Gavin and Stacey

[Tamesaint]

Brilliant last ever episode. What fantastic Christmas day entertainment. 

[Weston Super Saint]

Definitely a step up from the turgid Mrs Brown's boys.

[Turkish]

Brilliant is a bit strong. It’s well written, good cast, nice story. It was entirely predictable though and it’s amusing without being side splitting. Can’t help but feel the “Smithy” character is James Corden playing himself trying to be the lad he wants to be. Nessa is a brilliant character though and played superbly well, same as Rob Brydan as Bryn and Larry Lamb as Gavins dad. 

still it was decent Christmas day TV but shows how far the standards have dropped since things like Only fools and horses Christmas specials which were all brilliant 
 

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Have never watched it. The snap dragon’s favourite show, so it must be shite as the only thing she’s got decent taste in is blokes.

Whilst she watched it I watched the peerless Phoenix Nights, followed by The Hairy bikers “you’ll never ride alone” …….Agree with Turkish, Xmas tv is shite. Is pretty poor most of the year, but the schedulers excel themselves at Xmas by reaching peak ponyness. 

[ecuk268]

if you know Southampton, it was obvious that the scenes supposedly shot here were not Southampton.

[Tamesaint]

32 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Have never watched it. The snap dragon’s favourite show, so it must be shite as the only thing she’s got decent taste in is blokes.

Whilst she watched it I watched the peerless Phoenix Nights, followed by The Hairy bikers “you’ll never ride alone” …….Agree with Turkish, Xmas tv is shite. Is pretty poor most of the year, but the schedulers excel themselves at Xmas by reaching peak ponyness. 

I envy anyone who hasn't seen Gavin and Stacey. They have so much to look forward to when they discover it. 

[hypochondriac]

Wasn't a patch on Wallace and Gromit which was absolutely superb. 

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

Wasn't a patch on Wallace and Gromit which was absolutely superb. 

Didn’t watch G+S but W+G was brilliant, TV everyone can enjoy and the original nineties films still stand the test of time superbly.

[hypochondriac]

21 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Didn’t watch G+S but W+G was brilliant, TV everyone can enjoy and the original nineties films still stand the test of time superbly.

I said to a relative there aren't many bits of media nowadays that genuinely make the world a more positive place by its existence. We had toddlers to old people equally enthralled which was an achievement on its own. 

[badgerx16]

1 hour ago, Tamesaint said:

I envy anyone who hasn't seen Gavin and Stacey. They have so much to look forward to when they discover it. 

If I ever seem to have reached the point where G&S becomes something I want to watch, will somebody please shoot me.

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Wasn't a patch on Wallace and Gromit which was absolutely superb. 

Agreed that was excellent. 

[Turkish]

The highlight for me was the Italian Job in the afternoon, brilliant film I must have seen about 40 times but never get bored of. 

[egg]

2 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Wasn't a patch on Wallace and Gromit which was absolutely superb. 

Yep. Wallace & Gromit was brilliant, although Gavin & Stacey was decent enough. 

 

12 minutes ago, Turkish said:

The highlight for me was the Italian Job in the afternoon, brilliant film I must have seen about 40 times but never get bored of. 

The TV highlight for me. It's one of my favourite films of all time, and the only film where a man stops another man from having a shit, only to get to get the shit kicked out of him. 

[whelk]

Nothing beats It’s a Wonderful Life as a must watch at Christmas. Behold the space special effects at the start. 
 

[whelk]

6 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

If I ever seem to have reached the point where G&S becomes something I want to watch, will somebody please shoot me.

Snob

[whelk]

8 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Have never watched it. The snap dragon’s favourite show, so it must be shite as the only thing she’s got decent taste in is blokes.

Whilst she watched it I watched the peerless Phoenix Nights, followed by The Hairy bikers “you’ll never ride alone” …….Agree with Turkish, Xmas tv is shite. Is pretty poor most of the year, but the schedulers excel themselves at Xmas by reaching peak ponyness. 

Fuck me I’m impressed you watch anything other than Top Gear

[revolution saint]

47 minutes ago, whelk said:

Nothing beats It’s a Wonderful Life as a must watch at Christmas. Behold the space special effects at the start. 
 

I like the bit at 5.05 in this clip when George says, "Fuck me".

 

[Lighthouse]

51 minutes ago, whelk said:

Nothing beats It’s a Wonderful Life as a must watch at Christmas. Behold the space special effects at the start. 
 

For me it’s not Christmas without Home Alone, Wallace and Gromit and Die Hard. Then it’s a smorgasbord from Jurassic Park, Guns of Navarone, Italian Job, Zulu, The Great Escape, at least one cheesy Moore Bond film and Escape to Victory.

[whelk]

11 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

For me it’s not Christmas without Home Alone, Wallace and Gromit and Die Hard. Then it’s a smorgasbord from Jurassic Park, Guns of Navarone, Italian Job, Zulu, The Great Escape, at least one cheesy Moore Bond film and Escape to Victory.

Jurassic Park? Christmas isn't a time to be scared witless

[Turkish]

18 minutes ago, whelk said:

Jurassic Park? Christmas isn't a time to be scared witless

you've got an old bloke breaking into your house and sneaking into your kids bedrooms and you're not scared?

[whelk]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

you've got an old bloke breaking into your house and sneaking into your kids bedrooms and you're not scared?

Yeah but I could wait behind the door with an oversized frying pan. Or lay a few banana skins. But mate, out of control dinosaurs is a different level of fear.

[east-stand-nic]

Christmas movies.....Ben Hur, The Great escape and a James Bond often thrown in.

[Turkish]

childhood memories of christmas day always being christmas Top of the Pops followed by a James Bond. Then a family Subbuteo tournament. 

[Gloucester Saint]

23 hours ago, ecuk268 said:

if you know Southampton, it was obvious that the scenes supposedly shot here were not Southampton.

Tilbury I reckon. Enjoyed it though and agree with those on the Italian Job and Moore Bond films, the BBC documentary on/with Moore on Xmas Day was good, worth watching on catch up if you didn’t see it.

[whelk]

Best Christmas songs:

Fairy tale of New York

Stop the Cavalry 

Little Drummer Boy

Best Carol:

Silent night

[badgerx16]

1 hour ago, whelk said:

Best Christmas songs:

Fairy tale of New York

Stop the Cavalry 

Little Drummer Boy

 

I Believe in Father Christmas

Christmas Wrapping ......( The Waitresses )

Father Christmas.....( The Kinks )

Solstice Bells .......( Jethro Tull )

A Merry Jingle ......( The Greedies )

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

Prokofiev "Troika"

Jona Lewie - Stop the Cavalry 

Baby, it's cold outside - Ella Fitzgerald

Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney

 

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

My fav is Wizard “I wish it could be Christmas every day” 

Closely followed by Slade. 

Third place is John & Yoko.

Don’t seem to have heard as many this year. Xmas Carols seem to be getting heard less and less as well. Perhaps it’s just me misremembering, but I defo didn’t hear many this year. 

Edited 27 December, 2024 by Lord Duckhunter

[Winnersaint]

23 hours ago, Turkish said:

Brilliant is a bit strong. It’s well written, good cast, nice story. It was entirely predictable though and it’s amusing without being side splitting. Can’t help but feel the “Smithy” character is James Corden playing himself trying to be the lad he wants to be. Nessa is a brilliant character though and played superbly well, same as Rob Brydan as Bryn and Larry Lamb as Gavins dad. 

still it was decent Christmas day TV but shows how far the standards have dropped since things like Only fools and horses Christmas specials which were all brilliant 
 

 

Sums up everything I felt about it. Ruth Jones is brilliant as is the peerless Rob Bryden. I didn't realise until recently they went to school with each other. Shame Doris (the Barry cougar) is no longer with us. She was genuinely funny.

[sadoldgit]

I’m with multiple badgers on this show. I can’t stand James Corden so have managed to avoid this other than the promo clips. I have only just realised that it is a comedy.

I did manage to get through about half a film with Corden and his moon faced mate in it before bailing out. It was terrible. Something to do with lesbian vampires?

Christmas TV used to be the best telly of the year. My brother and I used to go through the Radio Times and TV Times and plan our viewing for two weeks. There was so much quality stuff on that, invariably, programmes would clash. This was before video recorders so we ended up missing out on some stuff. 

You can’t go wrong with Wallace and Grommit and it was another quality film. Even without the great Peter Sallis. The new guy’s Wallace voice is spot on.

The tribute to Hairy Biker Dave was very tastefully done and very moving. I was looking forward to Outnumbered but it doesn’t work as well now that the kids are grown up. Sadly, Christmas has gone from being best telly of the year to searching all channels or old recordings to find something to watch.

My favourite Christmas songs are Fairytale of New York, I Believe In Father Christmas and Run With The Fox by Chris Squire and Alan White of Yes. The golden oldies are Let It Snow and of course, White Christmas. It’s not Christmas for me without them.

I was lucky enough to catch Greg Lake on a solo tour about 20 years ago and he played a stunning version of I Believe In Father Christmas with his band. There is also a video of him singing it accompanied by Ian Anderson on flute in St Brides Church, Fleet Street on YouTube that is worth catching if you love the song.
 

Edited 27 December, 2024 by sadoldgit