Home Advent Calendar 2018 Day 7: Rentasanta, 1979

Not a dramatic version of Chris Hill's hit of three years earlier but a seasonal episode of Rentaghost, and no, they don't reword the title song. It actually turned out to be the end of an era - while that is the correct year for its actual debut it was actually originally scheduled for transmission in 1978 but due to industrial action didn't go out. By the time it was screened Michael Darbyshire had died and Anthony Jackson decided not to continue in his absence, which meant two of the original three central characters had to be written out and as that just left clown Timothy Claypole writer Bob Block's approach was forced to veer into slapstick by the time it returned in 1980. Anyway, this is a musical episode set in a department store where said trio are employed as Santa Clauses (Clauii?) while the Meakers want them back home for a production of Aladdin. Watch for Michael Staniforth's spectacular performance of Swinging On A Star and note this is where Dobbin the house pantomime horse debuted, just to push the point about the future.