The Queen to deliver alternative Xmas message - or is she?

Yeah, but that will be covered in the actual and real Queens Christmas broadcast.

Reflective and timely went out of the door at Channel 4 at the same time Jeremy Issacs did.

If Channel 4 wanted to do the alternative reflective on the covid situation, then they'd have commissioned a 5 minute monolouge from covid denier - which very quickly Christmas or not, would unleash a whole world of pain for them from the press, viewers who never actually watched it and more significantly, Ofcom.

Thats not quite true as they've pretty much alternated between comedic messages and those from figures in the news, and in the last 15 years only Adam Hills and Danny Dyer have been the less serious messages.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_Christmas_message#Messages

I do agree this is more C4 than C4 has been in a while. Just as others have said making a statement which feels a bit out of date and not specific to what has been a unique year.

I think this sort of 'edgy' message would work better if well the rest of Channel 4's content was a bit more risk-taking itself.

Coming from the network responsible for such hard-hitting shows as Naked Attraction, Celebs Go Dating, Made In Chelsea and Steph's Packed Lunch this sort of thing then does feel a bit out of place and hollow.

If Channel 4 want to air provocative, thought-provoking output I'm all for it (I accept Naked Attraction is probably provocative but I didn't mean it that way) but they can't just pick and choose when they want to do so if they want to be taken seriously.
That said I'm already counting down to the inevitable pretentious Guardian thinkpiece about this.