Easily the best of Stanley Baxter's legendary Christmas shows. Many items, such as 'The Last Noel', with Stanley as Noel Coward, went on to become much-repeated classics. 'Farewell My Cinders' is 'Cinderella' as it might have been written by Raymond Chandler. It contained the memorable line: "People from my past flashed before my eyes. Until they got booked for indecent exposure.". 'The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau' featured Stanley as the intrepid Gallic submariner in Brighton! Some sketches, particularly the Jewish newsreader, are overlong while 'The Bruce Fosdyke Show' doesn't work as well as it might, but any shortcomings are compensated by the stupendous 'Girl On The Cover'. Stanley's Edward Everett Horton is an absolute knock-out! It tells the story of a grotesquely obese woman called Lois Latnuk, who undergoes beauty treatments to become the cover girl for 'Harpies Bizarre' magazine. Of course it all goes horribly wrong. Great songs, sets and choreography help to make this a tasty Yuletide treat!
2 Reviews
Bah humbug!
Rabical-9128 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Another limp LWT offering from Stanley Baxter.
The edition opens with a young boy with a raspy voice ( due to having a sore throat ) ordering an ice cream from an ice cream van. The proprietor asks if he wants chocolate sprinkles and raspberry syrup with his ice cream. "Yes please!" the boy gratefully says. "Crushed nuts?" offers the proprietor. "No, laryngitis" wheezes the young boy. Admittedly, I did laugh out loud at this one, but that kind of joke is funny no matter who says it.
The rest of 'Christmas Box' is taken up by tiresome sketches such as 'The Bruce Fosdyke Show' ( an obvious parody of Bruce Forsyth's shows ), 'The Last Noel' ( the sketch responsible for the musical item, 'Why Can't We Cancel Christmas?' ) and 'Farewell My Cinders'. Though the worst, and indeed most embarrassing, item concerned a grotesquely overweight woman undergoing rigourous beauty treatment to appear as a model for a magazine.
A fairly laugh free zone as far as I'm concerned ( the ice cream van sketch excepted! ). Nice to see a guest appearance from the brilliant Miriam Margolyes though.
Recently, BBC Scotland gave a welcome repeat screening of a one off special from 1998 dedicated to Baxter entitled 'Stanley Baxter - 75 Years In Showbusiness' which featured sketches from his 1960's show from the BBC. It was miles funnier than any of his LWT work by comparison.
The edition opens with a young boy with a raspy voice ( due to having a sore throat ) ordering an ice cream from an ice cream van. The proprietor asks if he wants chocolate sprinkles and raspberry syrup with his ice cream. "Yes please!" the boy gratefully says. "Crushed nuts?" offers the proprietor. "No, laryngitis" wheezes the young boy. Admittedly, I did laugh out loud at this one, but that kind of joke is funny no matter who says it.
The rest of 'Christmas Box' is taken up by tiresome sketches such as 'The Bruce Fosdyke Show' ( an obvious parody of Bruce Forsyth's shows ), 'The Last Noel' ( the sketch responsible for the musical item, 'Why Can't We Cancel Christmas?' ) and 'Farewell My Cinders'. Though the worst, and indeed most embarrassing, item concerned a grotesquely overweight woman undergoing rigourous beauty treatment to appear as a model for a magazine.
A fairly laugh free zone as far as I'm concerned ( the ice cream van sketch excepted! ). Nice to see a guest appearance from the brilliant Miriam Margolyes though.
Recently, BBC Scotland gave a welcome repeat screening of a one off special from 1998 dedicated to Baxter entitled 'Stanley Baxter - 75 Years In Showbusiness' which featured sketches from his 1960's show from the BBC. It was miles funnier than any of his LWT work by comparison.
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