In case anyone was wondering what this Christmas marlarky was all about,

the BBC helpfully scheduled 'The Story of the Nativity' for a whopping

5 minutes at 11.45pm on Christmas Day.

Handily, the BBC's flagship series, Dr Who, skillfully weaved a Nativity

theme with a polite nod to the Easter story all in one Christmas Day special.

(The protaganist gets sort of ressurected after being guided by a star).

Overall, it was a wonderfully written piece - turning up the emotional

overdrive to 11 in paces - but, God, the editing....The pace of it was

bordering on the comedic.Establishing shots - no time.

Music ebbing and flowing with the pace - not a chance.

This was full on war by timpani and swooshy hits, relentless for 60 minutes.

In the space of one minute the female lead enters the scene driving a

sort of souped-up Wicker Man, gets zapped with a tiara by a couple of

humanoid bits of garden furniture, realises that the key to saving her

[already dead] husband is to concentrate on something or other, and

still has time to injest a forest that's being attacked by acid rain

(I didn't really get this bit).

What I'd like to know is: Where's the time for a coffee and a Jaffa Cake?

The production felt similar to a adventure computer game where the 'in between'

bits can be skipped ovee with a press of the 'triangle' button.

Perhaps this is the key to modern drama. After all, games are bigger business

than TV - so perhaps TV is simply responding to a viewing generation who doesn't

need to wait for anything.