Carry on Christmas

Far too many overly long lines, poems and speeches shoe-horned into it, to be consistently enjoyable. Such a shame, as you can see the actors are right at their peak. Frankie Howerd is absolutely sparkling and he provides pretty much the only fun in the show. Hattie Jacques and Babs Windsor are ruined by the script, they have so much to remember it's like they're just reading a prescription label.

The writers have clearly never heard of the phrase "less is more". Frankie got more laughs out of a simple "ooh" or "aah", than all the boring rhymes that you can see the actors are finding a chore themselves.

The Carry On movies are so enjoyable, because of the laid back attitude. This just tries to squeeze in far too much and it suffocates most of the fun out of it.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a misery on Christmas, not allowing people money or doing anything to share Christmas cheer around his employees or acquaintances. While Scrooge is visited by three ghosts we see how his penny pinching has affected those around him.

I tuned in to this little show expecting just a version of the Christmas Carol story except with a great deal more innuendo and smut. That is half what I got - innuendo! The actual story didn't really hold true to the Scrooge story, this is apparent from the get-go where we have 10 minutes in the offices of Dr Frank A. Stein who is building a monster with his friend Count Dracula, Cinderella and a later scene with a poet and his love. The connection of these side stories to Scrooge is very, very thin indeed and they serve more as separate sketches than anything else.

If they were hilariously funny then this wouldn't be a problem - thing is, they aren't. At best they are energetic and silly, with some of the crudity and wit of Carry On movies, but sadly it doesn't even get near to the consistently of the films!

The cast is good on paper and do try hard - playing well to the studio audience but most of the material is not great and they can't work with it. Howerd has the most fun as he seems to be ad libbing all over the place. Sid James is always fun as are Hawtrey, Jacques, Winsor has a good role as Cinderella and Butterworth and Bresslaw are OK.

Overall this is a pretty average show. It has low production values and only really gets laughs because the audience are clearly hyped up to laugh. The actors lack the subtlety that is often needed to make innuendo work and I simply didn't laugh at all.

A generally agreeable CARRY ON Christmas special, filled with the usual familiar faces although looking a lot more cheap than the film versions on account of it being shot on video as was so much TV fare back in the day. This one has an end-of-season pantomime feel to it, particularly in some scattershot sketches satirising the Hammer horrors (complete with Peter Butterworth playing Dracula, no less!). The story sees Sid James' Scrooge being visited by various ghosts over Christmas, and it's all very silly but lively with it. Charles Hawtrey is a highlight but the real scene-stealer is Frankie Howerd, whose asides to the audience are hilarious.

Just about everything you'd expect when you mix a pantomime, Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol & a carry on film together. OK, so its not exactly a classic in the collection of carry on films, but its certainly watchable just to see Sid James having a laugh playing a leeching Scrooge, Charles Hawtrey popping up as a fairy & ghost in his own unique manner and Frankie Howered playing up to the camera (& getting on Hattie Jacques nerves at the same time, just look at her face!) I couldn't tell weather it was canned laughter or a live studio audience but it came across pretty well. Although not the best performance from the legendary carry on team, its worth a watch.

It wasn't till the end credits came up that I discovered that it was Talbot Rothwell,who wrote the original Carry Ones. Difficult to understand how they could make such an unfunny programme,but they did..Only Frankie Howerd was mildly funny.

They must have given the audience some Christmas cheer to make them laugh so hysterically. Maybe they were watching a different show.