What's Santa Brought for Nora Then?

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wstol

Dedicated Member
Just been watching Crums and What's Santa Brought for Nora Then? Two excellent Xmas specials from 1988 and 1989. Both quite similar.

However, in What's Santa Brought for Nora Then? it seems to me there is a flaw in the story.

I've only noticed this last night, and I haven't bothered re-watching it, but something doesn't make sense to me.

At the beginning Compo is trying to do some 'last minute' shopping for Nora's present in the department store. The shop is about to close. He doesn't buy anything, then encounters the fly pitcher dressed as Father Christmas. He doesn't buy anything from him either. The trio then go to the White Horse. It's pointed out Compo has left it too late, and the pub customers sing carols.

One would have expected all of the above the have taken place on Christmas Eve.

But it clearly isn't because the next scene starts with a new day. Howard is 'decorating' his tree. So let's assume this is Christmas Eve. That gives Compo a WHOLE DAY to look for a present. We don't see him doing anything of the kind. Then they are in the White Horse again, then suddenly think of Auntie Wainwright's. It is clearly evening when they go to Auntie Wainwrights.

To me is just doesn't make logical sense.

Was Christmas Eve 1989 on a Sunday?

That would barely explain Compo not buying anything on Christmas Eve after his worrying lack of success in the department store the night before.

Or, interestingly, are all the scenes in the wrong order? Could the scenes actually be re-arranged so all the action mostly takes place on Christmas Eve?

Could the two seperate nights at the White Horse actually have been just one night - Christmas Eve presumably?

If you can, try and take a look at this otherwise brilliant episode, and see if I've got this right...
 
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Hmmmmm.

The episode certainly doesn't make it clear that Christmas Eve was a Sunday, and of course in those day shops didn't generally open on Sundays, but can anyone remember how easy it was to get Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve on a Sunday in 1989?
 
I hear Nora hung one of her wrinkled stockings up on the fireplace on Christmas Eve , Santa kept filling it and filling it and as he did the wrinkles disappeared , the problem was he had to return to the North Pole to restock and the toe of the stocking was now down the hall and at the front door .
 
wstol said:
Just been watching Crums and What's Santa Brought for Nora Then? Two excellent Xmas specials from 1988 and 1989. Both quite similar.

However, in What's Santa Brought for Nora Then? it seems to me there is a flaw in the story.

I've only noticed this last night, and I haven't bothered re-watching it, but something doesn't make sense to me.

At the beginning Compo is trying to do some 'last minute' shopping for Nora's present in the department store. The shop is about to close. He doesn't buy anything, then encounters the fly pitcher dressed as Father Christmas. He doesn't buy anything from him either. The trio then go to the White Horse. It's pointed out Compo has left it too late, and the pub customers sing carols.

One would have expected all of the above the have taken place on Christmas Eve.

But it clearly isn't because the next scene starts with a new day. Howard is 'decorating' his tree. So let's assume this is Christmas Eve. That gives Compo a WHOLE DAY to look for a present. We don't see him doing anything of the kind. Then they are in the White Horse again, then suddenly think of Auntie Wainwright's. It is clearly evening when they go to Auntie Wainwrights.

To me is just doesn't make logical sense.

Was Christmas Eve 1989 on a Sunday?

That would barely explain Compo not buying anything on Christmas Eve after his worrying lack of success in the department store the night before.

Or, interestingly, are all the scenes in the wrong order? Could the scenes actually be re-arranged so all the action mostly takes place on Christmas Eve?

Could the two seperate nights at the White Horse actually have been just one night - Christmas Eve presumably?

If you can, try and take a look at this otherwise brilliant episode, and see if I've got this right...
Click to expand...

Another continuity hiccup???????
 
Right, just flicked through the episode again briefly.

The part with Compo at the department store IS Christmas Eve, because the fly pitcher tells us it is.

Therefore the next day with Howard doing his Christmas tree is Christmas Day morning. Do people do their decorations on Christmas Day morning?

Therefore Wesley and Barry are fitting an exhaust pipe to the car on Christmas Day!

All the baking going on is Christmas Day!

The trio return to the White Horse on Christmas Day. I suppose pubs open Christmas Day.

Howard dressed up as a fisherman on Christmas Day.

The Christmas party in the cafe is Christmas Day evening.


Sort of makes more sense now, but what a busy Christmas Day for everyone.
 
cciaffone said:
What the bluidy heck is a "fly pitcher?" The online OED sez it
means a "A street trader" but I don't get that. Help?
Can someone out there expand on that for us poor "muricans?
Click to expand...

A poor effort from another "murican". Thinking it through logically, he's making a pitch a.k.a. advertising items for sale, and he's selling (probably) stolen goods in a way that makes a quick get-away possible, therefore on the fly.
 
Right then, I've had another flick through.

The final scene, in the cafe, during the meal. Compo presents Nora with the present intended for Marina from Howard.

Compo says something like 'You didn't think I'd forget thee on Christmas Eve'.

So both days in the programme are Christmas Eve.

The show has Compo looking round the department store and talking to the fly pitcher on Christmas Eve evening. Cut to daytime scenes. Then we find out it's Christmas Eve.

The programme has gone a bit wrong somehow.

My next task will be to rearrange the scenes in the whole episode to sort out the continuity, if it will work out...
 
Marianna, as you explain it, it does make sense. Sorta.

(Sure beats the heck out of my fly-ball pitcher though.)
 
Another spoonful in the mix..........A street trader has his regular spot in either the market or street side (his pitch)So any one trading illegally would have his pitch "on the fly" as Marianna said. :wink:
 
I am sure that fly pitching is in some way intertwined with the well known phrase[at least in the UK]" Doing something on the fly" which is effectively undertaking some activity that is unplanned , done on the spur of the moment and selling something ,most likely dubious, in a random public place is exactly that.
 
Just like Del Boy in Peckham market sets up suitcase and sells from it and Albert looks out for the police or market inspector then leg it fast !
 
As a seymour fan I really enjoyed this one, along with Crum's these are my fave Summer Wine special episode's
 
wstol said:
Just been watching Crums and What's Santa Brought for Nora Then? Two excellent Xmas specials from 1988 and 1989. Both quite similar.

However, in What's Santa Brought for Nora Then? it seems to me there is a flaw in the story.

I've only noticed this last night, and I haven't bothered re-watching it, but something doesn't make sense to me.

At the beginning Compo is trying to do some 'last minute' shopping for Nora's present in the department store. The shop is about to close. He doesn't buy anything, then encounters the fly pitcher dressed as Father Christmas. He doesn't buy anything from him either. The trio then go to the White Horse. It's pointed out Compo has left it too late, and the pub customers sing carols.

One would have expected all of the above the have taken place on Christmas Eve.

But it clearly isn't because the next scene starts with a new day. Howard is 'decorating' his tree. So let's assume this is Christmas Eve. That gives Compo a WHOLE DAY to look for a present. We don't see him doing anything of the kind. Then they are in the White Horse again, then suddenly think of Auntie Wainwright's. It is clearly evening when they go to Auntie Wainwrights.

To me is just doesn't make logical sense.

Was Christmas Eve 1989 on a Sunday?

That would barely explain Compo not buying anything on Christmas Eve after his worrying lack of success in the department store the night before.

Or, interestingly, are all the scenes in the wrong order? Could the scenes actually be re-arranged so all the action mostly takes place on Christmas Eve?

Could the two seperate nights at the White Horse actually have been just one night - Christmas Eve presumably?

If you can, try and take a look at this otherwise brilliant episode, and see if I've got this right...
Click to expand...


I watched the same two yesterday too. It's always had me thinking but it fits now knowing xmas eve was on a Sunday.
 
Pearl said:
I watched the same two yesterday too. It's always had me thinking but it fits now knowing xmas eve was on a Sunday.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't fit.

See my later post, where it was confirmed the department store was Xmas Eve, and the party in the cafe at the end was Xmas Eve too - with some daytime in between.

We don't see Xmas Day.

The whole programme is out of sequence.
 
wstol said:
No, it doesn't fit.

See my later post, where it was confirmed the department store was Xmas Eve, and the party in the cafe at the end was Xmas Eve too - with some daytime in between.

We don't see Xmas Day.

The whole programme is out of sequence.
Click to expand...

Poetic licence again.
 
The best present for Nora would be a new broom as she uses a broom more than anything else and it should be a wide one so as to clout Compo and Clegg!!!!
 
wstol said:
The whole programme is out of sequence.
Click to expand...

I just got around to rewatching this episode and remembered this thread. I think the above is too strong a statement about what is a relatively mild mistake. It is clear the events take place over two days and the fact that Christmas Eve was on a Sunday in 1989 is probably relevant. Let's also not forget that in an earlier Christmas episode, "And A Dewhurst up a Fir Tree," Foggy laments the previous Christmas being ruined by the trio waiting until Christmas Eve to do their shopping, only for it to fall on a Sunday when all the shops were closed. So in "Summerwine Land" shops are closed that day.

So yes, the street vendor does say it's Christmas Eve and then Compo says it is the next night. But nobody else ever says it, specifically Pearl at the beginning when she goes out of her way to simply say there is one shopping day until Christmas.

There are a couple of ways this mistake could have developed. Perhaps the episode was originally written with the idea that day one was the 24th and day two Christmas. Then they realized the 24th was going to be on a Sunday that year and decided to make it the 23rd and 24th but failed to make the street vendor dialogue change in the script. Or maybe the move to change the days happened part way through filming and they'd already done the street vendor scene as that was clearly done on location.

Either way it hardly impacts the episode. In the many many times I've now seen it I'd never noticed the error and I suspect I'm not alone in that.
 
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