5. Gavin And Stacey (BBC One, 2008)
Gavin and Staceys families gather together in Essex for Christmas. Like
The Royle Family, the
Gavin And Stacey Christmas special works because its almost entirely comedy created from the mundane. The characters are eccentric but not out-and-out wacky, and most of the comedy comes from them being together at Christmas. Additionally, the dialogue and scenarios touch on the stuff that everyone experiences at Christmas giving it a feeling of universality The sense of realism to it really helps to draw you into the story and its a nice change of pace to see something more gentle and grounded rather than characters spouting one-liners at each other and getting into wacky situations as weve seen so many times before. Its broad, warm, and thoroughly amusing.
Best Moment: Gavin visiting Nessas Santas grotto, reluctantly sitting on her lap at her insistence that he follow the same rules as the children.