Carry on Christmas (1973 TV Movie) User Reviews

Their Seasonal Best.

[adamjohns-42575 · 5/10 · 6 January 2023]

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.

Best of the specials which is not saying much

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 11 March 2022]

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.

Last and bawdiest

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 31 December 2022]

The last of the four Christmas TV specials from the CARRY ON team. They get a lot of the old faces back here, most notably Sid James who is having a bawdy ball dressed up as Santa Claus. There's a monologue style format and various sketches from historical periods, the most head-scratching a caveman Christmas (???). This special seems more sex-obsessed than ever, with a barely-dressed Barbara Windsor figuring predominately. Indeed one sketch with her playing a 13-year-old on Sid's knee was censored from the TV broadcast I saw as being too outrageous. A great Scouse accent from Kenneth Connor at one point, and assured turns from the old hands.

The funniest of the Christmas specials.

[davidlloyd38 · 4 July 2004]

Ironically, the last Carry On Christmas special is the funniest out of the four, produced from 1969-1973. This one hasn't been shown on TV since it was first broadcast, but was released on video in the early 90s. If you can get a copy - get it!

It's quite surreal at first, watching a made for TV Carry On, after growing up with all those films, but the jokes and performances are on par with any film made during this period. Strangely, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey's aren't missed from this show, as they were when they weren't in one of the films.

Carry On Christmas is a sort of sketch show, introduced by Sid James as Mr. Belcher, the local Dept. Store's Santa Clause. These little sketches are great fun, and the first with Barbara Windsor as the schoolgirl and Joan Sims as her mother 'Yes, well we had a French student living with us - she probably got it from him' - 'I wouldn't be at all surprised' are wonderful. Then Babs, who is clearly enjoying herself in this show, gives a great retort when Sid asks what her name is. 'Virginia, then Mum says we call her virgin for short, and then you say not for long, alright?'. Sid James' shocked reaction is priceless.

The first sketch is 'Carry On Caveman', and its a shame this idea was never made into a a full film (even though caveman scenes feature in Carry On Cleo). All the regulars are brilliant, and painfully shows what talented character actors they were - some of the best Britain has produced. Kenneth Connor's old man caveman is a great character - he's been asleep all year, and because of it, has nearly been buried twice. The sketch doesn't really come to life until Sid James turns up with Barbara Windsor as 'Crompet' (i.e. the Crumpet)!

The next sketch is an Elizabethan after dinner party, giving Jack Douglas his best name 'Crapper', and his best performance, when his twitching act doesn't come across as annoying. Barbara Windsor must be praised for her Fanny - Sid James' wife in this sketch. She gives it her all, and you can tell she isn't taking any of it seriously, which makes it so funny.

The last two sketches are a mixed bag. The first, a sort of 'Carry On Banging' is set in the trenches, 1917 (think Blackadder Goes Forth). Talbot Rothwell liked the situation so much, he was going to turn it into a full length Carry On after Carry On Dick (1974), but he retired after that picture, due to illness. This WW1 sketch is both hilariously funny, and touching. There's a segment where Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Bernard Bresslaw, Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor sing 'silent night', and it almost brings a tear to your eye, watching these old pro's singing a Christmas Carol with such pathos. The comedy soon returns with Sid James' Sgt. Ball 'we haven't got any Private's left, they were all cut off in the last attack', and Bernard Bresslaw's brilliantly named Captain Ffing-Burke!

The final sketch is a Carry On Robin Hood, with Kenneth Connor as Will Scarlet and the excellent Peter Butterworth as Friar Tuck. This sketch doesn't work as well as the others, and the pay-off is pretty average (Barbara gets her bosoms out again), but its funny and typical Carry On.

Watching this on Christmas Night is a must. You just don't get television like this any more. These actors and actress' were so talented, and brought so much energy to the screen. The whole atmosphere is fun, silly, naughty and above all, innocent. This is what Christmas TV should be - for the family. Forget about watching repeats of Fools and Horses, spend your Christmas with the Carry On team!

A very merry Christmas

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 16 November 2014]

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.

Carry on Christmas

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 22 December 2022]

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!

Many a true word

[lulliclo6 · 9/10 · 6 October 2004]

David, you have truly hit the nail on the head - this is brilliant! My family enjoy watching the video whenever we need something to help banish the blues. I really enjoy the banter between Santa and the store manager at the beginning, while my mother and sister grin like the Cheshire Cat during the Ballet sequence! The characters are very well written and performed (especially Jack Douglas's clumsy, hard of hearing butler, Crapper), and as for the names (Senna Pod, Crapper, Mr Belcher etc) - well, what can you say? This is a wonderful record of the Carry On team at their hilarious best. (Personally, I think the team are much funnier without Kenneth Williams)

Crazy, Zany 70's TV Special

[Tony Rome · 10/10 · 17 November 2006]

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.