Christmas TV 2020

Outnumbered does get tooted as being revived for Christmas, they did it in 2016. But it wasn't as good because the kids had all grown up and a lot of the show's original humour was "out of the mouths of babes" as it were (and being partly improvised around that). That doesn't quite work when the youngest child is 16 years old but I think if it was revived it'll be one of those "couldn't be lucky a second time round" things.

I suppose Jake is old enough to have a cheeky 4-year-old?

Exactly, and they did a Men Behaving Badly sketch for Stand Up For Cancer in 2014 (with Dorothy or Deborah; they're now inflatable dolls with their faces on them) and it wasn't that good.

The other thing is, we shouldn't just keep bringing things back. It's a very base desire to see what the "old gang" are up to, but when you do, you realise that you wish you hadn't. Very, very few exceptions to this rule. The Fast Show only just about worked on Gold, and even then there was no Caroline Aherne. Gavin and Stacey did bring in lots of viewers, but again, it last aired a decade ago.

The point is that the BBC should be trying new shows and then doing a special of those, but when they do, they don't put them on the big day. The most obvious example was Ghosts, which has had two great series, but they aired the Christmas special on the 23rd December when it could easily aired on Christmas Day, or at least Christmas Eve. I just don't understand what executives are running the place. I can only assume that they are hipster types who really don't "get" comedy, but think that a demographic must be catered for and look to please that instead.

The juxtaposition kind of worked though - and is actually somewhat of a Christmas TV tradition itself - quite often once a show has done a Christmassy Christmas special they'll do one set in the summer, with taking the characters out of their normal setting being a driver behind the special. Only Fools and Horses, One Foot in the Grave and I think Birds of a Feather all did holiday specials at one point, and more recently Downton Abbey and I think Call the Midwife one year have had Christmas specials set in the summer or abroad.

They were thinking about bringing Men Behaving Badly back in the early 2000s but it got shelved - https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2003/02/23/2285/going_badly

All we’ve had is that SUTC sketch already mentioned.

Like with many programmes most revivals are unsuccessful as the original magic is lost so I’ve never been a fan of the idea really.

Most of the OFAH Christmas specials weren't set at Christmas at all. In fact after the original 1981-83 ones, the 1993 one was the only one actually set at Christmas.

It seems to have been a bit of a 90s trend to set the Christmas special at any time other than Christmas - e.g. Miami Twice, One Foot in the Algarve.

All this talk of revivals reminds me that, on New Year's Day, BBC Two are showing the 2005 'reunion specials' of As Time Goes By, shown three years after the show ended. Bearing in mind that by the time it ended, there was already a two year gap between series, three years hardly feels like enough time for a reunion special, but one of the actors had already died at that point so perhaps it was better doing it sooner than later.

The only classic I'd like to see and I think has the star power for Christmas Day is Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. The Sport Relief sketch a few years back was pretty decent and with his daughter taking the Frank Spencer persona certainly had potential for a spin off, although it is one thing writing a 10 minute sketch, quite another fleshing it out into an hour long special.

Of the shows around in recent years it's a shame This Country never got a Christmas special - still a chance it might do so now it's ended as a series I guess, but although I'm not sure it has the profile for Christmas Day it certainly deserved a shot a wider exposure, and IMO Daisy May Cooper is one of the funniest people around at the moment.

And beyond the BBC would like to see a Derry Girls Christmas episodes too.

It certainly worked for OFAH. The Jolly Boys' Outing is the main example I can think of, and they can be repeated anytime of year easily despite being "Christmas specials". Just looking at Genome, it's been repeated in the summer quite often, as is the setting, but works both as a summer and Christmas episode.

In the case of G&S, New Years Day 2010 also saw the premiere David Tennant's final episode of Doctor Who. I know they weren't aired back to back, but I seem to remember there was a lot of cross promotion of Who, G&S and EastEnders as a big start to the New Year.

That was Eric Morecambe's thinking with their Christmas shows as well. He didn't want much remotely Christmassy mentioned in the shows so that they could be repeated all year round, although they do still tend to be repeated mostly at Christmas anyway simply because of their legacy and association with Christmas.

The 1992 special was set just before Christmas. It begins with Rodney's nightmare about the (presumably upcoming) Christmas party in the pub. The music is Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody.
Later, Del talks to Damien. He tells him to dream of the nice presents Santa will bring. Del talks about the presents he used to receive.

The 1990 Christmas special is basically the first episode of series 7, but gets treated as a stand alone episode for some reason. Neither the episode, or series 7 itself, really work apart from each other as it sets things up for the following episodes. I prefer to see it as an extended series opener. I think the 2001 BBC1 repeat run is the only time I've seen it run directly in series 7 (apart from the original airing, of course).