DEL AND RODNEY (David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst) were the top Christmas Day TV attraction, with Only Fools and Horses pulling in 18.7 million viewers. A bonus edition of EastEnders drew 15.9 million and in third place was Jurassic Park, with 14.5 million.
Queen Elizabeth has lost more than half of her Christmas Day viewers over the past six years. This year's message, recorded at Sandringham, was watched by a total of 11 million BBC1 and ITV viewers, a drop of nearly 3 million in just 12 months. The decline in interest in the message will dismay the queen who has regarded the broadcast as one of her most significant duties of the year.
French novelist Clarisse Nicoidski has died. She was 56. The writer, of Yugoslav origin, was best known for Couvre feux (Curfew), Guerres Civiles (Civil Wars) and Les Amants (The Lovers), based on the Algerian war of in dependence. Her last, autobiographical novel, Milord, was published last autumn.
Tony Blair's wife Cherie has been assigned her own general election assistant for the forthcoming campaign. Fiona Millar, the long time partner of Tony's press secretary Alastair Campbell, will assist Cherie in arranging personal appearances.
Party sources have denied that Millar, a political journalist who worked for Neil Kinnock during the last election, would be Cherie's spin doctor, briefing journalists.
US President Bill Clinton surprised onlookers on Christmas eve when he went shopping at a mall near the Pentagon, but the president was himself surprised by a gift bearing Ethiopian immigrant.
Eyssu Teklu (38), gave Clinton the CD Elemental Rhythm and Blues.
"I told him I was an Ethiopian and as an immigrant loved him very much," Tekly said later. He said the president told him: "We love having you here." Tekly came to the US 18 years ago.