Sky is showing Groundhog Day on repeat today. Sky is showing Groundhog Day on repeat today

Virgin Radio

2 Feb 2022, 14:31

It’s that time of year again. Not only is today the traditional day when, in North America, a groundhog emerges from its burrow and predicts the weather for the following six weeks, but it’s also the day that Sky pays a clever tribute to one of the all-time classic comedies.

Yes, February 2nd is Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada. As illustrated in the Bill Murray movie of the same name, if the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, sees his shadow at daybreak and runs away, tradition dictates that means there will be six more weeks of winter. However, if there's no shadow, it means that spring will arrive early.

What Groundhog Day means for Bill Murray’s character, cynical television weatherman Phil Connors, in the 1993 film however, is a seemingly never-ending loop, in which he lives out the same day over and over and over again, no matter how he tries to escape it.

Every morning, at 6am, the radio alarm clock wakes him with Sonny & Cher's I Got You Babe, and every day is the 2nd February, with the inhabitants of Punxsutawney doing exactly the same thing, while Phil has seen it all unfold before, countless times. 

To celebrate the Harold Ramis-directed movie and its premise, Sky Cinema are maintaining their now annual tradition by showing Groundhog Day again, and again, and again, and again, today.

TV journalist Scott Bryan spotted Sky’s schedule for the day, and shared the news on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Having started at 7.20 this morning, the movie will run 12 times in a row. So, if you want to feel like Phil Connors, you can live your very own Groundhog day until 5.20 tomorrow morning! Hopefully by that point it will be February 3rd and not February 2nd again.

If however, you wake up tomorrow and the radio is playing Sonny & Cher, then you’d better check the date!