Our take
An hour-long Christmas Eve special built on a gloriously bad idea: a middle-aged philanderer in training, coached by a man whose confidence has never matched his competence. The fitness regime gives the show its favourite kind of slapstick, and the injury that results drives the second half. With a couple of well-known guest faces, it is a cheerful, very physical Christmas outing from the show's long middle years.
What happens
Howard wants to get himself fit for Christmas, with ambitions of a physique like Arnold Schwarzenegger's, and he asks Foggy to act as his physical trainer. Howard ends up facing a very memorable Christmas: instead of a new body he gets a broken leg. The episode, an hour long, went out on Christmas Eve.
Can the kids watch it?
Not rated by the BBFC as a separate episode; slapstick injuries and mild innuendo, fine for most families.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Bill Owen as Compo
- Peter Sallis as Clegg
- Brian Wilde as Foggy
- Kathy Staff as Nora Batty
- Mike Grady as Barry
- Sarah Thomas as Glenda
- Jean Fergusson as Marina
- Robert Fyfe as Howard
Guest stars
- Juliette Kaplan as Pearl
- Jane Freeman as Ivy
- Jean Alexander as Auntie Wainwright
- Gordon Wharmby as Wesley Pegden
- Thora Hird as Edie Pegden
- Stephen Lewis as Smiler
- Danny O'Dea as Eli Duckett
- Matthew Kelly as Policeman
- Anita Dobson as Herself
- Eli Woods as Villager
Writer
- Roy Clarke
Director
- Alan J. W. Bell