The 25 funniest Christmas comedy TV specials of all time

The comedy special is as much a part of British Christmas as a family row and mountains of sprouts. This year, comedy shows from Motherland and The Detectorists to Mrs Brown’s Boys and Ghosts are returning with festive specials to round off 2022. To celebrate, we countdown the greatest 25 Christmas comedy specials of all time.
 

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25. Hancock’s 43 Minutes (1957)
Tony Hancock’s influential sitcom takes a departure with a live variety performance. Unfortunately, Sid James has spent the budget down the boozer (“I gave you a hundred quid… what size pubs do you go into?”), leaving Hancock with a handful of rubbish acts, including a spoons player who can’t get a tune. The performing chimp and jokes about roly poly dancers haven’t aged well, but the sardonic wit of Hancock – particularly bantering with Sid James – makes it a worthwhile festive curiosity.

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24. The Vicar Of Dibley – The Christmas Lunch Incident (1996)
Whatever you think of The Vicar of Dibley, it carried the torch for traditional-style sitcoms at Christmas throughout the 2000s (a torch passed, regrettably, to Mrs Brown’s Boys). The best of Dibley’s Crimbo specials is also its first, which sees Dawn French’s Geraldine agree to eat four Christmas dinners in one day out of vicar-ly politeness. Clearly a glutton for punishment – as well as turkey and all the trimmings – Geraldine also enters an impromptu sprout-eating contest for a bet.

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23. The Inbetweeners – Xmas Party (2008)
Originally broadcast in May, the Christmas credentials of this one – the final episode of The Inbetweeners’ first series – are dubious, but at least it’s set at Christmas. Will organises the sixth form party, while Simon plans a (very public) romantic gesture for Carly, and Neil tries his luck with biology teacher Miss Timms. “Every year someone has a pop,” grumbles the psychotic Mr Gilbert. As ever, it captures the horror and horniness of adolescent life with alarming accuracy.

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22. Absolutely Fabulous – Cold Turkey (2003)
As always with Ab Fab, Patsy is the star. She hates everything about Christmas. Learning that her usual Xmas-time holiday abroad has been cancelled, she head-butts Edina. She later collapses, and prefers to stay in hospital than join in on the festivities (“A few days on drugs, lovely,” she says). But there’s almost a Scrooge-like redemption for Patsy after returning from the brink of death – she even eats a miniscule piece of turkey for Christmas dinner.

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21. Father Ted – A Christmassy Ted (1996)
Not a series best, but still leagues ahead of most other sitcoms. Ted is awarded the Golden Cleric for saving the Catholic Church a scandal, after heroically leading a group of lost priests out of Ireland’s biggest lingerie department. But trouble comes to Craggy Island with a visit from Father Todd Unctious, who claims to be Ted’s old school pal. Ted doesn’t remember him, but how does Unctious know so much about Ted’s hairy backside?

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20. Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em – Jessica’s First Christmas (1974)
Replayed to death on the Beeb for 40 years – isn’t that what Christmas is all about? – the imagine of Frank Spencer dangling over the nativity play in his angel robes is a defining image of the great British Christmas. The big gag is Frank being airlifted off the church roof, but it’s the subtleties of Crawford’s performance that make it, fiddling and jittering as he delivers imitable zingers such as, “The donkey done a whoopsie in the corridor.”

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19. Shooting Stars (1995)
Vic and Bob’s daft, celeb-lampooning game show was the freshest comedy on TV when it in eranu’d (eranu indeed) onto screens in 1995. The first series ended with this cracker of a Christmas episode, featuring a ludicrous dance number – with 1950s throwback Mark Lamaar singing Boombastic while being hoisted up on a wire – and surreal questions such as, “True or false, Jarvis Cocker’s chin is so square it is used by Bird’s Eye as a template for beef burger boxes.” 

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18. Porridge – No Way Out (1975)
It’s Christmas in HMS Slade and the inmates have turned to choir singing – but only to mask to sound on an escape tunnel that’s being dug underground. As Fletcher says of festivities: “It’s not the coming of our Lord, it’s the going of Tommy Slocombe.” Fletch is naturally dragged into the scheme, though all he wants is to con his way into the infirmary for a few days over the yuletide season. A Christmas clink classic.

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17. Bottom – Holy (1992)
Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson’s sleazy sitcom might be violent, crass, and politically incorrect, but it’s also disgustingly funny. Here, it’s a standard Christmas day for Richie and Eddie: incinerated dinner, charades, and hacked off fingers. That’s until a baby is abandoned on their doorstep. In one of the series’ best gags, the three kings (well, Eddie and his drunk mates wearing paper crowns) adorn the baby with gifts – Terry’s All Gold, a Frankenstein Mask, a Grrr aftershave. “And I’m a virgin!” shouts Richie.

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16. The Detectorists (2015)
BBC Four’s middle aged, metal detecting comedy plays on another forgotten festive tradition: the Christmas ghost story. Lance’s best ever find, a jeweled Saxon aestel, is displayed at the British museum, but he becomes convinced he’s been struck by the “curse of the gold”. It’s not all bad news – he does at least land himself a girlfriend. The gentle pace of The Detectorists is exactly what you want at Christmas. It’s warming, cozy, and unashamedly sentimental.

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15. One Foot In The Grave – The Wisdom Of The Witch (1995)
Victor Meldrew tried all the Christmas special tropes: big stunts (Angus Deayton machine gunning Victor’s garden gnomes), going on holiday (who can forget One Foot In The Algarve?), and bittersweet tragedy (neighbour Pippa in a drink-driving bus crash). This is Meldrew’s best farcical, twisty Christmas plot though, as he’s snowed in at a country house with Deayton – as longsuffering neighbour Patrick – and a monstrous spider. Beginning as Victor’s supposed graveside, it also appeared to be the last ever episode. Don’t believe it.

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14. Gavin & Stacey (2008)
If ever a show was tailor made for a Christmas special, it’s James Corden and Ruth Jones’ heartwarming romantic sitcom. But Crimbo almost turns into an England v Wales punch-up when Gavin announces he’s moving to Barry with Stacey (“Let’s not turn this into a race issue,” Rob Brydon’s Uncle Bryn warns the families). The high point is Gavin and Smithy singing Band Aid down the phone – a scene already replayed so often it’s destined to be the modern equivalent of Frank Spencer’s dangling bit.

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13. Steptoe & Son – A Perfect Christmas (1974)
Steptoe produced specials in 1973 and ’74 with near identical plots – Harold is sick of the same old Christmas wants to go abroad. This year Harold talks his father Albert into it, but discovers at customs that his passport is out of date, so Albert boards the train to Switzerland without him. As the last ever Steptoe, the final gag – it was actually a plot to get rid of Albert – isn’t just the punchline to this episode, but the entire series. Harold gets one up at last.

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12. Inside No. 9 – The Devil Of Christmas (2016)
The most recent series of Reece Sheersmith and Steve Pemberton’s anthology was career-best work (sorry League of Gentlemen fans) but this series opener was them doing what they’ve always done best: delving into the darkest recesses of their vast horror knowledge, this time spinning a not-so-festive yarn about the folkloric Christmas demon, the Krampus. Presented as a behind-the-scenes retrospective on a hilariously hammy ‘70s horror film, complete with “director’s commentary”, things take a very sadistic twist.

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BBC
11. Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? (1974)
Terry’s passed his driving test and Bob’s grown a beard. The Likely Lads, it seems, are finally men. This last ever episode sees Terry take a job as a mini cab driver, ferrying Bob and Thelma to a Christmas Eve fancy dress party. The big laughs come from Bob trying to canoodle with Joan of Arc behind Thelma’s back (it all seems so innocent – how times have changed). And for once, it’s Bob who lands himself in trouble.

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10. Peep Show – Seasonal Beatings (2010)
Jeremy and Mark spend Christmas together, personifying the awkwardness of doing Christmas by someone else’s house rules. Jez goes all out with presents and festive fun (“I don’t believe in Jesus but I do believe in Christmas,” Jes says. “I’m a Christmas-ist”), while Mark prefers an emotionally-repressed, unbearably tense day – mostly thanks to his parents coming for lunch. Still, he finds good use for his father’s gift of a secondhand paper shredder after the age-old row about whether cauliflower is traditional at Christmas goes nuclear.

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9. The League of Gentlemen (2000)
The League put a grim twist on A Christmas Carol with three sinister stories. It’s best remembered for going full gothic with its tale about the “Queen of Duisberg” Herr Lip and his choir and angelic vampires (inspired by Nosferatu and Salem’s Lot, it’s genuinely scary stuff). But the opening story about arguing couple Charlie and Stella (two of the series’ best characters), a line dancing contest, and a modern-day witches’ coven is just as chilling.

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8. Eric & Ernie’s Christmas Show (1977)
Morecambe and Wise’s act is from another time, but somehow the comedy never gets old. The ’77 edition of their traditional Christmas show – and last ever on the BBC – pulled a monster rating of 28.5 million, and features a Starsky and Hutch spoof and tons of cameos, including Elton John, Angela Rippon, Michael Parkinson, and the Dad’s Army cast. For a proper British Christmas, you should also go back and watch the André Previn sketch from their 1971 special.

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7. Extras (2007)
Selfish, shallow, and occasionally spiteful, Extras could be a cold-hearted comedy. But it finds real warmth in its final minutes, when Andy Millman – whose desire for fame has landed him in the Celebrity Big Brother house – delivers a gut-wrenching, superbly-acted tirade against celeb culture. It also has Extras’ best cameo: George Michael doing community service because him and Annie Lennox have been grassed up for fly tipping. “Sting called the council,” he tells Millman, “because he’s a f____ do-gooder.”

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6. The Fast Show (1996)
It’s amazing – or “brilliant!” as Paul Whitehouse’s eternally chirpy scamp might say – how well The Fast Show has aged compared to other sketch comedies of the time (particularly the dreadfully dated Harry Enfield). This hour-long special has the highest gag hit rate of any Fast Show episode. The best sketches include Competitive Dad totting up who bought the best presents (he did, naturally) and the Suits You Tailors’ filthy carol singing. “Deep and crisp and even?! Ohh, suits you!”

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5. The Royle Family – Christmas With The Royle Family (1999)
The Royles’ razor-sharp observations on working class family life have never been better than in their first Crimbo special – slumped in front of the TV on Christmas afternoon, paper hats on, scoffing Roses, and complaining that no one really likes turkey. Though it comes from the Royle’s earlier, more down-to-earth episodes (it all went very cartoonish in later specials), they can’t resist a bit of sentimental Christmas magic: Jim turns from grumpy slob to doting dad when Denise goes into labour with Baby David.

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4. Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988)
Sandwiched between Blackadder’s third and fourth series, this is peak Blackadder – and an essential entry into the dynasty. Ebenezer Blackadder does a reverse Scrooge, beginning the story as a charitable fellow, but turns into a scheming, tight-fisted miser after seeing flashbacks of his wretched ancestors. Even in nice guy mode, Blackadder is a king of the putdown. “Tiny Tom is 15 stone and built like a brick privy,” he tells Mrs Scratchitt. “If he eats any more heartily he will turn into a pie shop.”

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3. Only Fools & Horses – Heroes & Villains, Modern Men, Time On Our Hands (1996)
Like some dodgy Del Boy deal, you get three for the price of one with this trilogy. The first episode has Del Boy and Rodney as Batman and Robin, while the final episode sees them finally make their millions. As with all Del Boy deals, there’s something wrong with it: the middle episode. But its emotional sucker punch – Rodney and Cassandra losing their baby – sets up some cushty character moments between Del and Rodders. A shame their big moment was eventually spoiled by three more comebacks.

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2. Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge (1995)
Most agree that the I’m Alan Partridge sitcom is an overall superior show to his original spoof chat show, but this festive special is Alan’s finest ever hour. He’s a man on the edge. His wife has left him and his chances of a second series come crashing down around his mock-up home. Blighted by some ill-advised product placement, the presence of BBC boss/future nemesis Tony Hayers, and a foul-mouthed cross-dressing chef (“Oops, pardon!”), Alan is one yuletide breakdown away from ending up in the Linton Travel Tavern.

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1. The Office (2003)
Gervais and Merchant’s fly-on-the-wall mock-doc returns for a sublime two-parter, catching up with David Brent and co. Brent is down on his luck – chasing fame and working as a door-to-door sales rep – but becomes a semi-tragic hero. Masterfully constructed, there’s a poignant commentary on how there’s no happy ending for reality show stars once the camera stops rolling – David Brent will never be famous, Tim and Dawn won’t get together – before pulling out happiest ending possible at the Wernham Hogg Christmas party.

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