Buster Merryfield and Horses" in January 1985, as the former seafaring Albert Gladstone Trotter, known as Uncle Albert, who was Grandad Trotter's globetrotting long-lost younger brother, and who was known for Uncle Albert's catchphrase of "During the war..." The character took over the role of senior citizen member of the Trotter family from Lennard Pearce, who played Grandad, after Pearce died unexpectedly in December 1984. Coincidentally, nine months earlier, in March 1984, Merryfield appeared in two episodes of a "Shroud for a Nightingale" alongside Lennard Pearce. He did much work for various charities, notably the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. He wrote his
Carry On Christmas Specials Christmas special, "Carry On Christmas". Talbot Rothwell made a return as the writer, as did Sid James. This was the only special to have a modern-day setting, featuring Sid James as a department store Father Christmas, although it did feature historical sketches. It would be ten years before the next Christmas special. "Carry On Laughing's Christmas Classics" saw Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor introduce some of the funniest moments from the later Carry On films, in a format very similar to the film "That's Carry On!". In 2005, the first four specials were released on DVD, featuring interviews with film