Our take
The 100th episode, and a fittingly traditional one: a Christmas dinner farce with a guest who must not be given a drink and a kitchen nobody must enter. It is formulaic by design, gag after gag in the old studio-sitcom manner, and the good nature underneath it is still appealing. The absence of Bobby Ball is felt, but Geoffrey Whitehead's grump makes a good foil.
What happens
Lucy wants a normal Christmas where nothing goes wrong, and she wants the family to do something charitable for once, so Lee throws everything at creating the perfect family Christmas and agrees to her plan: they invite Wilfred, a lonely pensioner from the nearby care home, to join them for Christmas dinner, along with Lucy's mum Wendy, her curmudgeonly dad Geoffrey and their best friends Toby and Anna. There is only one instruction: under no circumstances is Wilfred allowed to drink alcohol. The pensioner Lee collects turns out not to be the sweet old teetotaller he expected but a loudmouthed grouch, and before long Lee is making increasingly bizarre and insistent excuses for why nobody must go into the kitchen, as the farce builds around the Christmas table.
Can the kids watch it?
No BBFC rating was found; it went out after the 9pm watershed with the show's usual innuendo, so it best suits teenagers and adults.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Lee Mack as Lee
- Sally Bretton as Lucy
- Hugh Dennis as Toby
- Abigail Cruttenden as Anna
- Geoffrey Whitehead as Geoffrey
- Deborah Grant as Wendy
Guest stars
- Richard Syms as Wilfred
- David Hargreaves as Old Man in Santa Suit
- Angela McHale as Care Worker
- Delroy Atkinson as Neighbour
Writer
- Lee Mack
Director
- Nick Wood