The Treacle People:
  Sticky Christmas     (1997)
  
   producers: Granada for ITV
   animation: stop-motion animation
      run time: 15mins

  
   "The snow will fall any second now...
    Any minute now... Soon.. Very soon!"
 

    Bill, Rosie, Lil, Tapper and the rest of the super sticky inhabitants of Giggle Row,
    in Sabden star in their very own treacle-covered Christmas special.

    Christmas is fast-approaching, and the treacle folk are all getting into the festive
    spirit... or at least, they're attempting to... that includes Leyland Lil, who seems
    to have a problem with her freshly-steamed Christmas pudding. Before you know
    it, it's tumbling away down Giggle Row and interfering with all the townsfolk.
    
   "I'm not chasin' down t'mine
    after a Christmas pudding!"

    That's Tapper expounding, until he realises who owns said pudding. But alas,
    the pursuit ends with the pudding "drowning" in the Milton treacle mine. And
    now it just doesn't seem like Christmas without a Christmas pudding. Or snow.
    Bur Professor Baines-Pilling has a solution to hand. He's invented a weather
    machine. Except that it doesn't work very well, and instead of glorious snow
    the treacle folk wind up with a huge grey cloud bank overhead. And as Rosie
    points out, how on earth can Santa now find his way to Sabden with all
    this cloud in the way? Their hopes now rest on an air ballooon, emblazoned
    with a big glowing neon sign ("SANTA THIS WAY")

   "You've been busy? - Have you ever tried trying to wrap
    fifty-seven million childrens' presents?!"

    Another quote there, this time it's old Santa Claus himself, as voiced by the
    great Willie Rushton. He's having a few problems of his own this year, with
    his sleigh in the repair shop. But what's this? - There's an illuminated
    air balloon drifting past his window...    

    Well, we could go on. But that would spoil all the stupidity. Suffice it to say,
    Brian and Jonathan Trueman's script delivers several more sticky twists and
    treacly turns en route to its snow-filled finale. And it's all a hoot. And there's
    surely no surprise to learn that this fun special was nominated for a Best
    Animation BAFTA. It's a super curtain call for an equally super series.
    But you know, the best curtain calls can go on and on forever sometimes,
    and that's the sad part, because "The Treacle People" should have run to
    far more episodes. Two series and a Christmas special simply
    isn't enough!

  
 

    See also

    The Treacle People

 

    Sticky Christmas on DVD

    Alas this silly seasonal special isn't available to own, but you can still
    get your sticky paws on this:

      Treacle People: Treacle Trouble
                Region 2 / six episodes / Right Entertainment / March 2006

 
   
     a Granada production for ITV

     developed for television Iain Russell & Mike Furness
     with special thanks to Penny Lent

     from an original idea by The Dewhurst Family