Advent Calendar 2022 Day 7: Cue Gary's Christmas Party, 1987

1987 was a prime year for ITV light entertainment, what with prime Beadle’s About, prime Blind Date, Sale Of The Century, the second year of the New Faces revival, Les Dennis taking over Family Fortunes, the final series of 3-2-1, sketch series like 5 Alive, The Funny Side and Kate & Ted's Show, Summertime Special/Live At The Palladium up the wazoo, sundry Davro, and this vehicle for Copy Cats' breakout star. Set for the most part in Wilmot's literal studio flat, it's built around the same kind of feather-light routines as the rest of them, all co-written by him and sidekick Martin Beaumont, a longtime actor and club comic who we're not entirely sure isn't related to Bill Oddie, who made several appearances on the series including a brief one here. Also here, aside from sidewoman Nikki Boughton about whom the internet knows nothing, we find Nina Myskow in full New Faces Judge You Love To Hate mode (and clearly filmed seperately from the rest), Jim Bowen, Linda Lusardi, David Jensen, Janet Brown, a pipe band, a Peter Sellers level of Indian shopkeeper impression by a white man, and loads of dancers one of whom we're not wholly sure isn't Danny John-Jules. Unless you count a series of The Book Tower, and everybody did one of those, this was Wilmot's last TV vehicle before moving into the West End.