Carry on Christmas

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.

The first of the Thames Carry On specials made for television. This is a cheap pantomime take on the Christmas Carol.

Sidney James plays misery tightwad Ebenezer Scrooge, he is mean to Bob Cratchit (Bernard Bresslaw) who is looking for some festive cheer.

In an answer to Bob's prayers. Scrooge is visited by three ghosts to help him fix his penny pinching ways.

This really does play fast and loose with Dickens's tale. The spirits takes the viewer to Dr Frank A Stein's surgery, Cinderella's house and the poet Robert Browning (Frankie Howerd) hoping to take his lover to Venice.

If it was not for Frankie Howerd, this would had been a total failure. You can sense that the Carry On team knocked this one out quickly.

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.

I am always the first to watch a Christmas film or TV special and I do love a good 'Carry On', but this wasn't the brilliant hour of funny that it could have been.

If they had tackled Dickens' Carol more fully instead of just in bits thrown together with Shelley and Stoker, I think it would have been far more successful, similar perhaps to 'The Muppets' version. Unfortunately they tried a bit too hard to bring too much in to it and it all became OTT.

I did like a lot of the elements and they could have all worked together with a bit more thought.

Charles Hawtrey made me giggle as he always does, but it was Frankie Howerd that really made it his own. His quick wit, one liners and ad-libs gave us all a good titter, I kid ye not. It was a shame that Sid didn't get the lines he deserved and favourites like Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams and Jim Dale were missing.

It is quite daft, but it's just innocent fun that doesn't mean to offend. There are lots of references to cross dressing and men fancying men, but there's no malice. It doesn't offend me at least and is only of it's time.

205.15.