BBC One Christmas 2019

Lol, you said tits

Russell T. Davis always managed perfectly well with a more-or-less normal story with a couple of extra action scenes, a bit more in the effects budget tin, and then just bung in a snow machine and robot Santa. Voila. One Christmas Special.

Almost 1 million of Gavin & Stacey's audience were in Wales, giving BBC One Wales a whopping 63% share.

(The Wales CA introduced the special by shouting OH! into the mic, which was a nice touch)

I would refer you here to Clive James On Television, the book of his collected television reviews, which includes his column from Christmas 1977 where he says he enjoyed Morecambe and Wise but they did "little that was new". Of course, by that point they'd been on every Christmas Day bar one since 1969.



For Channel Four at least, there are amazing viewing figures, Bake Off got over two million last night. Thirty years ago it wouldn't get anywhere near that on Christmas Day because they would self-consciously offer an alternative and major on opera, ballet and religion. BBC1 has got a million times the competition it had maybe even ten years ago.

1993 is a perfect example, BBC1 got enormous figures all night, but that night ITV were famously appalling showing back-to-back films and BBC2 and C4 both got officially zero viewers (ie, so small it was rounded down to zero). So it was pretty much BBC1 or nothing for most people. One of the big shows that night was Birds of a Feather, which had been running pretty much non-stop for the previous four years and was very much the equivalent of Mrs Brown and Call The Midwife. The difference then is that millions of people were watching it even if they weren't that bothered about it.

Even at the start of this decade digital switchover wasn't complete, and C4 wasn't getting two milion plus, BBC2 wasn't getting a million plus, ITV2 wasn't getting a million or so. And the people who watched that might have been watching BBC1 instead. Certainly it's hardly suggesting people are flocking from BBC1 for it being predictable given they were going to C4 for a schedule that's been pretty much the same for about five years, to BBC2 for Dad's Army and Morecambe and Wise and ITV2 for the umpteenth showing of Jurassic World.



No, the last time we had a big film in primetime on Christmas Day on BBC1 was the first Harry Potter film in 2004. I always thought that was a waste on a night which should be the shop window for new, British programming, which is what BBC1 offered from 4.40 to 11.15.

And I say this every year, but people weren't bored of Strictly two weeks ago when it was getting twelve million viewers. Nobody remembers what was on telly last week, let alone last year.

People seem to forget how huge Birds of a Feather was at the time. 20 million watched that special, and it was trailed with various behind the scenes features on the likes of GMTV, Anne & Nick etc. I understand the Mrs Brown comparison, but Birds had far more pathos and wasn't the tacky "two cockney birds and the tart next door" sitcom it perhaps appeared on face value.

Was wondering how it would rate in Wales. Virtually everyone I know seems to be a fan.


Well, half of them bored enough not to bother with the Christmas Day episode. Has to be one of the longest running staples of Christmas Day though - not sure when they started their Christmas Day episodes but has to have had an unbroken run of around 13 years.


Chris Chibnall also said they'd be no two parters, but there are this year. James Corden and Ruth Jones said Gavin and Stacey wouldn't return, but it did.

Things change, and although absolutely right to pull it last year it is inevitable it'll return at some point. I do think next year is likely as with a series early this year it's likely it won't air the next series till late 2021 based on recent scheduling patterns, so a Christmas special to bridge the gap seems a possibility, especially if they have no flagship comedy for the night. Having had a few Christmas Eve outings it's possible Not Going Out might get promoted to the big day to fill the slot, but unless they have a breakthrough show early next year it's dfficult to see what else they could air.


What of course the BBC really need to be doing is finding the next Gavin and Stacey, the next Call the Midwife and even the next Strictly to help evolve the Christmas Day schedule.

Well, it wasn't the style of it I was comparing to Mrs Brown, but in 1993 Birds of a Feather was making its fourth appearance on Christmas Day, and that year, like the previous four years, it had also had a thirteen-part run in the autumn and repeats for much of the year. So it was an extremely familiar part of the BBC1 schedule, the same as Mrs Brown, Strictly and Mrs Brown are in the current era.

Christmas Day on BBC1 has always been special episodes of BBC1's biggest current shows. There aren't many shows on BBC1 bigger than the ones that were on yesterday.

The special has already been shot - they did it in October at the end of the last filming block for series 12.

The days of mega audiences for Christmas soaps are long gone too! (They probably have been for a while, but the G&S ratings just underscore it...)

Yeah, we know there's a special, the only thing in question is which day it'll air. Brekkie is quite right that it probably won't be immediately followed by another season. That'd be at Easter at the earliest.

G&S showed viewers just want to sit down with familiar characters for some light hearted Christmas Day fun. That is what the soaps used to deliver but they all went too dark and miserable this year.

Hopefully this has shown to the BBC that viewers have an appetite for Christmas special reunions of programmes no longer with us. Though I'm sure the upcoming 'reunion' stage show of Miranda on NYD isn't going to rate very well as they're in a different environment and won't be like the sitcom at all.

The mistake the BBC made in the past when they used to do it before with The Royle Family and OFAH is that it became overkill when they'd make a new Christmas Special for the third or fourth consecutive Christmas.

It would do G&S or the BBC no good if they just aired another Christmas Special next year, as it'll just get compared to this years Special