User Reviews

Sarah plans the perfect family Christmas, food, presents, lots of tradition. Russell, somewhat suffering seasonal blues spends his alone decorating, whilst Vera Poling spends hers in a fancy, upmarket hotel.

A sitcoms success back in 1988 was judged on a Christmas special, did it get one, time slot etc. Having drawn in fourteen million viewers a special was inevitable. A quiet Christmas was a fine one at that. It shows the joy of family, with Sarah, Eleanor and Clare enjoying each others company, and we also see the loneliness felt by Russell, then Vera.

It has some funny moments, but definitely has some very poignant moments, poor Vera sat on her own, sadly true for lots of older people at Christmas.

Russell becomes a bit more of a mainstay character, he gets a bit more back story, although we never see Bob, having a gay character I'm sure was daring enough in 1988.

The show feels in full stride, an excellent episode 8/10

It's such a quiet Christmas in this special. There would had been a surge of 999 calls on Boxing Day in 1988 as people slipped into a coma.

Of course that never happened. The BBC were premiering Beverly Hills Cop on the other side.

Even though Sarah is widowed, she is looking forward to Christmas. She and Clare are putting up the decorations and wrapping the presents.

This is in contrast to Russell who loathes the festive season. As a single man he wants it over quickly.

Whereas Eleanor partakes in one-upwomanship with friend Vera Polling as to who is having the most exciting Christmas day.

None of them as the household is bored on Christmas day. Eleanor would not even allow the television to be switched on apart from the Queen's Speech.

This would had been for fans of the show only. The rest would had been watching Eddie Murphy.