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It'll be alright... one more time.

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Some months ago I wrote this piece taking a detailed look at the differences in the edit between It’ll Be Alright On The Night 5 , the original version screened in 1988, and a later repeat shown in 1991. (You  might  want to read that first if you haven't already.)  At the time it was known that Alright 5 descended from ‘It’ll Be Alright On Christmas Night’, something which was apparently the same programme but “with some more Christmas stuff” shown the previous year, in 1987. But at the time, we only had about the first minute of the show to go on.  Recently, a full copy of the Christmas Night version appeared on YouTube - huge thanks to Lee Wall who spotted it and let me know. So it seemed like a good time to revisit the show and fully compare each version to see if we can get any further insight into the differences between them all.  The easiest way to demonstrate what’s going on is to play all three shows together, pausing each one at the right points so as to keep t

It'll be alright... until quite late at night.

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Curiosity is an unbearable thing. It began with an innocent enough question on Twitter about 'It'll Be Alright On The Night'... The source of that mystery, an incongruous apology aired ahead of It'll Be Alright On The Night 7, where TV's Denis Norden sweetly apologised that the wrong programme had aired last week, and that this week's was indeed the new one.  Curious. A mystery, to be sure. But not something which stirred any memories, and not something which I could help with. But lurking in the YouTube suggestions, screen right, was something I did remember a little better: I do remember that, although I'm not sure I remember it being shown in December 1987. Alright 5 was one of the first things I recorded on my first video recorder, and I didn't own one of those until the middle of 1988. But let's not quibble about dates just yet. Instead, I played the YouTube video. Which just led to more questions. Firstly, the video seems t