Top 25 Sitcom Christmas Specials

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. There€™s more or less no plot, and nothing setting up the dialogue and jokes other than the characters. There€™s probably no other Christmas special around that has this amount of universality. It€™s 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. It€™s a surprisingly poignant scene that sees the usually miserly Jim step up and help his daughter in her time of need.
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JG Moore is a writer and filmmaker from the south of England. He also works as an editor and VFX artist, and has a BA in Media Production from the University Of Winchester.