Rodney has ran out of yuletide cheer, as the annual routing of the Trotter festivities are wearing thin. Burnt turkey, charred Christmas pudding, the same old things on television, and nothi... Read allRodney has ran out of yuletide cheer, as the annual routing of the Trotter festivities are wearing thin. Burnt turkey, charred Christmas pudding, the same old things on television, and nothing but a book lent to him by Mickey Pierce: 'Body Language: The Lost Art.' When Grandad pu... Read allRodney has ran out of yuletide cheer, as the annual routing of the Trotter festivities are wearing thin. Burnt turkey, charred Christmas pudding, the same old things on television, and nothing but a book lent to him by Mickey Pierce: 'Body Language: The Lost Art.' When Grandad puts on his glad rags and heads to the OAPs' party at the community centre, the Trotter boys... Read all
- Director
- Bernard Thompson(uncredited)
- Writer
- John Sullivan(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was the first episode to run over 30 minutes, but not the first feature-length.
- Quotes
Grandad: Who's Brenda & Terry?
Grandad: Who's Brenda & Terry?
Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter: Who's Brenda & Terry?
Grandad: Yeah.
Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter: Who's Brenda & Terry Rodney?
Rodney Trotter: Well I don't know.
Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter: What are you going on about you old div?
Grandad: Well we got a Christmas card from them. It said "Love from Brenda & Terry & the kids, Shirley, Shane & Shaun"
Rodney Trotter: Yeah, yeah that was from Brenda & Terry?
Grandad: I know. Who is Brenda & Terry?
Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter: Shirley, Shane & Shaun's mum & dad innit?
Grandad: Oh. Did we send them one back?
Rodney Trotter: Well how can we send them one back? We don't know who they are, let alone where they live.
Christmas Crackers, the first of the Christmas specials, arrived two months after the airing of the coolly-received opening series and received a similarly underwhelming reception. There's not much that makes Christmas Crackers stand out as a special, other than the fact it is set at Christmas and that it runs 5 minutes longer than the then-standard half hour. What is striking is just how downbeat the episode is and this was a curious quirk that would characterise the first three Christmas specials of the series. Sullivan seems to connect Christmas with melancholy at this stage and, in the case of Christmas Crackers, this manifest in the representation of the boredom and disappointment associated with a working class Christmas in a tower block. "Look at that view eh?", observes a miserable Rodney, "On a clear day you can see... the ground." These kind of mundane witticisms are the major strength of these early scripts, although Sullivan is still trying his hand at a lot of different angles to find out what works. There's a fun little routine about getting a Christmas card from someone you don't know that has an almost vaudeville feel to it as Del, Rodney and Grandad talk in circles trying to figure out their identity. There's an overtly political discussion about Rodney's failed hunger strike to protest American cruise missiles being based in Britain ("You went one & a half days on hunger strike & you sent out for a curry." "Well I was starving." "Well that's the idea of it, you plonker."). There's a lot of reaction comedy as Del and Rodney pick their way through Grandad's horrible Christmas dinner. And there's a very good visual gag involving an electric carving knife.
All this works quite well for a while, effectively evoking the bleakness of a less-than-magical Christmas. The major problem with Christmas Crackers is the lengthy third act in which Del and Rodney go out "on the pull." The two women on whom they set their sights are presumably the "Christmas Crackers" of the title but the whole sequence has the anticlimactic feel of a cracker that drizzles open without the snapper going off. It also introduces one of Only Fools and Horses most persistently dated elements in the sexism, which in this case is particularly mean. Sullivan's ear for naturalistic dialogue was always bound to catch warts-and-all conversations but there's a sense that sometimes he is accurately reflecting those attitudes and sometimes he is revelling in them. These early scripts in particular feature a lot of references to women being "dogs", and while this is likely the language men like Del and Rodney would've used in that era, when that turns into lengthy, unimaginative jokes about throwing bones you do get the feeling that Sullivan is just enjoying himself in the wrong way. In this case, Sullivan also sets up a situation in which two apparently less-desirable women are presented as the unpleasant alternative to those on whom Del and Rodney have set their sights. It feels mean-spirited and sour, especially when you consider the casting process in which women must've been handpicked for their perceived unattractiveness.
The scenes in the bar go on for about 15 minutes, tediously derailing the episode completely. While they continue the downbeat atmosphere which is central to the appeal, we end up sharing in Del and Rodney's boredom rather than recognising and enjoying it. At this stage the Nag's Head dynamic and the greater range of supporting characters had not quite come to fruition, otherwise it's likely the third act would've played out there rather than in the stupendously artificial club that is clearly a repurposed set from the superficially similar earlier episode Go West, Young Man. Christmas Crackers is ultimately fascinating for being one of the most downbeat Christmas specials of all time but Sullivan can't quite convincingly sustain its slice-of-life approach for the whole 35 minutes. Del is a little brasher at this stage and Rodney a little more naïve, something that Sullivan was able to account for in the skilful and subtle maturation of the characters across the show's lengthy run. This maturation was also mirrored in his own writing and, with his cast in place and the world established, Only Fools and Horses would get significantly better in its second series.
- phantom_tollbooth
- Jul 20, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime34 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1