Our take
The first of the festive specials sets the template: a man at war with Christmas, a house full of unwanted garden ornaments and a plan to do good that goes spectacularly wrong. It is darker than most sitcom Christmases, with a crisis of faith and a gunman at the soup kitchen, but the farce never lets up, and the neighbour's revenge on Victor's gnomes is one of the show's great payoffs.
What happens
Christmas is coming, and Victor is bemoaning its commercialism and wondering whether it ever had a deeper, spiritual meaning. His temper is not helped by losing a board game he is playing with his mother-in-law over the phone, or by a delivery of garden gnomes that brings 262 more than he wanted, which he will be charged for on a sale-or-return basis, so they end up stored all over the house. He is highly sarcastic to the woman at the video shop, and later feels guilty when he realises who she is. Pippa's father, a vicar, is staying next door and confides in Margaret that he is having a crisis of faith and may leave the ministry, because a loyal parishioner's husband is missing, presumed dead: she is the woman Victor was rude to. A very expensive bottle of wine meant for the vicar is delivered to the Meldrews by mistake, and Victor pours it into the bubble and squeak, refills the bottle with cheap plonk and sends the cork flying into the vicar. Victor decides to help the vicar feed the homeless on Christmas Day, but they end up held hostage by a gunman. In revenge for the wine, Patrick shoots the gnomes to smithereens just as they are about to be taken away.
Can the kids watch it?
Not rated by the BBFC on its own; with a hostage scene and a gun, it is better suited to children of 12 and over.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Richard Wilson as Victor Meldrew
- Annette Crosbie as Margaret Meldrew
- Doreen Mantle as Mrs Warboys
- Angus Deayton as Patrick Trench
- Janine Duvitski as Pippa Trench
Guest stars
- Cathy Shipton as Mrs Burridge
- Geoffrey Chater as Reverend Croker
- Enn Reitel as Starkey
Writer
- David Renwick
Director
- Susan Belbin