Comedian Carl Donnelly – known for Mock The Week and Russell Howard’s Good News – is once again taking on his social media festive challenge: drinking his way through 24 mystery miniatures in a boozy advent calendar that’s equal parts comedy and endurance test.

 

A grown-up spin on a familiar family tradition, Carl’s Booze Advent Calendar has gained a cult following on social media, with fans including Rob Beckett, Iain Stirling and Amanda Abbington tuning in to watch him drink his way through 24 unusual spirits.

 

With the booze all chosen in secret by his wife Hannah, the comic has no idea what he’s in for as he unwraps each miniature bottle. For an added brutal twist to the cocktail, Carl must open - and drink - his advent calendar in the morning. 

 

While the school run is out of the question for the comedian and dad in December, it’s not just the neighbours who might be raising an eyebrow at his Christmas challenge - his smart speaker once staged an intervention by triggering a safeguarding call at 9:30am!

 

Carl says: "the thing people most like is how Hannah genuinely makes it difficult by putting in mad drinks she knows I’ll hate."

 

Some of Carl’s least favourite advent tipples from previous years include Black Seal Bermuda Black Rum with a staggering 75% alcohol content, a Hungarian liqueur called Unicum that Carl described as "an unpleasant surprise that Hannah delighted in supplying various versions of throughout the month", and Death In The Afternoon - an absinthe cocktail invented by Ernest Hemingway that is, in Carl’s words, "a real morning ruiner."

 

Not all the drinks are hard to swallow though, Carl has enjoyed rums, gins and vodkas -  although one spirit that will never make Carl’s best-of list might be a surprise for drink-lovers: whisky! A Christmas classic for many, for Carl it triggers stomach-churning memories from the first year of his boozy advent challenge: "There was a whisky on Day 19 of the first one I did in 2022, and it came the morning after I’d been out for a Christmas party with friends. It was the closest I’ve been to vomiting on camera.”

 

This year Carl’s alco-odyssey will be that much more complicated as he will be flying out to Australia to join his family there, and so the calendar capers will be spilt between two ends of the globe and will mean there may be some in-flight entertainment too.

 

Follow Carl’s Booze Advent Calendar in December on Instagram at @carldonnelly