This Christmas, the relentlessly chaotic Jessop family return to our screens in Here We Go: Mum’s Classic Family Christmas.
Amy is home again for the holidays, so Rachel is determined to engineer an absolutely classic Jessop Family Christmas: Stockings, presents, church, turkey, King’s speech, charades. Then everyone sings Hey Mr Christmas by Showaddywaddy and watches Shrek. Should be great, so long as everyone sticks PRECISELY to the schedule.
It’s never that easy.
This has already aired on BBC One, but catch up on iplayer here.
Here We Go Cast Christmas Special Q&AAlison Steadman (Sue Jessop)
What can we expect from the Christmas special?
A lot of fun! Tom Basden is a brilliant writer and I love doing his work. It’s quite hard to write a Christmas special but I think everyone’s going to love it.
What’s in store for your character this Christmas?
Well, she’s always there - always fiddling around in the background or in the foreground. I think if you’ve got a Sue as your Mother-in-Law, she’s quite a full-on character so she’s helping out with everything, let’s put it that way.
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family?
We do have a sort of routine, the family all meet up and we usually have turkey or goose but generally it’s turkey. Even though I’m now 80% vegetarian I will have a little bit of turkey at Christmas because I love it. We always have traditional crackers and I always insist on Christmas pudding and brandy sauce which 70% of the family don’t like! I love Christmas pudding and you only have it once a year, so I’ve got to have it. Both my sons say “what, Christmas pudding, eugh!”
Will your Christmas be similar to the Jessops?
Hopefully it won’t be as chaotic as the Jessops. All Christmases are a bit stressful aren’t they though, because suddenly you’ve got a huge meal to cook, whoever’s doing it and you’ve got a lot of people there. You want it to be fun, you want it to be warm and lovely and everyone having a great time, so there is a little bit of stress involved but hopefully it’s fun stress.
Why would you recommend that people spend their Christmas with Here We Go?
Well, it’s just cheery and its fun and hopefully people will recognise different things that happen in the Jessop family, “ooh my family does that” or “I did that this Christmas”, as well as “Oh gosh, I’m glad my Christmas isn’t like that.” So, there’s a mix of things but it’s generally just fun.
Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions?
To myself I do, I don’t publicise them in case I don’t keep them!
Freya Parks (Amy Jessop)
What can we expect from the Christmas special?
There are some hilarious outfits, Jim and I had a lot of fun in them. It was one of the first days of filming and one of the hottest days of the year and we were in Christmas outfits, just dripping with sweat.
What’s in store for your character this Christmas?
Amy’s just come back from Norway, where she’s had a lovely time, but is feeling very resentful about being back with her family and the chaos that ensues with them all the time so she’s quite miserable! There are nice moments however, despite all the chaos and the general failing at Christmas!
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family?
We always go to my grandparents, but before that on Christmas morning we always open our presents by the fireplace where we leave a carrot for Rudolph – so not quite as tragic as Rachel’s traditions at the Jessops, but almost! I’m an only child, and we always pretend that Father Christmas has been, my parent’s still enjoy the fantasy and the story – so we always go along with it.
Why would you recommend that people spend their Christmas with Here We Go?
It’s classic Jessop family chaos and fun. I hope every family can relate to it because there’s always something that goes wrong. There’s so much pressure at Christmas I think, especially if you’re hosting and I think we’ve got to remember that it’s just a nice celebration with family and friends and whatever your Christmas looks like, because everyone is different, we hope you can relate and enjoy watching the chaotic mad Jessop versions.
Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions?
I try to but then never stick to them. It’s normally just something like do more art or find time for other creative endeavours and make sure to relax, make sure to chill out and have time for myself.
Jim Howick (Paul Jessop)
What can we expect from the Christmas special?
We can expect lots of dressing up! More Jessop japes and typical chaos. Oh and Showaddywaddy.
What’s in store for your character this Christmas?
Paul gets roped into doing a good Christmas deed at the local children’s hospital and has his revenge on some dastardly teenagers. Christmas cheer is based on a sort of good old-fashioned revenge story.
Will your Christmas be similar to the Jessops?
Well, I have a mother-in-law from Liverpool, so that’s quite similar! But no, not quite as chaotic.
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family?
Nothing wacky or out-of-the-ordinary. It all feels like a very traditional timetable. Half of us don’t like turkey and the other half do so we always have two meats. We go to this really nice deli and get a load of bagels on Christmas Eve for breakfast on Christmas Day. There’s a lot of food, a permanent state of full!
We also play typical parlour games and endeavour to have some kind of disco in the evening but it’s always fairly sluggish. Fairly typical I’d say. Everything Rachel would want her Christmas to be.
Why would you recommend that people spend their Christmas with Here We Go?
Tom Basden has written a brilliantly crazy funny half hour of Christmas television. It’s clever, action packed (for sitcom world) and through all the mad cap, feverish goings on it is very, very relatable. A thoroughly entertaining half hour if I do say so myself.
Jude Collie (Sam Jessop)
What can we expect from the Christmas special?
As always a lot of chaos and a lot of fun and all very Christmassy!
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family?
Well, I’ve got two little brothers who I live with so waking up at 5am and having to send them back to bed has probably turned into a Christmas tradition for me! My mum will always make us wait to open our presents until she has had a coffee, or occasionally a Buck’s Fizz!
Will your Christmas be similar to the Jessops?
Hopefully slightly less chaotic but still probably fairly chaotic so yes, a bit similar.
Why would you recommend that people spend their Christmas with Here We Go?
It’s a real family show, whatever age you are, you are going to have people that you recognise and relate to.
Katherine Parkinson (Rachel Jessop)
What can we expect from the Christmas special?
Rachel gets forced into do-gooding behaviour that goes against her natural instincts. And she is quite obsessed with having an ordered Christmas, she likes to do Christmas Day the same way every year, which I can relate to.
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family?
I want to make sure we always do things in the same order for some reason. I’m not like that at all in general but it seems very vulgar if you open the presents before the natural time.
Will your Christmas be similar to the Jessops?
It will be quite similar. Now, I’ve had this chat with Jim, I’m not a fan of turkey. Jim takes cooking meat very seriously, he’s very good. I really like roast chicken for Christmas.
Why would you recommend that people spend their Christmas with Here We Go?
I think the family is a very relatable family I hope. I’ve always felt with the writing, which I’m full of admiration for, that it’s not cosy humour it’s actually properly funny humour, it’s not gentle but it does have the family warmth that you want to have in those kind of sitcoms. So, I think it combines a surprising and properly funny comedy but also with the family at the heart as a family that love each other.
Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions?
They tend to be the same every year. I think it is quite nice to make resolutions and I encourage my children to do it more than me. Spend less, be better.
Tom Basden (Robin)
Robin (Tom Basden), Sam Jessop (Jude Collie), Amy Jessop (Freya Parks), Sue Jessop (Alison Steadman), Paul Jessop (Jim Howick), and Rachel Jessop (Katherine Parkinson) (Image: BBC Studios/Jonathan Browning)
What can we expect from the Christmas special?
The Christmas special sees the Jessop family attempting to recreate one of their classic family Christmases of their past even though the kids are now far too old and cynical. It’s a combination of the standard frustrations and failures of families at Christmas plus a few slightly ridiculous and spectacular set pieces.
What’s in store for your character this Christmas?
So for Robin, his Christmas takes a bit of a turn because he’s expecting to go on holiday with Cherry, using what would have been her honeymoon after she jilted her ex-boyfriend Ian at the altar. But Ian’s refusing to allow Robin to take his seat on the plane so it effectively means that the holiday goes ahead but Robin ends up having Christmas in Bedford all the same.
Have you drawn on your own Christmas memories when writing this episode?
A little bit. Jim’s character Paul ends up becoming a sort of designated Father Christmas for a local hospital in this episode. I remember growing up and I have photographic evidence of a few Santas around Sutton in South London who were not only terrible in terms of their manner with kids, their costume or their commitment to their role, there were also a few that were drunk pretty much all the time and some of the interactions between the Santas and the kids were pretty funny. The kids were often quite traumatised by meeting these very low budget, very out of character versions of Santa. So we had a lot of fun with Jim playing Santa and getting very angry when he’s then called upon to dispense presents because he recognises a kid that he had a falling out with months before.
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family?
Rachel’s a bit like my wife in that she’s insistent on decking out the living room as convincingly as possible to explain a visit from Father Christmas. There’s also the order in which we do things in my house which is similar to the Jessops, and the little rituals which have become part of the family folklore which we have to keep doing every year even though I don’t think anyone actually enjoys them anymore, if they ever did in the first place. So, there’s things like that that I hope people recognise about their own family Christmases where they’re very committed to certain songs, events, or Christmas traditions that are arrived at pretty randomly at the time and then set in stone.
Why would you recommend that people spend their Christmas with Here We Go?
It will give people a break from their own families for a few minutes. It will also hopefully make them feel better about how well their family are doing as the Jessops have a pretty disastrous family Christmas. I also hope there’s enough Christmas cheer in it to help people feel a bit more festive.
Tori Allen-Martin (Cherry)
What can we expect from the Christmas special?
Your standard Here We Go behaviour and nothing less! Big heart, big laughs, general ridiculousness. Iconic behaviour from the Jessops and their loved ones.
What’s in store for your character this Christmas?
This Christmas Cherry’s getting a little bit of Winter Sun, whether that’s with Robin or not remains to be seen, but she’s getting it regardless.
Do you have any Christmas traditions in your family?
It’s usually just me, my Mum and any straggler friends who need love, so it’s a very small Christmas with pyjamas and good books and Christmas movies. I have to watch White Christmas every year because Vera-Ellen’s costumes are everything to me, so it’s not Christmas for me unless I’ve watched that.
Will your Christmas be similar to the Jessops?
Not at all! It’ll be very small and very chilled. We’ve decided this year to just never mind the turkey, we just want the sides. Double the sides. Stuffing and potatoes and all that. I think from now on I’m going to have a sides only Christmas.
Why would you recommend that people spend their Christmas with Here We Go?
Because I think you’ll feel seen, you’ll definitely recognise yourself or somebody you know and love (or hate!) and it just feels like a big warm cuddle from one of your loved ones, maybe with a dig in the ribs, or knuckle on your head for good measure. The Jessops certainly keep each other down to earth!
Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions?
I used to but I think it just leads to shame now if I don’t achieve them! So, now I just tend to feel grateful for the year before, it’s a privilege to have spent another year around the sun, learning lessons that I needed to learn and striving to grow and heal so I can leave my little corner of the world better than I found it. And then whatever was good that year? Just hoping for more of that. And also more Here We Go, obviously.
All pictures: BBC Studios/Jonathan Browning
Interview supplied by BBC
