from the Light Programme announcers followed by a programme summary

played by the Masqueraders

A well-known pianist from the concert platform - Eileen Joyce

and his Orchestra

Men of the British Army of the Rhine share with listeners in Britain a Christmas service held in the Concert Hall, Hamburg. Address by the Deputy Chaplain-General of the Rhine Army, Rev. Geoffrey Druitt
The broadcast arranged in conjunction with the British Forces Network in Germany

and his guests, Ada Alsop, Trefor Jones, Monia Liter, and Charles Smart , introduced by Sandy Macpherson at the theatre organ

22 - 'Smoke without Fire': a new 'Mr. Mangan' story written and read by L.A.G. Strong

Fifteen minutes of melody and syncopation from the British Forces Network in Germany

An interlude of famous and familiar pieces played by David Java (violin) and Robinson Cleaver (organ).

John Webster in London and Sgt. Leslie Boyes in Hamburg play request tunes that unite you and your absent ones in Germany. A joint BBC-BFN production, transmitted simultaneously in Britain and Germany

World-wide exchange of Christian scenes and Christmas greetings to mark the first Christmas of Peace.

Part 1. Christmas in Britain and with British Forces Overseas. Village Christmas in Sussex: Liberation Christmas in Singapore; Christmas in a Services hospital; with the Desert veterans; on a minesweeper: with the Rhine Army

Part 2. Christmas in Transit. S.S. 'Queen Elizabeth' in mid-Atlantic; a British air-liner homeward bound

Part 3. Christmas in the British Commonwealth Overseas. New Zealand; Australia; Canada: South Africa

Part 4. Christmas in Liberated Europe. From Prague (Czechoslovakia). Oslo (Norway), and Caen (France)

Part 5. Christmas at Home. A reunited family in Britain; an exile returns to the Channel Islands

Introducing the worldwide programme of Christmas scenes and greetings which will precede His Majesty the King's broadcast on Christmas afternoon at 3.0

For six long years the Christmas afternoon programme from London has carried a yearly progress report to the people of Britain and to the people of the Commonwealth and Empire. In 1940 we transmitted a picture of 'Christmas Under Fire,' with the Coventry Carol sounding the final note in a paean of hope and defiance from a Britain bombarded, keeping the Christmas feast in ruined homes and underground shelters.

In 1943 the tide had turned, and in 'We are Advancing' the first strong chords of triumph rang out from London. Last Christmas we painted the picture of 'The Journey Home.' Our advancing armies were on the fringes of Germany. France, Belgium, and half Holland were free again. But the barrier of the Rhine remained, and the wooded slopes of the Ardennes had not uncovered their menace.

The twelve months that have passed have seen changes more rapid and more deep-rooted than any in our memories. The immortal leap across the Rhine; the grave happiness of VE-day, lit by the darting flambeaux of our cities and the glow of the village fires over the whole countryside; the stunned triumph of VJ-day; the General Election; and the last grim spectacle of the criminals of war on trial before the Court of Nations.

At the end of such a year the ordinary man and woman take refuge in the hard-won security of their own surroundings, in their own circle, in their own country, in their own home. So, for the first Christmas of peace, our microphone will follow the men and women of the Commonwealth and Empire and the United Kingdom as they move away from their battle-stations, back again to their homes. We call them, on this Christmas Day, wherever they may be.

Our first picture 'Christmas in Peace' comes from Sussex. Here among the lovely beaches and oaks of Kipling's wooded hills the villagers are preparing a boisterous welcome for the boys from overseas; men whose eyes have been starved of green fields for five years are back from the deserts and the oceans. The whole village, including the 'Thirsty Eight' who make up the village band, will be tuned to the greatest welcome to their returning heroes in living memory. There will be changes - Pook's Hill is still being burned out by the bomb-disposal experts to get rid of the five hundred butterfly bombs that fluttered down in 1941 - but they will find the face of the English countryside as it always has been, and as they hoped to find it. That is the Christmas picture that the transmitters will send to the wounded holding their Christmas party in a hospital, to the men waiting their turn, spending Christmas in Austria with the C.M.F., in Cairo with the M.E.F., in Singapore and Burma with S.E.A.C., in Germany with the Army of the Rhine, and in British waters aboard one of His Majesty's minesweepers. That is the picture we send to twelve thousand Canadians homeward bound on Queen Elizabeth, who send their farewell greeting to us from mid-Atlantic in company with the liner captain's Christmas message to all men of the Merchant Navy, and to the pilot of the B.O.A.C. airliner who echoes the greetings to all airmen From the pictures of Christmas at home and with the Forces overseas, we turn to the Dominions. From New Zealand, twelve thousand miles away, an officer of a Maori battalion answers. From Australia, a young airman back on his father's farm From South Africa, a picture of Christmas Day on a citrus farm. From Canada, a glimpse of a young wife spending her first Christmas in her new Canadian home. The men of the Dominions are home again, back in their rich, young lands.

The men of Europe are home again, too. But this is a different picture. The six years of war have left the homes of Europe in ruins and the families broken and scattered. From Eastern Europe, from Prague, comes a poignant reminder of Europe's tragedy; a young Czech airman, home again with his English wife, is giving a Christmas party to the children who have survived the horrible massacre of Lidice. From Norway, speaking for Scandinavia, comes a flash of the joyous reunion of underground fighters of the Home Army and men of the paratroop units who raided the islands and fjords of their native land. And from France another unforgettable link of the war years is honoured in a Christmas Day broadcast from the battered Norman town of Caen. Once again we hear the words 'Over to Normandy,' but the report that comes back will tell, not of war and the slaughter of Tilly, Villers Bocage and Falaise, but of the grim battle of peace fought by the people of France.

So, home again, to a family in Britain. Reunited after the years of bitterness and trial, they will speak on their first Christmas of peace for all families who are gathered together again. And last of all, we shall go to that part of the Empire family from which we have been cut off all these years, the Channel Islands. It is from the citadel of Castle Cornet, sentinel of St. Peter Port, Guernsey, that we shall introduce the last speaker: a Channel Islander from Jersey, back from a concentration camp, who will see before him all the lovely little islands of the Norman Archipelago, and whose honour it will be to send the loyal greetings of the whole Empire and Commonwealth to His Majesty the King.

God Save The King

with Geraldo and his Concert Orchestra in a non-stop review of popular melodies through the years

Wassail, carols, Thomas Hardy's waits, Victorian drawing-room at Christmas, with speakers from different European countries introducing their music
Music arranged by Francis Collinson , played by the BBC Midland Light Orchestra (conductor, Rae Jenkins) and sung by Emelie Hooke (soprano), Cyril Tucker (tenor), Robert Irwin (baritone), the Etruscan Singers and Jean Greenhough with the pupils of J Shelton Junior Day School, Stoke-on-Trent.
Programme written and produced by Edward Livesey

Mrs. Wilkes throws a party in the bar-parlour.

with Sylvia Cecil and Frank Titterton accompanied by the augmented BBC Revue Orchestra under its conductor, Frank Cantell. Verse chosen by Aubrey Danvers-Walker and read by Norman Wooland. Presented by Michael North

Turner Layton.

A happy-go-lucky, carefree entertainment
Featuring James Etherington, a star from the Services, and the latest radio discoveries. Guest stars, Eric Barker and Pearl Hackney. The Debroy Somers Orchestra. Introduced by Carroll Levis. Produced by C. F. Meehan.

Written by Jack Hargreaves.
[Starring] Wilfred Pickles

(Wilfred Pickles is appearing at the Westminster Theatre)

A grand Christmas fantasia of music with Arthur Young, Reginald Foresythe, and George Shearing at the pianos, Elisabeth Welch to sing songs, and Stephane Grappelly to oblige with an obbligato.
Introduced by Roy Plomley, with inevitable interruptions by your announcer Lancelot Heyhoe, and assembled, bungled, and manhandled as usual by Edgar Blatt

The following artists have accepted invitations:
Helen Clare, Margaret Eaves, Maudie Edwards, Cyril Fletcher and Betty Astell, B.C. Hilliam ('Flotsam'), Tommy Handley, Michael Howard, Clay Keyes, Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne, Dorothy Summers, Clarence Wright
Ronald Waldman with an All Star Quiz
Vernon Harris presents 'I Want to be an Actor '
The Augmented BBC Variety Orchestra, conducted by Charles Shadwell
The party organised by Harry S. Pepper and Michael North

Adapted for broadcasting by the author in collaboration with the producer, Alick Hayes. Edited by Rex Diamond and Ian Smith. Music composed and conducted by Leighton Lucas. Part 9

The music of Ambrose and his Orchestra. with the songs of Anne Shelton. Presented by Jacques Brown

A Christmas talk by Father C.C. Martindale, S.J.

[Starring] Arthur Marshall
with Marjorie Westbury as Sister Parkinson, Dorothy Carless as Probationer Muspratt, and Alvar Lidell . Eugene Pini and his Orchestra. Produced by David Yates Mason

and his Futurists, with Marilyn Williams and the Westernaires.
From the Pump Room, Bath

featuring Ronald Frankau and Sim Grossman and his Music, with Gloria Kane and Cyril Stewart. From the Sandacres Hotel, Poole

and his Band. From the Green Park Hotel, Bournemouth

A Christmas Epilogue