Holy (Bottom)
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| "Holy" | |
|---|---|
| Episode no. | Series Two Episode 005 |
| Directed by | Ed Bye |
| Written by | Ade Edmondson Rik Mayall |
| Produced by | Ed Bye |
| Original air date | 29 October 1992 |
"Holy" is the fifth episode of the second series of British television sitcom, Bottom. It was first broadcast on 29 October 1992.
Synopsis
It is Christmas time in Hammersmith once again, and Richie and Eddie experience a Christmas miracle.
Plot
On Christmas morning, Richard enters Eddie's room disguised as Father Christmas and presents "gifts" for himself and Eddie. He accidentally sets off Eddie's homemade security system, which results in him almost dying of hanging. After being spared by Eddie, Richard returns as himself and proceeds to list off the gifts that "Santa" has left them, which consist of the ingredients for Christmas dinner, while Eddie himself receives no gifts. Eddie presents his gift for Richard: an empty bottle of malibu and a used toilet roll, made into a "play telescope" featuring an image of Sue Carpenter.
Later on, Richard forbids use of the television and proceeds to start Christmas dinner. Short on brandy butter, the two settle for the highly-flammable "vodka margarine". During the cooking, Richard accidentally cuts off one of his fingers and begins to lose blood. To get on with Christmas dinner, they crudely staple the finger back into place. Dave Hedgehog and Spudgun arrive to attend Christmas dinner and are served gravy as a replacement for sherry. For dinner, they are served rock hard potatoes, sprouts and a turkey that is overcooked so much it is inedible. They skip to pudding; when they set the vodka margarine alight, they are forced to extinguish the powerful blaze. Richard attempts to play charades, but the others are incapable of understanding the rules. The doorbell rings, and a baby is found left on the doorstep. Richard decides that he and Eddie should adopt the child, despite Eddie's protests. Eddie laments "get rid of it" and "why couldn't you be more careful?".
Spudgun, Eddie and Dave decide to give the child gifts; respectively, a bar of Terry's All Gold, a Frankenstein mask and an aftershave named "Grrr". At the time, the three are wearing paper crowns and Richard, a virgin, is wearing a blue towel like a veil. Noticing the similarities with the Nativity, Richard believes that he is the Virgin Mother of God, the child is the Messiah and that they are witnessing the Second Coming. Richard gives himself the title "Richard Mary" and demands the servitude of the others. However, it turns out that the child is the grandson of their landlord, whose daughter returns to collect the child. Eddie and Richard are excited when she prepares to breastfeed the child.
Continuity and production errors
- This episode was over long and edited down by five minutes for transmission, producing a number of discontinuities. The original uncut version is now available on the series 2 DVD.
- During the episode, Eddie wants to watch Noel's Christmas Family Video Accidents (a fictional program title to parody a genre of programming involving Noel Edmonds), but Richie won't let him. In reality, the time Eddie was about to tune the television to BBC 1, he would've been watching Children's television.
- Richie cuts off his finger with a knife. Eddie attempts to staple the finger back to his hand, but after various staples, he realises it was the wrong finger. Throughout the rest of the episode, no damage is seen to any other of Richie's fingers.
- Following on from the above, for a majority of the episode, Richie's finger is attached to his hand with tape. In one scene, his finger is trapped in the window. At one point, it is noticeable that Mayall's real finger is bent underneath it.
- Richie believes he has broken his leg after Eddie caught him acting as Santa Claus. He them re-enters Eddie's bedroom as himself, and limps. However, he does not limp for the rest of the episode.
- Richie lights the Christmas pudding and goes up in a blaze. The flames were added via an optical effect, and this is obvious when Richie is moving the pudding, and the flames do not follow. A similar effect was used in the same episode involving a Christmas tree, but was really alight the next shot, despite the flames dying down. In Series 3, this effect was scrapped, and controlled flames were used (see Dough).
- In this episode, Spudgun tells Eddie and Dave Hedgehog that Emmerdale Farm had changed its title to just Emmerdale, claiming "it doesn't take so long to read" and they can "pack a lot more story in". It is implied that this happened quite recently but in reality, Emmerdale Farm changed its name in November 1989, almost three years before this episode was recorded.
Cast
| Cast | Characters |
|---|---|
| Rik Mayall | Richie |
| Adrian Edmondson | Eddie |
| Charlie Biddle | Johnny Bates |
| Tina Foley | Valerie Bates |
| Steven O'Donnell | Spudgun |
| Christopher Ryan | Dave Hedgehog |
| Roger Sloman | Mr Harrison |
