear veils.
2.00—3.00pm: Five Live's Films Of The Year
Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode with their selections of the best and worst of the movies of 2006.
5.00—7.00pm: News Review Of The Year
Kelvin MacKenzie presents a two-hour special looking at the stories that set the agenda across politics, world news, environment, business and entertainment. Kelvin's guests will include both those in the stories and those reporting them. There will be archive montages of events as they unfolded.
7.00—8.00pm: The Schumacher Years
A one-hour special with David Croft and Holly Samos, taking an in-depth look at the Formula 1 legend following his retirement from the track. The programme includes exclusive material from Schumacher, and the great and the good of Formula 1 including Murray Walker. Not just a nostalgic look at the highs of his career, this programme delves into the man behind the helmet in an in-depth and gritty programme.
8.00—9.00pm: The World Cup Tapes
A second chance to hear the hugely popular World Cup Tapes, listeners' monologues submitted during the World Cup, read by Jonny Vegas, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Two Pints of Lager actress Sheridan Smith. The programme features a selection of the best monologues, inspired by the emotions and drama of the World Cup as the competition unfolded, plus interviews with their writers.
9.00—10.00pm: A Year In Premiership Square
Forget Footballers' Wives, Premiership Square tells football how it really is. A comedy review of the football year in Five Live's unique soap opera, where Alex Ferguson has an office above the hairdressers, John Terry collects pebbles, and Posh and Becks sing at the local working men's club.
10.00pm: Mark Pougatch At The Ashes
As 80,000 fans gather at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the fourth test, Mark Pougatch keeps you up to date with all the Ashes news from inside the ground, and the Five Live studio brings all the day's news.