Remembering TV’s Christmas crackers
The gift of laughter is the best present over the holidays. MARION McMULLEN unwraps classic sitcom specials packed with Christmas cheer
‘THIS time next year, we’ll be millionaires,” Del Boy famously promised younger brother Rodney. The Trotters were welcome guests into everyone’s homes at Christmas time and nobody wanted to be a plonker and miss Del’s latest get-rich-quick scheme or dodgy deals.
Among the festive treats and specials the BBC has served up for viewers over the years, the three Only Fools and Horses Christmas specials in the 1990s are among the most loved.
There had been no new episodes of John Sullivan’s sitcom for three years when it was announced there would be a triple helping in 1996, beginning on Christmas Day.
The first special, Heroes And Villains, attracted a record audience of 21 million and by the time the finale, Time On Our Hands, was shown on December 29, there were more than 24 million viewers watching as Del’s generally misplaced optimism finally paid off and the Trotters became millionaires at last after finding a rare antique watch among the junk in their lock-up garage.
The specials also saw David Jason as Del and Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney dressed as a mismatched Batman and Robin.
The scene of the Peckham Caped Crusader and his sidekick running through the streets has gone on to be voted TV’s best Christmas comedy moment.
David said: “A show like the Only Fools And Horses Christmas special got 24 million viewers so practically everyone was watching but, of course, it’s a different world now with so many channels and those kind of figures are really difficult to achieve.”
It was Christmas behind bars for the cast of Porridge in 1976 with Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as cellmates Fletcher and Godber landing in trouble for brewing their own festive hooch.
Are You Being Served? the same year saw the staff of department store Grace Brothers pulling out all the stops to land the job of Father Christmas.
The Good Life offering in 1977 was a Boxing Day special called Silly, But It’s Fun.
It found Margo and Jerry joining in the Christmas celebrations with their self-sufficient neighbours Tom and Barbara and making do with home-made Christmas hats, presents and food and drink instead of the luxury festivities they had planned. It was the only Christmas helping ever made of the popular BBC sitcom starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington. Richard Wilson’s grumpy Victor Meldrew could match Ebenezer Scrooge when it came to grumbling about Christmas.
One Foot in the Grave by David Renwick ran on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995 with a Christmas special each year before a final series in 2000.
You might not believe it, but the 1995 festive offering was watched by nearly 18 million and saw a witch predict an untimely end for poor Victor just before a snowstorm hit. Neighbours Pippa and Patrick also packed up and made plans to move far, far away from the Meldrews.
The Boswell family celebrations in Bread were also a ratings hit in 1988, attracting 18 million viewers with a tale about the entire family leaving their Liverpool home behind to spend Christmas in Rome.
Filming took place on location at John Lennon Airport in Liverpool and in Rome and the extended episode marked the final appearance of Peter Howitt as Joey Boswell.
Christmas was not much fun for French cafe owner René (Gorden Kaye) though in ‘Allo ‘Allo’s 1989 offering when the Resistance landed him with a delivery of explosives disguised as 500 Christmas puds.
The Father Ted Christmas Eve special on Channel 4 in 1997 saw the Craggy Island priest being honoured with the Golden Cleric award for his quick thinking in saving a party of fellow priests from overwhelming embarrassment after they accidentally wander into a store’s lingerie department.
The cast of Men Behaving Badly also featured in three festival specials as part of the BBC’s Christmas schedule for 1998 after attracting more than 16 million viewers the year before. Meanwhile, we can give thanks that the Reverend Geraldine Granger is back in The Vicar Of Dibley this Christmas.
Dawn French had everyone laughing in the 1996 festival special which saw her struggling to eat a never-ending supply of turkey dinners served up by her parishioners eager to show their gratitude for their vicar.
The episode ended with parish councillor Hugo Horton saying: “We hope she soon recovers from what seems to have been a truly sensational bout of indigestion.”