The third 'In Sickness & In Health' Christmas Special has Alf admitted to hospital over the festive period to have a new hip fitted. His friends torment him with fearful talk of operations going wrong. The Matron ( Brenda Cowling ) is a right mini-Hitler who takes one look at Alf and demands he take all his clothes off so they can be fumigated. A fellow patient has only one leg and has to get about on crutches, while Mr.Rabinsky is openly stealing people's fruit. Alf eventually decides to sneak away. His clothes unavailable, he pinches someone else's - a woman's!
Not as funny as previous Xmas shows, mainly because you really feel for Alf here. Spending Christmas in hospital is bad enough by itself, but then having to listen to Mr.Johnson - a big fan of medical programmes of the 'Your Life In Their Hands' variety - graphically describing the operation in minute detail...well, no wonder Alf does a bunk. John Bird has a small role as 'the Consultant', while the late Norman Rossington ( from Speight's earlier 'Curry & Chips' ) is an Irish drunk who mistakes Alf for a woman and tries to molest him. Brenda Cowling a.k.a. 'The Matron', sadly passed away recently. As Mrs.Holingbery's sister is the wonderful, much-missed Maggie Jones, for many years 'Blanche' in 'Coronation Street'.
Funniest moment - hearing a noise in Alf's flat, Mrs.Holingbery investigates. She encounters Alf in his white hospital gown and thinks he has died and come back as a ghost!
Not as funny as previous Xmas shows, mainly because you really feel for Alf here. Spending Christmas in hospital is bad enough by itself, but then having to listen to Mr.Johnson - a big fan of medical programmes of the 'Your Life In Their Hands' variety - graphically describing the operation in minute detail...well, no wonder Alf does a bunk. John Bird has a small role as 'the Consultant', while the late Norman Rossington ( from Speight's earlier 'Curry & Chips' ) is an Irish drunk who mistakes Alf for a woman and tries to molest him. Brenda Cowling a.k.a. 'The Matron', sadly passed away recently. As Mrs.Holingbery's sister is the wonderful, much-missed Maggie Jones, for many years 'Blanche' in 'Coronation Street'.
Funniest moment - hearing a noise in Alf's flat, Mrs.Holingbery investigates. She encounters Alf in his white hospital gown and thinks he has died and come back as a ghost!
