Carry on Christmas

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.