12. The Royle Family Christmas With The Royle Family (BBC2, 1999)
As the traditional post-Christmas dinner laziness kicks in, the family watch The Snowman together. This is pretty much the quintessential domestic sitcom Christmas special. Its brilliance lies in its simplicity. Theres more or less no plot, and nothing setting up the dialogue and jokes other than the characters. Theres probably no other Christmas special around that has this amount of universality. Its just one family watching TV and shooting the breeze. Something that practically every will family do at Christmas. Which makes watching this episode a bit like a Christmas version of Inception. Despite the lack of plot and limited locations and camera angles, it holds your attention really well and the naturalistic dialogue and performances are absolutely fantastic. Best Moment: Denise going into labour. Its a surprisingly poignant scene that sees the usually miserly Jim step up and help his daughter in her time of need.