Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special
Christmas Day, BBC1
A Christmas Carol
Sunday-Christmas Eve, BBC1
Rating: 
The Christmas special of Gavin & Stacey, which marked the return of the sitcom after a ten-year absence, carried the weight of all our seasonal TV expectations. (Actually, I can’t speak for you, only for myself, and perhaps you were most anticipating Call The Midwife, and I wonder: were the homilies as tip-top this year?) And it did not disappoint. At. All.
First laugh was at two minutes in, when Pam (Pamalaaaaar, mother of Gavalaaaaar) complained about Gwen’s towels: ‘It’s like drying yourself on a Ryvita.’ By the end of the hour my face hurt from the smiling. It wasn’t the jokes as such, but the sheer pleasure of having all the characters back and hearing why Nessa will be otherwise occupied on New Year’s Day: ‘I’m on duty. Down the lifeboats. We gets a lot of jumpers at this time of year.’ I loves them all, I do. Or, if you prefer: it was cracking, serious.
Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon in Gavin & Stacey. What truly distinguishes this show is its domestic warmth, which is gorgeous and generous
Written by James Corden and Ruth Jones, the show delivered on every level. You laughed, you cried, you worried for Uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon), one of the greatest tragicomic characters of all time, who kept repeating in an excited panic: ‘I’m cooking for over 13 people!’
Christmas was at Gwen’s (Melanie Walters) this year so they all gathered on Barry Island. Neil The Baby is now 11 and Smithy (Corden) and Nessa (Jones) co-parent, with Smithy coming up every other Friday. Gav ’n’ Stace (Mathew Horne, Joanna Page) have kids (Harry and, ahem, Megan) but the mojo has disappeared from their marriage, and their present to each other is kitchen cupboards. Nessa: ‘Not gonna lie, that’s the worst present I ever heard of, and last year I gave Bryn some Strepsils.’ Too many terrific lines to choose from but here’s one from Pam (Alison Steadman): ‘Tried one of Gwen’s flannels last night. You could have cracked it with a toffee hammer.’
But what truly distinguishes this show is its domestic warmth, which is gorgeous and generous, and is what puts it in the same league as, say, The Royle Family – Denise offering Cup-A-Soup for Xmas lunch but ‘with a twist… it’s going to be in a bowl’ – and the acceptance the characters have for each other. When Smithy’s new (and momentary) girlfriend Sonia (Laura Aikman) questioned Nessa’s present to everybody – a tap; you got either hot or cold but could swap – and asked, ‘Is it a family joke?’, they are all baffled. And when she pats Smithy’s tummy and says she’s bought him membership of a fitness club, they are horrified. This is because they know Nessa and Smithy and wouldn’t have them any other way. They get each other. She does not.
So this was made with love, and also an eye for detail. It was all here, more or less. The robot dance. The mystery of the fishing trip that, on this occasion, was so nearly explained. (Damn!) The ‘scrunch and bunch’ wrapping technique using kitchen foil. (I was glad to see Neil The Baby carrying on that tradition.) Uncle Bryn unnecessarily explaining his name. (‘It means little hill in Welsh.’) Ness and Uncle Bryn performing karaoke down The Dolphin. It’s true, Gwen didn’t offer to make an omelette, but you can’t have everything. And as for the ending, you will have absolutely melted, surely. It was lush. It was tidy. Only problem is, I’ve thus far failed to weave in ‘What’s occurin’?’ Except now I have!
The adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Steven Peaky Blinders Knight was intended to be ‘adult’ and ‘dark’, and it was that, abundantly, although why we might want it, I don’t know. I suppose it was for anyone who has ever read a Dickens and thought, what this story needs most is child abuse and F-bombs (edgy!) and the abject humiliation of a vulnerable woman with a sick kid. It was bleak. It was joyless. It was all taken from a desolate colour palette. It was about as Christmassy as piles.
Guy Pearce in A Christmas Carol. I suppose it was for anyone who has ever read a Dickens and thought, what this story needs most is child abuse and F-bombs (edgy!)
It didn’t even get going until midway through episode two. Until then, we had Guy Pearce, as Ebenezer Scrooge, merely staring coldly at everything while his deceased business partner, Marley (Stephen Graham), clanked about in chains in an under-populated purgatory. Finally, the Spirit of Christmas Past (Andy Serkis) arrived, who could, it transpired, transform himself into Scrooge’s fearsome father and also Ali Baba (don’t ask). Scrooge was taken back to the boarding school where he was, according to this version of events, molested as a child by a predatory schoolmaster. (He was dehumanised, which is why he now dehumanises. It was that trite, psychologically.)
The show delivered on every level… You laughed, you cried, you worried for Uncle Bryn
In fact, this Scrooge wasn’t a curmudgeon. He was a sociopathic monster. And his humiliation of Mary Cratchit (Vinette Robinson), just for the sake of it, was as off-key as it was tone-deaf. And by the time redemption came along, you were beyond caring. Plus, it was undeserved anyhow. So, to sum up, in a word, maybe two? Bah humbug. (In spades.)