Stuart Isaac Burnside

As much a Christmas tradition as Carols from King’s, A Christmas Carol and the Royal Christmas message, the BBC’s Ghost Story for Christmas has been a fixture of Yuletide TV for more than half a century. With their dread-filled atmosphere, their rich period details and gothic vistas, the many dramas made for the slot are a regular counterbalance to the lighter fare that often dominates December’s television schedules.

As an annual tradition throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Ealing Studios’ advertising director S. John Woods designed a special Christmas card. The results were typical of the studio’s graphic design and visual invention. 23 December 2025 S. John Woods Christmas cardEstate of S. John Woods/Image source: BFI National Archive Sydney John Woods was a graphic designer, painter, art curator and critic.

If you are a millennial and you are told that this year marked 200 years of railway locomotion, which on-screen train comes to mind? Chances are that your brain will hook on to the image of a compact blue engine, with a round face and googly eyes and eerily static expressions. Yes, for 1980s children Thomas the Tank Engine is the ultimate screen steam locomotive, as recognisable and beloved as Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh.