User Reviews

Rodney is cheesed off with Xmas, the usual rubbish on the telly and the prospect of eating yet another of Grandad's food poisoned dinners has left him at his wits end. A good solid episode with family loyalties beating away under the frivolity. The comedy gold comes from the dinner itself, which truly is disgusting and funny in equal measure, and then there's Rodney's attempts at trying to use body language as a way of wooing the ladies after been given a book by Mickey Pearce! We trundle towards a climax at the famed Monte Carlo club, which only shows us that the show was still in its infancy and finding its feet. But still this has great OFAH moments and it whets the appetite for series 2. 7/10

This was the first 'Only Fools' Christmas special, and one of the few that was actually set during the festive season. It's not however one of the best remembered ones though, and quite rightly.

As other reviewers have stated, it feels like three very long sketches rather than an episode. There are some nice lines and ideas along the way, but the scene between Del and Rodney in the club is overly long, and not that funny.

But the show was still finding its feet during this time, John Sullivan was still learning about the characters and what worked/what didn't. It's a decent enough episode without ever being spectacular, but much like Rodney, we do start to feel a bit bored.

It's impossible to know what it would have been like watching this for the first time back in December 1981 not knowing what OFAH would become but I get the feeling it would have been a pretty throwaway affair.

Of the countless characters we'd get to know and love over the next twenty years at this point in the series we have only met Del, Rodney, Granddad, Trigger and Boycie. Mickey Pearce has been referenced a few times and it would be really interesting to know what John Sullivan thought about the show at this point. Did he see it going anywhere? Were characters like Mickey Pearce even intended to be cast and make physical appearances?

I heard David Jason talk in an interview once about the differences of opinion he and Sullivan had regarding Del Boy and how he should dress and present himself. It shows how cast and crew spent the first season just doing their bit and seeing what would happen.

Things would improve in the second season.

The first series of a sitcom, especially a long running one, can be a strange thing to revisit. Often the writers are still working out the direction of the show, the actors are still finding their characters, and the symbiotic relationship between the two has not yet developed because most of the writing was done before casting took place. Opening series are often a bit more tentative and less ambitious, or have kinks that are yet to be worked out. The first run of One Foot in the Grave featured a different house as the main set, while series one of Yes Minister featured that terrible Weasel character who threw off the gracefully choreographed dynamic of the central trio. The first series of Only Fools and Horses was no exception, featuring stories of much smaller scope than the intricate masterpieces that John Sullivan would ultimately write. Though this has resulted in these early episodes being repeated less often, they are not without a certain embryonic charm and Sullivan's writing is pointedly focused on contemporary societal issues, with a shrewd ear for the way people realistically converse.

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.