Santa on Patrol

"Santa on Patrol" is the first Christmas Night with the Stars sketch from the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Christmas Day (25 December) 1968. Although audio recordings of the sketch exist, it is not otherwise known to have survived (See Wiping).

This short (less than 10 minutes long) episode was never given any kind of episode title. All surviving paperwork of the time confirms that it was only ever officially designated as a Dad's Army segment for the BBC's Christmas Night with the Stars strand. In recent years the title "Santa on Patrol" has become attached to the story. This happened quite by accident. When the story was being lined up for an audio CD release, a producer at BBC Audiobooks called Charles Norton, invented the title, as it saved confusion on internal paperwork. Somehow this title was later accidentally given out to online retailers and has been mistakenly taken as a real title, although it is entirely unofficial. Outside of some online listings, the title is not used in any book or on any BBC DVD, video or CD release. The title was coined in 2014 in an internal BBC email and was never intended to become public.