The musical guests are Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen, The Pattersons, Nina van Pallandt and Frankie Vaughan. Ernie starts the show dressed as a hippy. Eric and Ernie visit Fenella Fielding who is to star in Ernie's play about Lord Nelson.

The second seasonal offering saw the return of recurring guest star Peter Cushing who still hadn't been paid (a joke that was to continue well into their Thames Television days); also starring was William Franklyn who, at the time, fronted an advertising campaign for Schweppes lemonade with his "Shhh, You Know Who..." tagline. Much comedy was drawn from this, especially in light of the fact that the BBC was forbidden to advertise products. He appears in one of the duo's legendary plays at the end of the show in which the Three Musketeers are parodied. Well-known actor Edward Woodward also sang The Way You Look Tonight rather than appearing within a sketch has he had done in previous appearances.

Considered by many to be their finest hour, the festive edition for 1971 contains several all-time classics such as Shirley Bassey singing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes whilst the boys re-arrange the scenery, with Bassey memorably ending with Eric's boots on, the Hollywood Melody with Glenda Jackson and the BBC newsreaders and, of course, André Previn conducting Eric's rendition of Greig's Piano Concerto (by Grieg!). The BBC's other headlining star Dick Emery also makes a brief but memorable cameo appearance in the opening spot of the show. Bassey also sang Diamonds Are Forever which of course had been the titular song to the James Bond film of the same years' release.

No series was produced in 1972 with the duo concentrating on a high-quality spectacular for Christmas Night, by this time their show had become a staple part of festive viewing and the pressure was on to deliver the goods. Braben had suffered a breakdown and was not producing material for some time, but they bounced back with another successful show. This show is a curious mix, showing that the by now established formula worked. For instance, the ridiculing of a guest singer by providing backing vocals and/or dancers is featured twice here, once with Vera Lynn and once with Jack Jones in what are basically similar routines. Also, there are two "plays", one with Pete Murray in the Great War epic Dawn Patrol and of course, the Prince Albert spoof at the conclusion of the show.

By this time, an established running gag was the fact that our intrepid duo could not get stars to work with them, and this show features four cameo appearances from Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolf Nureyev, Laurence Olivier and André Previn all making excuses not to appear. Perhaps the most memorable is Lord Olivier who pretends to be a Chinese Laundry attendant over the telephone! Vanessa Redgrave joins in the Latin American Extravaganza, and the Napoleon & Josephine play, with music (suitably interrupted!) by John Hanson. The other memorable scene from this show is Hannah Gordon's effort to sing the song The Windmills of Your Mind used in the film The Thomas Crown Affair against a wind generator with "help"...