The Vintage Christmas Years with Jim Simpson
Sunday 20 December 8am
The best Christmas music from the 1920s through to the 1960s with “Vintage Jim”
Folk At Christmas
Sunday 20 December 11am
Terry Firth plays a hour of festive folk music both old and new.
Vinyl Impressions Christmas Countdown
Sunday 20 December 4pm
Martyn Brown counts down the top 60 Christmas songs that have sold best on vinyl.
Follow the Stars Concert for MacMillan’s Cancer Support
Wednesday 23 December 7pm
Monday 28 December 8pm
A stellar cast of celebrities give support to a much-loved Christmas Celebration concert to raise greatly needed funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.
“Let’s raise a glass to the wonderful work of Macmillan”, says Joanna Lumley, in the opening sequence of Follow the Stars, Macmillan Cancer Support’s ‘Celebration of Christmas’ concert, which this year goes online to reach a wider audience in the wake of cancelled fundraising Christmas
concerts around the UK. Joining Joanna Lumley and delivering seasonal readings and poetry are a host of much-loved actors, poets and renowned musicians. Sinead Cusack (King Lear, V for Vendetta,), Stephen Fry (actor, writer, host of QI and so much more), Jeremy Irons (Watchmen, Red Sparrow and of course Brideshead), Max Irons (Condor, The Wife, The Riot Club), Toby Jones, (Uncle Vanya, the Detectorists), Greg Wise (The Crown, Military Wives, Sense and Sensibility) and top-polled poet Benjamin Zephaniah (Reggae Head, Library Ology, Talking Turkeys). And more…
Alexander Armstrong introduces musicians from the magical setting of Christ Church Cathedral, considered one of the world’s great cathedrals and later sings a heart-warming Christmas favourite.
World-leading baritones Roderick Williams OBE and Christopher Purves sing The Three Kings and The Carol of the Field Mice, while Alexander Armstrong’s son and New College chorister Paddy Armstrong sings solo, “In the Bleak Midwinter”. The amazing voices of the Oxford Bach Soloists, directed by Tom Hammond-Davies and supported by organist Steven Grahl, perform best loved Christmas themed music. And, The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, will give a blessing.
Matt Monro’s Christmas Box
Christmas Eve 3pm
Matt Monro’s daughter Michele presents this special show produced especially for hospital radio, which contains some of Matt’s favourite festive songs.
The A to Z of Your Traditional Christmas
Christmas Day 7am
An hour of more traditional Christmas music to celebrate the start of Christmas Day.
Music on Demand Live for Christmas Day
Christmas Day 9am – 12pm
Dave Sanger, Dave Leonard and April Haywood are your hosts for Christmas morning requests.
Postcard From New Zealand
Christmas Day 12pm
Andy McCormick is here on Christmas Eve to give listeners a taste of Christmas down under where the temperature is about 25 degrees and shorts on Christmas Day are normal!
The Queen
Christmas Day 3pm
It wouldn’t be Christmas without Her Majesty’s message to the Commonwealth on Christmas Day at 3pm.
Vernon Pearce’s Christmas Postcard from Spain
Christmas Day 3.05pm
A taste of sunshine as Vernon brings you Christmas in sunny Spain including some Spanish Christmassy music.
Music on Demand for Boxing Day
12 – 2pm
John McKay is your host for 2 hours of lunchtime requests.
The Sound of Sunday: 25 Years of Anvil Christmas Pantos
Boxing Day 4pm
Neil Ogden looks back over some of the stars of The Anvil Christmas Panto who have taken part in The Sound of Sunday Big Christmas Show over the years. They include Keith Chegwin, Toyah Wilcox, Anne Charleston, Chris Jarvis, Andrew Agnew, Colin Baker, Lisa Benjamin, and Mark Rhodes. The programme, first heard last year, celebrates 25 years since The Anvil opened in May 1994.
Chesney at Christmas
Boxing Day 6pm
After his first show earlier this year, 90s singer Chesney Hawkes returns to HRB for Christmas.
Chesney Hawkes is one of the icons of the early 1990s. Singer, songwriter, actor and now hospital radio presenter!
With grateful thanks to everyone at Hawkes Productions, he’s taken time out of his busy schedule to record a very special Christmas-themed programme from his studio in Los Angeles dedicated to the listeners to hospital radio in the UK and Ireland.
The show features some classic Christmas hits introduced by The One And Only himself.
Power Anthems at the Movies
Boxing Day 8pm
Paul Baker presents a special edition of the show that plays the biggest power anthems and ballads, this week all the tracks are taken from films.
