Quote: Badge @ December 24 2009, 2:54 PM GMTThat thing in the car is the most annoying trailer of this Christmas.
Completely agree.
The Royle Family, I'm afraid, were mainly responsible for the notion that characters singing along with a song is somehow intrinsically hilarious. A strange notion which Gavin And Stacey saw and said "Oh, that'll fill some screen time, thanks very much!". (Bah! Humbug! et cetera...)
Well, Craig Cash and Phil Mealey anyway because there are scenes of singing along to songs in 'Early Doors' and 'Sunshine' as well.
Enjoyed tonight's Christmas special a lot. Though notice no-one is allowed(?) to smoke anymore. The scenes in the caravan were especially good.
Yeah I found it rather funny today.
All things are relative and, compared with a normal episode of The Royle Family, this Christmas Special was poor. The opening scenes (before they got into the car) were what I'd expect from an amateur writer knocking out a short 'Royle' script for a writing comp. It was okay for an amateur but fell well short of the show's normal standards.
Once they were in the car, things improved considerably - the script went from 'hopeless' to 'just below average' and, give or take a few dips into unfunny crudity intended to amuse the show's less cerebral fans, the improvement was maintained for the rest of the programme.
Overal verdict: it was okay.
I thought it was pretty funny. I still find it a bit weird when they leave the house though.
Anyone see this the whole way through? I managed two and a half mins and I was giving it my best shot. Cannot stand the show.
Maybe it was lumpy gravy, Alfred?
I kept leaving the room; I didn't care about the characters or plot enough to see every bit. But it was still quite funny in places. I actually laughed out loud a few times. It wasn't excellent, but it was better than I'd ... feared. Maybe expected. But, yeah, was alright all-things-considered.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 25 2009, 11:10 PM GMTAnyone see this the whole way through? I managed two and a half mins and I was giving it my best shot. Cannot stand the show.
I thought it was better than last year's. I liked the fact that it was far less sentimental, which is something the show drifts towards too much. It might have suffered a little bit from being a full hour long, as there was too much time up front leading to them going on holiday, which is really when the show finds its legs. Would have perhaps worked better at 40 mins?
Either way, it was a very enjoyable show to have as part of the Christmas Day schedule and far superior to the pointless, directionless and unamusing episode of Gavin & Stacey which followed.
Well, the only good 'Christmas special' Ive seen this year is a repeat from 1975ish, Rising Damp's on ITV3 earlier. Christmas specials aren't what they used to be.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 25 2009, 11:34 PM GMTWell, the only good 'Christmas special' Ive seen this year is a repeat from 1975ish, Rising Damp's on ITV3 earlier.
I'd seen that one before(!) but agree, it's a very good one. 
This was a good sitcom episode but I agree with the guy who said that for the Royle Family amazingly high standards it was poor. The problem is is that it is just different and so compared to the Royle Family in it's three series it is far less subtle and much more like Early Doors, I guess due to Phil Mealey being a co-writer.
It did have touches of genius such as the line about farting next to a radioator and not having anyone to smell it but mainly I think they need to make Dave and Denise less caricatured as this is a program which is meant to very vividly reflect real life.
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ December 25 2009, 11:55 PM GMTa radioator
I've got one of those ! You can keep warm and listen to Luxembourg at the same time!
I thought it verged on embarrassing at times. Almost every time there was a great line - and there were a few - they followed up with the characters being just stupid. I think they've forgotten that normal people aren't stupid. It's turned from affectionate to sneering.
