I used to look forward to the longer festive editions of the Last of the Summer Wine but they never reached the heights of Getting Sam Home and started to feel padded.
Compo does not want know what to buy Nora Batty for Christmas, he puts on a ferret show to raise funds but the ferrets run loose.
Compo visits Auntie Wainwright who tries to sell him furniture. Clegg and Seymour end up buying something but not Compo. The trio visit a department store but do not have much luck in the perfume counter.
Meanwhile Howard has got Marina a Christmas present but needs to figure out a way of passing it over to her. Compo meanwhile got a hat with flowers for Nora which becomes waterlogged in the pub and then burnt when he tries drying it.
When they all eat Christmas dinner at the cafe, Compo decides he will pass off Howard's present to Marina as his gift to Nora. Well you can imagine what kind of items Howard would buy Marina!
As I said it just felt too run of the mill. I liked the visit to a proper department store rather than a quirky shop like Auntie Wainwright's which truth be told got dull rather quickly.
We all know she is a mean old lady who will sell tat to anyone. When Auntie Wainwright mentions to Edie when she tries to get her to give money to charity that she once donated 55, I knew she meant 1955.
The standout moment to me was when Ivy and Nora in the cafe talk about Wally and Sid and how they still cook for two. Nora feeling guilty that people thought she kept Wally malnourished when he would actually eat like a horse.