This could be my favorite time of
the year, not only because of Christmas but because whatever I pick to watch
for my blog this time of year is Christmas related. There are a ton of series
through the course of the history of British television that took the time to
make a special Christmas episode of their series. This falls into a number of
variations. The Christmas episode could have the same kind of narrative as the
other episodes of that series but has a bit of Christmas cheer to it, it could
be a special episode of a series that airs outside of its normal run of
episodes. It could be a heavily themed Christmas romp or maybe no mention of
Christmas at all but the episode could be on a grander scale than normally seen
in the series. Whatever the situation, they are usually fun to watch. Sometimes
stiff characters let down their hair a little and get into the spirit of
things. It’s fun to see how these series celebrate Christmas.
To start off this season of
Yuletide fun, we turn to the 1990s comedy series The Thin Blue Line. I’ve written rather extensively about why I had
underestimated this series in an article I wrote here.
It’s actually very interesting because as I viewed these episodes for today’s
article, I feel like I have a better understanding of my own stance on this
series which I will get to later. When I watch anything that I put into an
article, I tend to watch either a couple of episodes or at least something that
takes 45 minutes to an hour. So I watched two episodes of The Thin Blue Line. Because there is only one episode that is
Christmas themed, I started with the penultimate episode of Series 1.
Kid’s
Today TX: 18/12/95
To the police, the youth is
becoming an ever increasing problem. If it is not minor theft or graffiti, it
something else. In this episode, when the subject of graffiti comes up, Fowler
decries it as garbage and Habib calls it a new form of urban art. This is 1995
and I wonder if people were seeing it like that back then. I thought it was
interesting and forward thinking. To be honest, I didn’t expect that here. As
the threat for what these kids are doing grows more and more, Inspector Fowler
only can think of one thing to do for combatting this problem. Take these
children on a camping trip. Grim of CID has a different idea. Round them up,
put them in jail and throw away the key! DC Kray also has a unique idea, put
maternity hospitals into the prisons so once a mother gives birth, the children
could be locked upright away. Perhaps a tad bit of an overreaction?
Grim sets up Kray and DC Crockett
as kids to infiltrate a rave at a house. They get to the rave and knock on the
door to get in. The kid that opens up the door takes one look at them and says,
“Piss off coppers!” and slams the door. Prior to the two officers getting to
the rave, a young woman arrives at the house and lets the same kid know that
she did what he wanted her to do; she was very distressed about this.
Meanwhile at the station, a group
of rowdy young people are brought in and taken downstairs to the lock up. The
biggest kid doesn’t go into the cell when he is told to by Habib. The kid
responds with a racial slur to her. Remember, Habib is Indian. Constable Goody
doesn’t think twice, because he is in love with Habib, and punches the kid out.
The kid is about 6’3” but he was in handcuffs and although he was being a
racist pig, he was not threatening immediate harm to them. He also was 15. The next day, Fowler has to charge Goody with
assault as the mother of the kid is pressing charges. It’s actually a very
serious matter. So serious that they handle the situation with…….a camping
trip.
Remember earlier, I mentioned that
Fowler was bringing this rambunctious youth camping. Here is the thing I find
very interesting and maybe things were done differently back then. It seems to
me, while Goody is charged with assault and having even a loose investigation
going on, why is he (first of all) still on duty but also why is he allowed to
be around other kids. Even by the end of it, Goody is clear of the charges
because the kid’s mom also slaps the boy around and Fowler makes that an
opportunity to get her to drop the charges against Goody. I would think there
would be more classes Goody would need to take to make sure he never does it
again. Once again, I take a comedy series a little too seriously. Moving on….
The camping trip is with renowned
Brigadier Blaster Sump (damn you!) played to perfection by Stephen Fry. Blaster
Sump (damn your eyes!) is written very much in the same vein of General
Melchett from Blackadder Goes Forth.
He uses lots of lofty big sentences that make no sense and generally frightens
people.
“Here's
your gear. You'll find everything you could possibly need from lavatory paper
to sand paper. Don't confuse the two! I did myself once. Not a wholly
unpleasant experience, but then I went to Charterhouse.”
He is only in it for one scene. He
wears a kilt and apparently no underwear based on the reaction from everyone in
the room when he puts his leg up. I remember when I heard that Fry was going to
be in an episode back when I first seen the series. This goes back to what I
mentioned earlier and in my last article. I was having a hard time watching
something that was made by and starred people who was in my favourite series Black Adder yet it was so much more
generic. I couldn’t wait to see Fry and Rowan Atkinson back together for this
episodes. I remember being a little disappointed that it was only for one
scene.
Once again, Grim is on the move. He
gets his team to raid the house where the teens were having the rave earlier in
the episode. They get to the house to bust their way in (after ringing the
doorbell first) only to be told by the neighbour next door that some other
police officers came by earlier to take the kids on a camping trip.
Meanwhile at the camping trip, we
see the boy and girl from earlier. The
girl was upset about something she had to do. That was giving up her baby. Her
boyfriend is just mean to her about it around the campfire. He is mean about
the child and cruel about her. Fowler loses his temper and nearly hits the boy.
What is with these people! Anyway, things settle down and they all got to bed. Of
course the next morning, Fowler and his team wake up to find these troubled teens
stole the tents they were all sleeping in and took off. Incidentally, the baby
that those kids had was fine and was put into hospital by Habib.
Yuletide
Spirit TX: 26/25/95
This episode displays one of my
favourite kinds of comedy, comedy of errors. It is such a simple and hilarious
form of comedy if done correctly and I think it is here. The Gasforth Amateur
Drama Society is putting on their yearly production of Peter Pan. Every year Fowler tries out for the role of Captain Hook
but always comes home playing the part of the alligator who swallowed the
clock.
As it is Christmas, it is a time
for gifts and Constable Goody is in the gift giving spirit. He decides to give
Fowler a tire puncture repair kit for his bike but he has taken the more saucy
decision to get some sexy lingerie for Habib. Keep in mind, these two are not
dating. In fact, once again I question how Goody is on the force or for that
matter, why he has no brain. In the last episode he punches a kid out and here
what he is doing pretty much amounts to sexual harassment to Habib at the
workplace with what he is implying with the underwear. I hope they show
highlights of Goody to young cadets in the police force to show them what not
to do.
Grim get wind of Fowler trying out
for Captain Hook and ridicules him for trying to do it. To Grim, it’s just a
lot of “fannying” about! Fowler is pretty confident that this year he will get
the role. We cut to Fowler going back to his and Dawkins’ apartment with a
great big rubber alligator costume. Who got the part of Captain Hook? Grim of
course! Of course now that he has the part, Grim is much more interested in
that than what he really needs to focus on which is a group of carolers who are
going house to house singing in the front while someone breaks into the back of
the house and steals things.
Fowler:
You'd be bored watching Olivier play Hamlet.
Grim:
Well, I don't like football, especially foreign teams.
Goody gives his gifts out. You
don’t need to be a comedy genius to know what happens next. Goody, as with
everything else in his life, messes it up. He gives the puncture repair kit to
Habib and the sexy lingerie to…….
Fowler calls Goody into his office.
He is very worried and uncomfortable with what he needs to talk with Goody
about. He starts out, “Constable Goody, do you find me……attractive?” Goody’s
facial reactions are quite good in this scene. Over exaggerated and shocked! Fowler
goes on asking when Goody started to “crave” seeing Fowler naked. It’s pretty
funny and probably the funniest thing I’ve seen over the course of these two
episodes. Once Goody says it’s a bicycle puncture repair kit, Fowler then thought
that Goody wanted Fowler to where that lingerie when he needed to repair his
tire!
After it is all sorted out, Fowler
and Goody leave the room but Dawkins enter and sees the underwear. She assumes
it is for her. She confronts Fowler later, telling him how much it turns her
on. It’s funny because Serena Evans who plays Dawkins really gets into
character when she tells him how much it turns her on. She plays it like such a
desperate woman that I am unsure if I am meant to feel funny or sad for the
character. Anyway, she wants that
underwear not realizing that it is actually meant for Habib.
Unfortunately, by the time Fowler
and Dawkins talk, Goody already made arrangements for the gift to be put into
Habib’s locker. Fowler now has the awkward task of going to Habib to ask for
her underwear. The reason why Fowler can’t go out and get underwear of his own
is because it is already Christmas Eve. Habib doesn’t realise that Fowler wants
the underwear for Dawkins but think he wants it for himself. She calls it male menopause.
Grim takes his team to round up the
nasty carolers who are stealing. The carolers, all young menacing men, hear the
sirens of the police approaching and take off. The police cars show up and take
away a bunch of real, elderly carolers and brings them back to the station. Of
course this group of people include the police commissioner and a bishop. It
sounds like a beginning to a joke.
The Police Commissioner is pissed
at Grim since it was his operation. The Commissioner wants to see Grim in his
office on Boxing Day evening. That’s the night of Peter Pan so Grim needs to miss the play and give the part of
Captain Hook to his understudy……Inspector Fowler. Habib finally sees the
underwear from Goody and immediately gives it back to him and tells him off.
Goody leaves it on the counter, and Fowler discreetly takes it with him to give
to Dawkins later. For once a good day for Fowler.
There was also a sub-plot about two
homeless people, a couple, who take up residence at the police station. The
woman is pregnant and is about to give birth. Obviously this is an metaphor to
the birth of Jesus. In fact, at the end Fowler points out the metaphor and
similarities to the famous baby. Of course Goody asks about the famous baby,
“Who’s that then?” to which Fowler turns around and says, “Jesus Christ Goody!”
Goody takes objection to Fowler swearing at him since he didn’t know! I feel
like this whole sub-plot existed just for this joke. The homeless guy is played
by Ben Elton who created the series and wrote the episode. Yuletide Spirit is the final episode to have DC Kray and DC
Crockett in the series. When Series 2 returns, Kray is replaced by DC Boyle. The
end credits also feature a nice lighter Christmassy version of the theme.
The last time I wrote about this
series, I note in great detail how little credit I gave to the series when I
first watched it on PBS 1995. I wanted to see Rowan Atkinson play more Black
Adder and was really surprised how much of a wet blanket Inspector Fowler was. The
one thing I didn’t understand at the younger age was how endearing that aspect
of Fowler was as a character. He is not overly dynamic or exciting but overall
he is a good person who passionately believes in the “right” of what the
Metropolitan Police are doing and what his role in Gasforth is to make sure the
law is upheld. Fowler really has a romantic view of the Metropolitan Police. It
is a wonder how a relationship such as Fowler and Dawkins’ really work since
Dawkins wants a lot of excitement and passion yet Fowler would much prefer a
nice cup of tea and work on his model airplane as we see in Kid’s Today. I can appreciate that!
The thing that strikes me about
these episodes and the article I wrote about this series in 2012 is that even
though I was hard on the series when I first saw it in 1995, Series 1 is actually
not great. A lot of the criticisms I had at the time still hold up. Obviously
the stuff with Grim and Fowler are always funny but this is really a case of a
series that is finding its footing. Ben Elton is hugely talented but I think a
lot of this was new territory for him too.
When Series 2 returns, it is
slightly re-tooled and it makes a huge difference. I feel like Elton and maybe Atkinson
looked at the characters and decided what needed to happen. For one, Fowler is
expanded to make more use of Atkinson’s unique talents. The lectures between
Fowler and his team are expanded and are actually funny. A lot of the humour in
Series 1 has a lot of same type of gags such as when Fowler will come up to
Habib and ask for something from her and she mistakes the request for something
that Fowler needs help with because he is older such as mistaking the request
for her underwear in Yuletide Spirit
because he is going through a mid-life crisis. Fowler would make statements in
the episodes that sound slightly sexual where Habib would start to chuckle like
a little girl at which point Fowler would ask her what is so funny. Which, in
fact, to this viewer isn’t funny after the 14th time.
Series 2 has more complex and
better designed humour. I don’t think Series 1 is bad, in fact, I think there
are some great moments in it. It just needed to find its feet. Series 2 comes
along and it is overall a stronger series. Most of the characters become more
well-defined and we learn more about them. It’s too bad, as I think if there
was a Series 3, it would have been pretty awesome. I don’t think this could
ever have been a super long running series but I think 3 series would have been
just right. Just in the way Yuletide
Spirit was just right in setting the tone for my holiday viewing.
Next week: We look at an example of a series that has a Christmas
“special” episode which has nothing to do with Christmas! We look at the Lovejoy episode The Lost Colony which has a great deal of the story taking place in
the US. Is it a star-spangled catastrophe?
Have a great week!
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