Carry on Christmas

Watching the Carry On Christmas show from Thames television in 1973 put me in mind of the Christmas specials in the past when in America folks like Bing Crosby, Perry Como and the like did Christmas. No Christmas carols in this show and the comedy sketches are not anything you would see on American television. Where was Mrs. Whitehouse?

Carry On regular Sid James hosts the show and its quite the romp. James is one raunchy department store Santa Claus, but after an encounter with a mother and an overdeveloped 13 year old girl on Santa's lap, he wishes nostalgically for a more traditional Christmas.

Like they had during the 17th century, during World War I, in caveman times before there was Christmas and in the days of Robin Hood when he made Marian. That's to give you some idea of Christmases past which turn out to be in the raunchy Carry On style.

Benny Hill couldn't have been more raunchy. Fun, but Bing Crosby wouldn't have had a Christmas special like this.

The final Carry on Christmas special made for Thames television. By now instead of being a pantomime, it was mainly a sketch show with a theme of Christmas.

Sid James plays a department store Santa Clause who introduces the sketches after making the lusty department store boss irate with his shiftless antics.

The overlong sketches are the Carry On team as cavemen, where Sid James beings in his latest catch to the cave, Barbara Windsor.

An Elizabethan era dinner party. The trenches at world war one during Christmas Eve. A short ballet dance sequence and then a Robin Hood romp.

It is very much a bawdy affair, dare I say I wonder if it was suitable for family viewing. Barbara Windsor gets Sid's lusty attention and shows a lot of cleavage.

The best acting is from Bernard Bresslaw, he really thinks he is doing Shakespeare!

The holidays are examined from quite a different approach, a crazy comedic approach. Sid James is quite funny as Santa. I like the flashbacks to other era's, the soldier sketch is the best. Kenneth Connor does a good job playing the sort of "dirty old man" store manager. These specials are hard to find in the US. I have only been able to locate this special and Carry on Stuffing (1972) I would like to get a copy of Carry on Christmas (1969) and Carry on Again Christmas (1970). Carry on Christmas (1973) follows the same approach as Stuffing, but I tend to prefer Carry on Stuffing (1972) mainly for Kenneth Connors portray as the war general. Hopefully these will be released as a set in the US, like some of the films were earlier this year.

I have to disagree with 2 other reviewers who claimed that this was better without Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtry.

This one is rather bawdie than its predecessors but has the misfortune to feature the vastly unfunny Jack Douglas.

Carry On Christmas (4) (1973) -

I thought that this was definitely the best of the Christmas efforts from the 'Carry On' team. They seemed to have found their way better by going for a sketch show style, instead of trying to fit sketches in to an existing story. And they managed to deliver a much better performance than the previous three Christmas specials, because the scenes each seemed to have been more thought out and were tied together by Sid's story as a department store Father Christmas.

They also tried to put a moral or two in which was nice for the time of year, but not standard for the team.

It still wasn't their absolute best though, certainly no way near as good as 'Screaming' (1966) and 'Cleo' (1964), but I have to give them all credit for the Nutcracker ballet scene, which was very funny.

However, Jack Douglas should be edited out of every 'Carry On' film he ever appeared in. I don't understand how anyone could have ever thought his weird 'tic' thing was funny?

Other than Jack and the fact that Babs should really have kept those things on her chest locked away, it was harmless fun and I could see how it might have been brilliant in it's time.

461.09/1000.