Carry on Christmas

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.

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.

Very amusing television show, with every slapstick innuendo, classic line possible from all previous and future films and TV specials.

This is 50 mins of little giggles to huge belly laughs. Barbra Windsor is wonderful with her wicked giggle. The rest of the cast (familiar from all our favourite Carry On films including Frankie Howard) all have at least two roles to play and it is obvious they were having fun filming the show. There are too many instances where you can see they are about to giggle while delivering lines to mention. If you get a chance to see it on a TV special, and you are a Carry On fan and missed it. DO IT! What a carry on Xmas giggle........

For those perfectionists it is a 1 star

For me it is the perfection of television humor in the 70's and is worthy of TEN stars (out of ten) for the classic 70's humor back then.

Feel free to Flame Me but this is classic Brit Humour from the 70's

This humour will never be seen in new shows, enjoy!!

Comedians just want to have a giggle. It would be great if they could be as open and honest as the Carry On team, and funny, without the HR Political Police ruining it for the rest of us.

My score is 5 out of 5 but NOT on a cultural scale, just a Carry On scale..... simply brilliant and funny.

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.