What's Occurin' This Christmas on BBC One

Although a pet hate of mine us Christmas specials not set at Christmas I do think the "regular" ep of Gavin and Stacey worked as a Christmas Day episode because it was the polar (or should that be solar) opposite of Christmas, and frankly by 10pm we probably all wanted to escape the festive period.

And like many non-festive Christmas specials it took the characters out of their regular setting, so I don't think it was a complete accident it ended up airing when it did.


BTW in other comedy news Not Going Out has been recommissioned for three more series. Would be nice to see that get a Christmas Day slot in the near future.

Interestingly when The Royle Family came back in 2006, it was shown in October rather than on Christmas Day. I recall people worrying that it meant it wouldn't be any good - as later happened with Victoria Wood's 2009 Christmas show - but it turned out to be excellent. I can only guess the subject matter of that particular episode meant it wasn't considered suitable for Christmas, but I'd rather watch that than the misery of EastEnders.

Oh good, we can go through the "final final ever episode" thing again in 2022, followed by a new series in 2024 which will be a spin off because the kids have grown up.

I don’t think we’ve gone through the final final ever episode thing with Not Going Out.

The show was not recommissioned once early on, but I don’t think they’ve ever said they planned to end it.

Show has apparently had three "final" episodes now, according to an honourable member for the East Midlands:
https://tvforum.uk/forums/post1147851#post-1147851

I imagine I'm not the only one that dropped out after the wedding episode and it turned into a family sitcom.

I'm still watching. Series just gone has been alright as the kids have barely been in it.

It’s not really a family sitcom though, the kids don’t feature in many episodes and it’s mainly all about the relationships with Lee and Lucy’s parents and Anna and Toby. There was even an episode with just the two of them. A lot of the episodes are very samey though. I’d like to see Tim or Daisy appear in one of the episodes just shake things up a bit.

But I don’t think they actually claimed any of those were final episodes.

In fact I remember Lee Mack saying the show would probably return if Lee and Lucy got together albeit with a change on Graham Norton.

That is often the key to a long running sitcom.

I didn't actually watch it prior to the Christmas ep before it was retooled with the family. Been trying to find the earlier series but drawn a blank on Now TV, Netflix and the iPlayer.

A few seasons are/were on UKTV Play.

Just the one episode now which expires tomorrow. Amazon Prime have the first few series but you have to pay for them.