Carry On Christmas '72

or Carry On Stuffing
8.00pm - 20th December 1972 "There we beheld his Majesty, Standing at the window for all to see, Oh, how his royal subjects fought, For a glimpse of King Harry with his Hampton Court"	DVD UK

50 min Colour

The Stars
	Hattie Jacques Joan Sims Barbara Windsor Kenneth Connor Peter Butterworth Norman Rossington Jack Douglas Brian Oulton Billy Cornelius Valerie Leon Valerie Stanton	Fiona Clodhopper, Miss Harriett, Miss Mollycoddles, Fairy Godmother Lady Rhonda Cockhorse, Miss Esmerelda, Princess Yoyo, Clodhopper’s Mother-in-law Milk Maiden, Eve, Maid, Miss Clodhopper, Aladdin Club Chairman, Lt Bang ‘Em, Insp Knicker, General Clodhopper, Hanky Poo Cpt Alistair Dripping, Sir Francis Fiddler, Admiral Renee, Widow Holinone Valet, Tardy Dinner Guest, Genie of the Lamp Mr Furkin, Adam, Ringworm the butler, Charles Burke, Demon King Oriental Orator Waiter Serving Wench Demon King’s Vision

The Crew
Screenplay Producer Director	Talbot Rothwell & Dave Freeman Gerald Thomas Ronnie Baxter

Synopsis

This is a slightly better affair than the previous year’s Christmas venture but is still lacking in the quality of the first one. The script was written by Rothwell and Freeman separately and it feels like it was stitched together. The obvious omission is Sid James in a binding role and the sequences are rambling and lack any coherence.

Like the previous two Christmas Specials this is a collection of Christmas tales based around an 18th century feast and the ladies get a bigger bite of the comic cake. Barbara Windsor shines with glamour, notably in the Garden of Eden tale – “How Do You Know If You’ve Never Had It”.

The collection of tales is more Benny Hill than Carry On with the central re-occurring theme around the dinner table having a speeded up chase scene and this had a very forced feel about it. Some of the vignette scenes are in essence taken directly from scenes in the main Carry On films, notably the dinner scene from Carry On Up the Khyber, where the building all around is falling down whilst eating dinner.

The best performance probably goes to Peter Butterworth in the panto section capturing his wide-eyed and lovable grotesques with perfection and injects some ribald comments into his usual children’s audience performance. One point of note is that throughout this section it is performed in rhyme, and he also, throughout the Comedy Special, ad-libs to great comedy effect.

One other notable omission is Charles Hawtrey who didn’t appear in any more Carry Ons as he had argued with Peter Rogers, the producer about money and was left out altogether from then on.