Advent Calendar 2023 Day 19: Keith and Orville's Christmas Circus, 1985

A couple of years ago we went round the Harris household's underattended until it was too late Christmas party; this time we're going out with them to the big top with Harris as the ringmaster where Keith, undeterred by Cuddles with legs in delivering a big opening number climaxing with "tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight" - optimistic there - before Orville DRIVES HIMSELF ON STAGE and immediately sings a chorus of Nelly The Elephant. Except... this turns out to be Orville's dream and in fact they're now living in a traveller's caravan that's never been part of the Harrisverse before. It turns out Harris' family used to own a circus which was lost in a loss of will to unscrupulous types assisted by Eli Woods, one of those rare times he's not doing that one Jimmy James routine with Roy Castle's small box and the other one. The rest of the special vacilitates between fantasy of setting up a circus anyway and the ambition of who it might attract as acts, namely balancers, dancers and Dana, the latter two of which apparently count as circus regulars. It does, of course, all work out well in the end, if you count Orville singing White Christmas, again, before SIX bipedal Dippys appear as the resident orchestra, in a Portsmouth Sinfonia sense. Get used to that villain's name, you'll hear the punchline coming light years off.