Mistletoe and Wine 
( Jeremy Paul, Leslie Stewart and Keith Strachan)


The song was written in 1975 for the musical The Little Match Girl (known then as Scraps) performed at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond in December 1976. Then after sitting on the shelf for ten years the musical was televised by HTV and this particular song took on its own life in 1988 when Cliff Richard recorded it as a Christmas single. It was the #1 Christmas single that year and went on to be the 10th most successful Christmas song of all time. The writers received the Ivor Novello Award for best selling single record of 1988

Various televised interviews with Keith and, occasionally, Leslie

Britain's Favourite Christmas Songs 
Channel Five - 25 Dec 2011

It was voted number 8 that year.

The Nation's Favourite Christmas Songs 
ITV - 25 Dec 2012

And voted at number 19 that year.

Channel 5 News at 5
15 Dec 2014 

This followed the publication of some dubious data regarding the amounts of money earned by Christmas songs. The media loved it. I did three interviews in one day. C5 News, News at 10 and Radio 5 Live.

ITN News at 10
15 Dec 2014

And finally ... !

Channel 5 Tonight News
19 Dec 2014

An interview in the C5 studios

C4 Rewind the Christmas Hits
21 Dec 2014

The contribution from Leslie and me was recorded earlier in October 2014. 
I like this one. Leslie at his uncompromising and argumentative best.

Press Articles

BBC News Dec 2013: Mistletoe and Wine's political beginnings. John Mckie
This interesting article appeared online at the BBC in Dec 2013.
The Guardian Dec 2016: Mistletoe and Wine is the only Christmas song that matters. Trevor Mitchell
​I'm sure there's a barbed comment or two in here but who cares?
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