Episode 5 Christmas City

It's that magical time of year. It's Christmas!

Up and down the UK, in towns and cities,

families are gearing up for that big special day.

They're buying presents, eating and drinking,

and generally making merry.

But as we know, Christmas is a major undertaking

that takes planning,

organisation, and a lot of hard work, but for some people,

it can be a pretty challenging time too.

I am very scared.

Should have used nails.

Still got Christmas trees to be delivered yet.

So, we're in the heart of Britain's biggest Christmas market in

Manchester to show you just what it takes to get that festive

season on track.

If we didn't do our job, the city would come to a standstill.

Our priority is to get the motorway open and get these people

moving again.

Someone's fallen, getting into a taxi here.

The ambulance has already been called.

We're going to be meeting stallholders, police officers,

and organisers, who all work tirelessly behind the scenes

to make this special time of year safe and joyful for us all.

It really does feel like the start of Christmas because

everyone's getting together and having a good time.

BOTH: Welcome to Christmas City!

Going to be a good Christmas!

On today's show, we'll be finding out what it takes to get

Manchester's most iconic hotel ready for Christmas.

And we'll also be following the fortunes of

a first-time stallholder,

who's gambled his life savings on a new business, selling blankets.

And I'll be meeting a lady who's facing a tough first

Christmas alone after the loss of her husband of more than 40 years.

In the build-up to Christmas, teams of workers around the country have

been hard at it, putting up lights, hanging baubles, and sprucing

up our city centres, in readiness for the festive fun-lovers.

And for some grand old institutions, it's a chance to maintain and

maybe even develop some longstanding traditions.

The Midland Hotel is one of Manchester's

most historic buildings. This is where Mr Rolls first met Mr Royce

and decided to make cars together,

Hitler apparently had it earmarked as his British headquarters,

and back in the '60s the Beatles were refused access to the

restaurant for being too scruffy.

More recently, they've spent £20 million on

a massive revamp and they certainly don't scrimp at Christmas.

Executive housekeeper Sandra Dixon has spent half her working

-life here.

-It was always the hotel that I wanted to work at.

It was the famous Midland.

I didn't want to work anywhere else.

The century-old hotel is used to hosting big events,

but nothing excites the people who work here more

than the annual countdown to Christmas.

Christmas decorations around Manchester get bigger every year, so

it's a kind of a competition, who is going to have the best decorations.

And we always want to try and do better than everyone else.

-Did you say Brian was bringing the rest of the balls down?

-Yeah.

At this time of year,

Sandra spends more time at the hotel than she does at home.

It's earned her a title she's proud of.

The general manager calls me Mrs Christmas.

If it's not right, then it's down to me,

so I've got to make sure it's right.

The hotel will be spending over £10,000 on creating that

festive atmosphere, and this year,

they have gambled on a new team to organise their Christmas

decorations, so Natasha Taylor is now the woman in Sandra's sights.

A lot of pressure on you.

Yeah, I mean, there is a lot of pressure, I mean,

but for myself and the team, we're all fairly confident.

And Sandra has an eye for detail.

The four columns, I've asked them to wrap them in pre-lit garlands.

They'll have to be dressed with warm white lights.

Definitely, warm white.

-One year, they did the bright white and it was kind of bluer.

-Yeah.

-And we don't want that.

-No.

-We want...

-The warm.

-The warm.

-Yeah. That's absolutely fine.

But the regular centrepiece of the decorations is

a 22ft Nordmann spruce, slap-bang in the middle of the hotel's lobby.

So, are you confident about the tree, Natasha?

That it's going to be...nice?

-It's just something I'm obsessed about cos...

-Yeah.

-Obviously, it's the main entrance.

-Yeah.

-You want it to be wow and you want it to be perfect.

-Yeah.

But, yeah, definitely confident.

Well, at least Natasha's confident about erecting

a 22ft Christmas tree in a busy hotel lobby without a hitch.

Nine million visits are made into the city centre

in the run-up to Christmas.

It can be a profitable place to have a business at this time of year.

Some of the traders here have been coming to the markets for

nearly 20 years. Others are starting out for the first time,

chancing their arm as entrepreneurs.

What better way to find out if you could be the next Alan Sugar?

In a suburban house in a street in Greater Manchester,

one man is hatching a plan to launch a business empire.

Chris Broad spent six years controlling the purse strings

of many a small business when he worked for a high-street bank.

Now, he's joining them.

Chris has set his heart on making his fortune by selling blankets.

So, he decided to apply for a stall on the Christmas markets.

I just thought, "Let's do it,"

so I filled the form in and I sent it in and to be quite honest,

I didn't think I was going to hear anything more about it.

I understand there was 20 applications for each spare cabin.

I was really surprised it came back

and said, "Yes, you've been picked. We really like the idea.

"You're welcome to have one on Market Street.

"You just need to pay us the money now."

He might have won the golden ticket, but Chris is getting cold feet.

It's a big risk for me.

It was probably actually the biggest risk I've ever taken.

My dad, he probably thinks, "What are you doing?

"You had a job in a bank

"and now you're selling blankets on a market!"

So far, I've invested £9,000 into this project.

4,000 for the stand, 5,000 for stock and fittings.

The £9,000 I've invested consists of £1,000 from my own savings,

1,000 from family, 2,000 from a bank and £5,000 from credit cards.

Yeah, if I do worry about it, I will start not sleeping very well.

In true Dragons' Den style, Chris has done the maths.

To break even, I need to be taking probably about £250 a day.

£500 a week.

Is that right?

That's not right, is it? It's not, it's £1,750.

Chris eventually works out that to hit his £250 break-even figure,

he'll have to sell at least eight blankets a day.

And he's just reached the point of no return.

He's taking delivery of his initial order of 500 blankets.

It's quite a lot. I could do with the exercise.

They are a nice quality blanket,

they are visually quite appealing, they look nice, they look great.

So, this I anticipate to be one of the more popular products.

It's British wool, it's made from recycled offcuts.

They're really popular, they're really cosy.

It's a scary step, but it's, you know, here now,

so I've got to do it.

The worst-case scenario will be it rains for six weeks,

I end up with hundreds of blankets left.

If I take less than £9,000, I will just have barely covered the costs.

I would have worked for nothing for six weeks, stood in the rain,

got cold, I'll end up with no money, crying into my Christmas dinner.

Drink-driving costs the country £700 million a year and just last

December, more than 5,000 drivers fell foul of the breathalyser test.

With Christmas comes an increased amount of traffic on our

roads and an increased number of drunk drivers.

Charged with the task of keeping our roads safe and constantly

moving is Manchester Traffic Police.

Sergeant John Brennan patrols the roads and motorways of the region.

With roads that busy, you know,

people want to get into Manchester, we want to try and keep them clear,

get them clear as soon as we can, get them going and into Manchester.

The sooner we can get them clear, the better.

Today, Sergeant Brennan's beat includes the busiest section

of the M60 motorway.

It's the city's orbital road, and almost 200,000 vehicles use

it every day.

Around Christmas-time, we start seeing more collisions,

with the cold weather, people not being able to stop in time.

3-5-7-2 PMT, please.

We get people going in to work earlier to get an earlier finish.

So you'll get more commuter travel in the morning and then once

we start getting towards dinner,

the Trafford Centre will start getting busy, the network

towards the Trafford Centre, and also into the city centre as well.

Within minutes of starting his shift, John gets a call.

X-ray, Tango, 3-5-7-2. What junction's that, please?

'It's junction ten.'

There's a collision on the motorway. They're still in the live lane,

so there's a danger and there's reports of some injuries in it.

So, we'll...

The nearest patrol to it is quite a way off,

so we'll go and have a look.

See if we can help.

3-5-7-2, I'm at the scene.

Three cars have shunted into the back of each other,

in a lane of busy traffic.

If they're all right, we can get them all across.

-We can get them out the way.

-Yeah, and then get the ambulance across.

Can you do us a favour?

Can you move across to the hard shoulder, where it's safer?

-Good idea.

-JOHN LAUGHS

What we're going to do now, there's no serious injuries,

so we want to try and get the motorway open as quickly as

possible and make it safer for us to work.

So, we'll stop the traffic, we'll get the ambulance,

we'll get all the vehicles on to the hard shoulder,

just near the bridge, where it's quite safe,

especially with this barrier, so we'll be all right there.

Creating a short standstill to move the cars from the live lane...

So, we get the traffic across.

..is the fastest way of getting the motorway reopened.

So it's a lot safer for dealing with now.

And the traffic can continue,

so it'll not be too much disruption, hopefully.

The best thing to do is to make sure that the injuries...

Have a look at the injuries, do we...? Can we move them?

If they need medical treatment where they are, then we'll leave

them where they are and we'll work round that.

If we need to investigate cos it's serious, then we'll do that.

But if not, then our priority is to get the motorway open and get

these people moving again.

With no serious injuries,

John clears path for the driver to get back on her journey.

Just get this lady going.

Ensuring the city's traffic is flowing freely is crucial any

-time of the year.

-Yeah!

But making sure Manchester keeps moving over the festive

season is a matter of pride for John.

Right, we can get going!

The last thing you want is families sat on the motorway, getting

frustrated, when all they want to do is go shopping and have a nice day.

So if we can get it moving a bit quicker, then that's what we'll do.

But life for the road police changes gear when the sun goes down.

There is quite a bit of traffic.

So mindful of possible drink-, drug-drivers.

Especially this time of year, with people going out to works parties

and Christmas dos, office parties, things like that.

So, about this time, some start going home.

We'll have a look at that.

John has been called to an incident in the east of the city.

So we're just making over towards Chadderton,

a report of three vehicles involved in a collision.

Two people are trapped in their car.

The fire service are using their cutting gear to get them out.

John needs to secure the scene.

The priority is to make it safe for fire and paramedics to

extract these people.

Their injuries aren't looking so serious, but they're still being

assessed at the moment, so we've still got that on the back burner.

Then, a witness comes forward with new information.

Just as we've come up now, there's a member of the public

who is saying that somebody's

told him that this Picasso's been involved in it and obviously,

it looks like it has.

-Can we get recovery for that Picasso?

-Yeah.

And then we've got that secure then, haven't we?

This is the start of a full inquiry into the cause of the collision, but

a prime suspect in the investigation is

a repeat offender at this time of year - alcohol.

So, as we do with everybody involved in a collision or anybody who

has committed a traffic offence or anybody we speak to,

if we've got reason to, we'll breathalyse them.

In this case, one of the drivers had had a drink.

They were below the legal limit, but for John,

it's not worth taking the risk.

It's why we always say, "None for the road."

It's just the safest option.

People do go to parties and nobody's saying that people shouldn't.

All we're saying is please think,

because if you get convicted of drink-driving, then you lose

your licence, and the consequences of that can be far-reaching.

This Christmas, Manchester Cathedral is hosting

a special remembrance service.

The Light Up A Life concert is a vital fundraiser for

a local hospice.

Christmas is a really special time for families and friends to

come together, but when someone in your family is missing,

it can be very difficult.

Well, I'm here to meet Greg and Janice,

who lost their dad and their husband earlier this year.

'After a hard-fought battle with terminal lung disease,

'Ian Kelly passed away last March.

-'This will be the hardest Christmas the family have ever faced.'

-Hello.

-Hi, Janice.

-Hello.

-Come in.

-Thank you very much.

-Come through.

'Ian and his wife Janice first met over 43 years ago.'

He was a kind man.

I went out with him for a date and he said to me, "I'm a Catholic,

"I live with my mother, and I've no intention of getting married."

-SHE CHUCKLES

-That was how to woo you, wasn't it?

I thought, "We've got a right one here," you know?

Anyway, we went out with each other for 12 months and we got

-engaged and then 12 months later, we got married.

-Wow!

-So, you twisted his arm then?

-Yes!

'They went on to have four children -

'Mark, Rachel, Linda and Greg.'

He was a fiercely independent person. You could say old school.

He would always keep his problems to himself over the years.

Your dad never gets ill, does he?

And the same with this illness. When he got it, he played it down.

But as time went by, we started to realise it was more serious.

It was actually terminal.

It's difficult.

-But at the same time, you've got to equally reciprocate, strength.

-Yeah.

And be there, as he was there for you.

The family rallied round and made sure that Ian had one last

Christmas in his own home before being transferred St Ann's.

It's one of the oldest hospices in the country and looks

after 3,000 terminally ill patients every year.

We could visit at any time of day.

I'd do a night shift, I'd go at nine o'clock, they were

accommodating to whenever we wanted to visit, we could stay over.

It sounds like, obviously,

such an awful and difficult time for you,

but that time in the hospice was definitely for you all to

come together at have some nice memories to take home.

Nice time with him, yeah.

The hospice accommodated him to have a slide show of all his past

photographs, his youth and childhood.

-Could even let...cousins in.

-In the ward.

There was about nine of us round the bed.

It was like he forgot about his illness for that time and we

all kind of forgot about it and the nurses couldn't have done

much more for us there.

-He wasn't alone.

-No, he wasn't alone when he passed away.

He also said he was going to make it for your 70th and

he passed away the day after her 70th.

-Really?

-Yes.

To help raise money for the hospice, the family will be going to

a special service at Manchester Cathedral.

They'll be joining hundreds of other people who will be

remembering loved ones this Christmas.

Budding entrepreneur Chris Broad has given up his job in banking

and he's setting up his own market stall, selling blankets.

It's a massive gamble for Chris.

He's borrowed £9,000 to make his blanket business dream come true.

So far, so good. He's delighted he's bagged himself a prime location.

The stand is right in the middle of Market Street,

which is the second- or third-busiest street in Britain.

So many people, and at Christmas, this will be double, triple,

five times as many people walking past here.

So far, it is looking good.

There's a few nerves, but the stock, I have it...

the hut, I've got it... location, I have it.

Erm...

I'm pretty much ready, just bar getting it set up, really.

And he's got grand designs for turning his hut into a winter

wonderland, where he'll display 500 of his newly acquired blankets.

Next thing will be to put another one of these here,

stronger brackets on there.

Then, we're going to do the lining, which will go over the shelf.

Need to attach the fireplace to the wall.

Do something about the counter, which will be making it stepped up.

But it turns out,

his construction skills are a little on the rusty side.

DIY skills are... Kind of emergency DIY skills, really.

Chris' next issue - his van and all his stock are

a ten-minute walk away.

And as he's flying solo,

he has to lock up and trek across the markets to get his blankets.

These British wool blankets are made from recycled offcuts and

he's got 500 of them to shift in the next few weeks.

But now, he's got to figure out how to get them back to his hut.

I don't really want to walk up Market Street,

carrying massive armfuls of blankets.

We can carry some.

The penny finally drops for the ex-banker.

If we put them in this box, we can put them on the trolley.

Back at base, it's time to get those creative juices flowing.

Let's hope his talent for window dressing is better than his

ability to hammer in a nail.

Blankets are nice colours and then we're going with the sort of

nice brown background, it makes the blankets stand out, yeah.

See, then, if you've got one with a different bit of colour,

there's one with a bit of yellow in there... Starts to see...

There's one with a bit of red in it.

Starting to come together.

Despite all his trials and tribulations, Chris remains

undaunted, as he sets out on his new career as a blanket salesman.

I'm reasonably confident.

It's starting to really take shape and, like, look hopefully,

at least a bit professional now.

Yeah, progress.

It's when there's progress, I find that makes me feel a lot calmer.

In the UK, on average,

we will spend around £700 on food and presents this Christmas.

So, guys, you look like you're in the festive season already.

-We certainly are.

-Have you done your Christmas shopping yet?

No.

You're leaving it till the last minute, aren't you?

-Yes.

-We certainly are. The best is the last things...

Well, like Laura and Andrew,

many of us have still got that last-minute shopping to do for

Christmas presents and food and drink that we need to make

our special day go as smoothly as possible.

Right, you two had better hit the shops.

-Quickly.

-It's time to go.

-All right, thank you very much.

-Bye.

-See you.

It's fitting in the time to do everything I need to do.

It's gone bonkers.

No, I'm not ready for Christmas yet.

I've got my suitcase ready to sort of fill it up today.

I like to look online, but I like to come out,

feel what I'm buying and then buy it.

And you've got to support your shops,

otherwise your streets are going to die, aren't they?

With competition from online retailers fierce,

shops on the high street now have to work even harder to get

customers through their doors, a fact that isn't lost on

Mark Carson, manager of one of the city's biggest department stores.

In a flagship store, Christmas is the two busiest months of the

year, through November and December.

The other eight months can be seen as almost practice for the

big Christmas event at the end of the year.

So, we just need the trays with the new baubles.

Debbie's doing the bows and I've just started dressing the cubes.

So, it's really important

that we are at our very best through Christmas.

To boost sales over the festive period,

retailers collaborate with famous designers.

One fashionista that turned his back on the high-end for the high street

-is Ben de Lisi.

-Christmas has arrived!

He's been designing for Debenhams for the last two decades and

he's always hands-on at this busy time of year.

You'll find staff from these stores saying that they have found Ben

de Lisi coming in, moving garments around, changing mannequins, because

I do do that, because at the end of the day, the label bears my

name and if it's not put together correctly, we won't sell it.

With retailers working around the clock to get their hands

on our hard-earned cash, it's no wonder that 15% of people in

the UK go into debt to pay for their Christmas shopping sprees.

It's Christmas!

How much do I spend? I don't think I'd best answer that one. Too much!

My budget tends to go out of the window cos I probably do end up

spending more than I end up wanting to.

Will my husband see this?

Gosh! For whole, for Christmas, um, I don't know.

Anywhere between 500 and £800 maybe.

I haven't totted up yet.

I have no budget and then just go crazy towards Christmas.

Will I stick to that budget? Erm, if my husband's watching, yes.

Definitely, probably not.

Seeing my daughter's face when she opens her presents,

hopefully she's got a few surprises in there.

Makes it all worthwhile.

Manchester Cathedral is readying itself for one of the most

moving services in its calendar.

The Light Up A Life concert raises funds for St Ann's Hospice and hopes

to help those who've experienced the death of a loved one.

At Christmas, their absence can be felt all the stronger and the

service is a way of remembering them.

Ian Kelly died last March and will be one of the lives

celebrated at the service.

His widow Janice and his son Greg have kept up their

relationship with the hospice where Ian spent his last few weeks.

And today, they've come back for a visit.

This was a bit like your second home for a while. Were you here a lot?

We were here most of the day. I came twice a day sometimes.

'The hospice actively encourages family and friends to visit and for

'Greg, who is an actor and musician, he was never without his guitar.'

We came in during his stay and played one of the Don McLean

songs, Castles In The Air,

and the whole five chaps in there all really appreciated it.

And just the fact that you could actually do that in a ward,

-you don't get that everywhere, do you?

-You left your guitar here.

I left it here for the nine weeks.

So, whenever he came in, he'd play a tune to the patients, you know.

And it feels homely, in a way, doesn't it?

You can play your own music. And you can have your own things around you.

'It's an emotional visit for the family, but it's also

'a time to thank the staff who helped their dad die with dignity.'

Accommodated the patient.

At the end of the day, it's their wishes,

isn't it, and it can be as small as a packet of crisps or as large as,

you know, wanting to go home and do something.

We once had a slide show, I don't know if you were there for that...

Ah, I remember that, yeah.

..for the patients in there and we sat and dimmed the lights and

about 20 of us, taking over the ward, which was...

Did you have a takeout or something?

-We had an Indian once as well.

-Yeah. And we encourage that as well.

You know, getting sort of family round and doing things what

you'd do at home.

-My dad, it was like he forgot he was here.

-Yeah.

-And that's quite special, just the final few weeks...

-Yeah.

..he actually had some happy moments.

I imagine when you're supporting someone through an illness, it's so

difficult, but I'm quite surprised that this seems quite positive.

-Is that right? Is that how you feel?

-Yes, it was a positive experience.

You knew when you came in that the nurses and the doctors were

on the inside and you knew that they cared for him when you

weren't there, as well as when you WERE there.

The care Ian got here left a strong impression on the family and

they've been returning that care by raising money in their own way.

This year, we raised over £2,000.

I'm an avid runner,

so I ran the Windmill Half-Marathon this year, also then my sister,

she did the Salford triathlon and then Rachel did a mile swim.

My brother's also in Switzerland, in Montreux, he's got an album

out and some of the proceedings for each album will go to the hospice.

But they are reliant on the funds, hugely.

The hospice needs to raise £16,000 every day to enable it

to continue giving free care to those who need it.

And while the family are doing their bit,

the biggest fundraiser is the annual charity service.

The memorial concert will be held at the cathedral with

a choir from Chetham's School of Music,

performing in front of an audience of 800 people.

The service builds to a moving climax, when hundreds of lights on

the Christmas tree are switched on, in memory

of people who have passed away over the previous year.

The Midland Hotel is preparing for its regular Christmas visitor.

Every year, the arrival of a 22ft Nordmann spruce signals the

start of the festive season for staff and for guests.

And for the last few years, this annual ritual

has taken place under the watchful eyes of the hotel's Mrs Christmas,

executive housekeeper Sandra Dixon.

The day the tree comes in, it's full-on day, basically.

The company that we're using will be putting the decorations up,

but I'm constantly around because I want to make sure that I'm happy.

And this year, the hotel has appointed

a new company to organise the decorations.

So today, Sandra will be keeping very close tabs on Natasha.

And it's not started well. The tree is late.

Should have been here at seven o'clock this morning.

-It's now quarter past eight.

-Sandra is on a tight deadline.

She needs to have the whole lobby decorated

for the big switch-on at 5:30.

I hate it when things like this happen

cos you want it to run smoothly.

But something else has got Mrs Christmas worried.

It doesn't look as tall as last year's, does it?

But I think it's because the truck's not as big. So psychologically...

Cos last year, the truck was bigger, so it was laid flat.

They've assured me it's 22ft, which is what we asked for. So...

-It was on a bigger truck last year, wasn't it?

-No, same driver.

-Was it?

-Yup.

-It's just deceiving, I suppose.

It doesn't look like a 22ft tree to me, but obviously,

she's saying it is.

And there's another prickly issue.

It doesn't fit?

The tree may be too small for Sandra,

but the trunk is too big for its stand.

They asked to trim it down to fit the base,

so it could go straight in, but it's not, it's too thick.

It's not been trimmed down enough.

So they're going to have to trim it down now, which will take more time.

All of this is chipping away into the precious decoration time.

-Is it going to take long?

-Yeah. Take a while.

It still doesn't fit, and Sandra's really not happy.

Did you tell them what diameter it should have been?

They said there's so many people phoning in,

-they must have missed it.

-Oh.

Don't take it through till I see you do it.

Ah, perfect.

Beautiful.

Finally! And now, it's onwards to the foyer.

-It takes eight men to drag the 250kg tree into the lobby.

-Geordie?

Can you give us a lift?

I think we should clear the area.

And some heavy lifting to lever it into place.

Hold it, hold it. Right. Can I have somebody on here with me?

It could fall the wrong way and then

you're conscious that there's guests around.

With the tree teetering, it's all hands to the deck.

Can you just put your foot on that base?

OK.

Then, with one final push, the tree is safely in position.

But the staff still aren't quite convinced.

-Smaller than last year's.

-Do you think?

-Yeah.

-What, in height?

-Yeah.

-No.

-It is.

-It's not as full at the top, though, is it?

But, no, that's about...

-Maybe it just... Did it touch the glass last year?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Then Sandra makes a final few tweaks to the positioning.

-You want to go...

-Just slightly to that side.

-Yeah.

Only about a foot, Paul.

Just... A tad more, just a bit. That's it.

And the tree's ready to be decorated.

It's time for Sandra to step back and let Natasha get to work.

No, I'm not going to stand over and watch. I've got too much to do!

So I'll just keep popping back and seeing how it's going,

but pretty much leave them to it.

But with a tight deadline for the 5:30 switch-on,

Mrs Christmas just can't keep away.

-No, I'll do some.

-No, no! Don't be silly!

-No, I want to, so...

THEY LAUGH

With less than an hour to go, Sandra has spotted gaps in the decorations.

Some of the big baubles are pulling the branches down.

So it's creating a gap there, do you know what I mean?

So it's just a matter of filling them and going round the other side,

cos there's quite some big gaps round the other side as well.

I probably am, you know, a bit too fussy about it.

After nine hours of frantic Christmas tree action, and with

minutes to spare before the guests arrive, Sandra is finally happy.

I think that's really nice. So, yeah, it's turned out well.

Just in time for the big switch-on.

Ladies and gentlemen...

Thank you very much for taking the time to come here today.

Ten...

CROWD: Nine, eight, seven, six...

This will switch all the lights on for this Christmas tree.

CROWD: Three, two, one.

CHEERING

Enjoy the mince pies and mulled wine.

At last Sandra can relax with a glass of mulled wine and wait

for the reviews to come in.

-I think it's beautiful.

-It is, it is very pretty.

It is very, very pretty.

I just think it's luxurious and you feel as if Christmas has arrived.

It's nice.

A few little hiccups, a few worries, but everyone's enjoyed it.

The tree looks fabulous. So, yeah, I think it went really well.

A new blanket business is born.

That's like a, sort of, soft red with a cream in it, isn't it?

Apprentice entrepreneur Chris Broad has sunk all of his savings

and some borrowed cash into a blanket stall on the market.

These have been popular.

And it's time to get the tills ringing.

The way the stall looks, it's always different when you imagine it.

You know, I'm pretty happy with the way it looks now.

I quite like the lighting on there,

I like that we can see the colours.

You know, really, at the end of the day it's all about the blankets,

isn't it? I probably fold the blankets 50, 100 times a day.

After leaving a career behind a desk for a high-street bank...

I'd say it was reasonably masculine.

..Chris is discovering the market has its own banking system.

Have had a bit of people offering rude prices of, like,

half the amount and, like, they obviously don't know, really,

the sort of quality of the blanket, and considering the amount of

work and effort I've put into this, you know,

I've just politely declined it, really, cos making work

for myself there, selling things, making no money on it.

That's, you know, pointless.

And one of the first lessons is the law of supply and demand.

Yeah, 16.

One of his lines is proving much more popular than the others.

It's not always the way you think it's going to go.

Like, I've had these one type of blankets but they've sold out

already, so I've got to go and try and get hold of some more of those.

I've got to go back to speak to the manufacturer,

try to get more of those and then we are also talking about

getting a few scarves, which should be here maybe by the week,

hopefully today, tomorrow.

Just have a few scarves on the side.

It's getting cold now. And I thought

that was something I hadn't quite expected.

So it's sort of just kind of feeling my way along, really, yeah.

He's also had to cope with wildly fluctuating market conditions.

When it's quiet, it's very quiet. The whole street goes quiet.

Like, if it's a Tuesday and it's raining,

you see huddled shapes under umbrellas just running past.

And that's obviously no good for this.

But when it's busy, it goes really well.

And when more people are looking, there's more people coming and,

yeah, so when it's good, it's very good.

When it's quiet, it's quite scary.

Er, 25.

Great stuff. I'll get you some change.

Five for you. That's great. Thanks very much for coming back.

So with all that turbulence,

has Chris managed to hit his eight-blankets-a-day

break-even target?

At the moment, we're selling on average eight blankets

a day, which is the minimum I need to cover this,

and then if I can do that through the quieter times,

so long as it's on average, I'm covered for when it gets better,

cos when it'll get better, I'm imagining we'll sell 20, 30 a day.

16.

So it looks like Chris's gamble has paid off

and he'll have Christmas all wrapped up.

Well, I was worried at the beginning whether I was going to fall

flat on my face and, um, going to be crying into my Christmas dinner,

but I don't think that's going to be happening.

I think it's going to be good and it will be a good Christmas, I believe.

Manchester Cathedral is preparing

for one of its biggest services of the year.

It's a massive fundraising event for St Ann's Hospice.

Canon Philip Barrett has helped organise this year's concert.

We give our Cathedral over throughout December for

charities to come in and have their lovely Christmas carol services.

The Light Up a Life service is always our first of those carol

services and it's so popular that we have to do it three times,

and all absolutely packed out to full capacity.

The lights of a Christmas tree will be switched on as an

Act of Remembrance for people who have passed away during the year.

The message is simple and clear about love and support,

and Christmas is about that.

Each individual light of the Christmas tree represents

a life, and today I'm joining Janice and Greg,

who are here to remember their husband and father, Ian Kelly,

along with the rest of the family and friends.

Is it a sad day or is it a happy day today?

-Well, like that, you know.

-50-50?

-Yes.

I've been expecting it to come, you know, but it's come

-rather quickly all of a sudden, you know?

-Yeah.

-Here we are.

It's created the opportunity, so my dad's cousins are here today.

-It brings you all together.

-To remember my dad again.

Something like this, it is - it's remembering.

Especially the first Christmas, I think it's very poignant, really.

For me, I just want to support the hospice.

They looked after my dad his last nine weeks.

And just remember my dad positively and, like I say, just be here.

Well, it already looks beautiful. I've had a peep inside.

-So shall we get our seats?

-Yeah, let's grab some seats.

CHOIR SINGS

Over the past 20 years, the Light Up A Life appeal

has raised over £850,000 for the hospice.

There are hundreds of people being remembered here today at what

is one of the cathedral's most popular events of the year.

The Bishop of Bolton is leading the service.

St Ann's would not exist without all of you who've come here today.

I'm sure we're all aware that the mission of St Ann's is to

serve residents of Greater Manchester whose lives are

affected by life-limiting illnesses and the services the hospice

provides touch many thousands of people's lives,

year on year on year.

This is an important day for the staff from the hospice.

Fiona Troup has worked there for 11 years.

Our patients like to be surrounded by life and normal conversations.

Some are just so tired of talking

about illness, scan and blood results.

We try to be their sunshine when the clouds are grey.

We are there to hold hands, comfort people when they

wake in the night and offer a shoulder to cry on.

We can't nurse their bodies back to health,

but we can help soothe souls.

The climax of the entire service is about to happen.

The turning on of the Christmas tree lights.

We light the lights on this tree as a sign of those whom we have

come to remember and of those whose lives have been spent in the

care of others.

Each tiny light represents the life of somebody who's passed away.

It's an emotional moment for everyone.

It was already a big part of Christmas, you know.

It will be difficult for us,

because we were always together at Christmas.

The families and staff from the hospice then light individual

candles to remember loved ones.

It's strange when you're told someone's got 18 months to live.

There's no set timeframe.

It can be short, it can be six months, it could be three years,

so it makes you make the most of every day.

# Amen. #

What a week it's been.

-One, two, three.

-Go!

From following the fortunes of first-time stallholders...

The risk involved for us as a business are huge.

..to meeting the people who keep things moving behind the scenes...

Hello!

..and keep us safe at this festive time.

-Just get this lady going.

-Yeah!

We've had a great time here in Manchester.

Timber! Look at that!

-So all that's left to say is Merry Christmas!

-Merry Christmas!

-ALL:

-Merry Christmas!