CARRY ON CHRISTMAS (1969) – Balladeer’s Blog’s 14th Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this 50-minute British television version of the Carol starring most of the Carry On regulars. The Carry On movies were long before my time and weren’t my kind of humor for the most part. (I’m more of a Monty Python, Blackadder, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Absolutely Fabulous sort of guy.)
For those readers who have never given the long series of Carry On movies a try, it all started in 1958 with Carry On Sergeant, a wacky, bawdy comedy about Brits doing their mandatory National Service in the military. The hilarity and horniness continued for 30 more films set in different time periods and locales, like Carry On Up the Khyber, Carry On Spying, Carry On Nurse, etc.
And that brings us to Carry On Christmas in 1969. The movies at least had location shooting but this production was studio-bound. The story was ostensibly a spoof of A Christmas Carol but aside from Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit plus ghosts who take Scrooge to the past, present and future there’s fairly little connection to the Dickens classic.
Our lecherous Scrooge (Sid James) is a lecherous and greedy and lecherous tycoon who keeps his fortune in a chamber pot under his bed. There is no ghost of Jacob Marley but we do get a Spirit of Christmas Past (Charles Hawtrey), Spirit of Christmas Present (Barbara Windsor) and a Spirit of Christmas Future (rather than Yet to Come).
Personally, I speculate that this Yuletide comedy special was just slapped together from unused or discarded sketches from other Carry On productions with a bit of Dickens tossed in to justify the pretense that it’s a Christmas program. That’s not a rigid condemnation, just an observation.
The Spirits conduct Scrooge through the time stream to scenarios featuring figures like Dr. Frank N. Stein, Count Dracula, Cinderella and writers Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. The humor mostly left me with less than a smile and even many Carry On devotees seem split on the quality of the material in this production.
In the end, Ebenezer Scrooge has his Christmas Morning conversion and goes around distributing money from his chamber pot. He also gets a bit too horny with a woman and is dragged off by the police.
There were three subsequent Carry On Christmas comedy specials but only this one used the Christmas Carol framework. This one is strictly for fans of 1950s and 1960s British humor or for people as obsessed as I am with all things Carol related.
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Logged, thank you!
I honestly don’t think I’d heard of ‘Carry On’ series until this Christmas on popped up on my search for Carols. I’ve since watched a few but much like yourself, they just didn’t grab me like other British comedy shows. As a kid of the 70s/80s (born in 73), I fell hard for the other naughty comedies of Dave Allen, Benny Hill or Monty Python. Carry On is fine but maybe too British for me.
As a Carol adaptation, it’s fun footnote but not one to come back to much. Having said that, it’s been a while and with your review, maybe it’s time to check it out again.
Yes, we certainly agree about the Carry On series overall. For Carol completists like us it’s a must just so we can mark it off our list, bird-watcher style, but not a yearly staple.
Great posts as always. I’m not a huge fan of Christmas Carol but do admire stories taking place during the winter season. For instance, The Holdovers is a recent movie that did an incredible job depicting the Christmas season. It tells the story of a grumpy teacher forced to chaperone students during the winter season. One of the best movies of the year.
Here’s why it’s worth watching:
Thank you! I’m looking forward to reading your review of The Holdovers.