Bert and Maisy - Christmas (She's Funny at the Moment, They Both Are)

I'm not going to cook . . . you can have baked beans on toast for all I care.

– Maisy (Alice Fraser) talks about the Christmas arrangements

The play remained untried in New Zealand for four years until Elric Hooper's production under the title Unfamiliar Steps. Since its debut at Court Theatre in 1983, however, Bert and Maisy has seen productions throughout the country . . . [Lord's] observations of this complacent white middle-class couple are made all the more funny in that they ring so true.

– Maurice Halder on Robert Lord's original play, Illusions 7, March 1988, page 34

I just hope Ted and Burt aren't sitting in the garage drinking. Retirement's a terrible thing! See I can keep busy, that's the best thing to do, but Bert, he hates Christmas.

– Maisy (Alice Fraser), early in the episode

...arousing no emotion stronger than faint embarrassment.

– An unknown Kiwi critic on this show, quoted in The Listener, 27 August 1990, page 37

Not a bad life Maisy.

– Bert (Grant Tilly) to his wife Maisy

I try to buck her up — have people round so she won't, you know, think about things and get depressed.

– Bert (Grant Tilly) talks to his friend Ted about Maisy, early in the episode

Let's not talk about Shon. Let's not talk about anybody else for a while, just ourselves...

– Bert (Grant Tilly), late in this episode

Bert and Maisy are not goody goodies. They have awful rows — terrible rows.

– Actor Alice Fraser in The Star (Television Guide pullout), 28 July 1988, page 6

Bert's changed. Before he was sort of much gruffer. . . he was an irrascible old man with a heart of gold.

– Grant Tilly on how his character has changed from the stage play, The Star (Television Guide pullout), 28 July 1988, page 6

Robert Lord's initial concern was to get across the fact there's a lot of dignity in growing old...

– Actor Alice Fraser in The Star (Television Guide pullout), 28 July 1988, page 6

...you get to a certain age and start remembering tones of voice and find yourself using them on your kids and other people. And there's certainly quite a lot of Bert in me . . . there's a certain vulnerability in showing the bad side of your nature and the good side.

– Actor Grant Tilly on how Bert was originally "very much" based on his father, The Star (Television Guide pullout), 28 July 1988, page 6

....a low-keyed comedy of New Zealand manners.

– Robert Lord describes the original play, in the introduction to 1988 publication Bert and Maisy: A Play by Robert Lord, page 5