The other Christmas day treat was the I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue special, Humph in Wonderland.
It was as much fun as I remembered from the recording, and seemed to pack almost the whole night into just under an hour – the only thing I missed was a round of Sound Charades and a song or two.
A Christmassy Doctor Who special has become something of a tradition over the past few years, but it’s definitely something to look forward to.
This year’s saw the Doctor on the Titanic (no, not that one), which the Tardis had crashed into at the end of the previous series. On board he meets a waitress, Astrid, played by Kylie Minogue. When I first heard that she’d been cast in this episode I was concerned that the big name casting was taking preference to quality performance again. But I needn’t have feared. She gave a creditable performance as Astrid and I soon forgot I was watching ‘Kylie’.
The story was good, based on the old 70s disaster movies, especially the Poseidon Adventure. And there was a real sense of adventure as the survivors struggled to make it through the wreckage of the ship, not knowing who was going to make it to the end.
There were some great guest appearances from old Who performers Clive Swift and Geoffrey Palmer, as well as an excellent cameo from Bernard Cribbins (who stared in one of the Dr Who films with Peter Cushing) as the newspaper seller who, like the Queen, wasn’t going to leave London. This was quite a funny bit of continuity – Londoners had fled the city for Christmas as there’d been alien attacks the previous two years, which feature in the previous two Doctor Who Christmas episodes The Christmas Invasion and The Runaway Bride.
There were also some very lovely moments for the old fans – the Doctor mentioning the constellation of Kasterborous as the location of his home planet of Gallifrey (which was mentioned in the Christmas episode last year). Also the Titanic being a spaceship echoed former script editor Douglas Adam’s Starship Titanic. And there was a new version of the theme tune, which sounded even better than the previous one.
Finally there was a lovely moment right at the end, where a caption before the credits dedicated the programme to Verity Lambert.
I think someone scheduled a night of telly just for me!
Although it was labeled as Top Gear Night, there was only the usual Sunday night episode of Top Gear, but it was bookended with James May: My Sister’s Top Toys and Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel. But that wasn’t all!
The ‘night’ began with The Great Escape – one of my favourite films – which everyone always complains is on every Christmas, except that it hasn’t been on at Christmas for years!
This was followed by James May: My Sister’s Top Toys. I’d enjoyed his programme on boy’s toys last year, so thought this would be good too. I was a little surprised by how many toys I had as a child that could be considered girl’s toys (although I never did get the Meccano I always wanted). It was a good nostalgia trip though as many of the toys were familiar as things that friends had if I didn’t. But I was more than a little distressed when he blew up the Treehouse – I had one of those and loved it, so the sight of the blackened and charred body of the toy little boy from the family (who I called Tim) brought a tear to my eye.
Next up was Top Gear proper – with a highly anticipated appearance by David Tennant as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.
Then it was Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel, which did what it says on the tin. I didn’t know much about Evel Knievel before – he was just a name when I was a kid, as his stunt riding was over by then. But it was good to find out a little about him.
Finally the night ended with a repeat of an old Have I Got News For You with Jeremy Clarkson as host. A great night of telly.
As a lot of you finding your way here seem to be looking for details of the 2008 I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue tour, I thought I’d point you in the right direction for details – the full list of dates and venues can be found here.
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