Christmas may come but once a year, but for arch-snob Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet, if you please), disaster, drama and humiliation – all obstacles on the ladder to social-climbing success – are far more frequent. In these Christmas Specials we see a delightful cruise on the QE2 start in a less-than-delightful muddy fi eld. We see a glorious English Civil War pageant, with Hyacinth as Queen Henrietta Maria, go royally wrong when the cast fails to turn up and her unsavoury relatives step into the breach. And we see that even The Season of Good Will isn’t immune from woe, as a sherry-fuelled Richard, dressed as Santa, brings Hyacinth tidings devoid of any comfort and joy.