Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas (1975)

The BBC's 1975 Christmas series Of the several series Fanny Cradock made, this is the only one known to survive in the television archives, and it has been repeated in recent years on BBC Four, Good Food and Food Network UK, usually around Christmas. She takes viewers through a whole festive meal, from mincemeat and the cake to the turkey, pudding and petits fours, and the lesson worth taking is her planning: the jobs are spread out so that Christmas Day itself is manageable. The ball gowns, piping bag and vegetable dyes date it, but the timetable is as useful as ever.