Visiting the Families over Christmas

Can you believe that another Christmas has come and gone already?

It was a busy one, but like a lot of my presents the television available was wrapped up nice, and looked great, but after opening, they were a bit of a disappointment.

Take my trip to see my old television friends Gavin & Stacey on Christmas Eve. The couple had promised me an enjoyable evening full of surprises and revelations, but in the end delivered little we hadn’t seen already. The shock announcement promised in all of the trailers was let out of the bag in the first five minutes of the encounter, and wasn’t that shocking!

Viewers were also promised an insight into what happened on that fishing trip. Sadly it never arrived, they teased us with it, but in the end the conversation was cut short, and viewers know no more then we did before.

It wasn’t all disappointment though, there were some laughs and the script was written in the usual Gavin and Stacey style where all the best lines are given to Nessa, Bryn and Smithy, but after all the anticipation  I was left feeling slightly disappointed with my trip to Essex.

Saying that, the trip to Essex was not as disappointing as my trip to visit the Royles. After an absence of two years on my screen, I was really looking forward to seeing The Royle Family this Christmas. Sadly though my trip up north felt a bit wasted. The laughs were few and far between, and aside from the turkey ordeal, the Royle’s were just a bit boring!

Countdown to Christmas – 4 days to go!

Jesus wasn’t the only baby born on Christmas day, and last year on the Royle Family Christmas special we were introduced to another…

Looking forward to… Christmas with THE ROYLE FAMILY

It has been a couple years since I last visited with the Royle Family, which is why I am excited about seeing them this Christmas. I am also hopeful because the last time I saw them, the evening had more tears than laughs as poor Nana died.

Auntie Beeb ain’t saying much about what to expect when I get to the Royle’s house, but they have promised me that nobody is going to die… I hope not, because I go to see the Royle Family for laughs not tears!

The Royle Family – The New Sofa is on Christmas day at 21:30 BBC1

The BBC’s Christmas Line-up

Coniferous trees around the world are getting worried, kiddies are getting excited and we are all getting poorer – it must mean Christmas upon us.

The holiday television schedule for me has always been pretty much a microcosm of the entire holiday experience. It comes with lots of hype and pretty packaging, but when you tear it open, many of the presents that looked most appealing turn out just to be a bit daft! Still year after year I get excited, and year after year I hope that this year will be better than the last… which is why I am still kind of excited by some of the programs coming this Christmas to the BBC.

Highlights of the BBC Christmas schedule include:

 

New episodes of some of your favourites including:

• Gavin and Stacey
  
• Doctor Who
  
• The Royle Family
  
• Strictly Come Dancing
  
• My Family
  
• Top Gear
  
• Lead Balloon
  

As well Christmas will see the return of Top of the Pops for a couple of Christmas specials, and Alan
Davies will be reprising his role in Jonathan Creek.

In addition there is some new drama coming to the Beeb in the form of The 39 Steps starring Rupert Penry Jones, which looks promising.

Film fans should be happy on the BBC with their choice of films, but there is nothing really in their seasonal line-up that anyone who owns a DVD player has probably not already seen.

The biggest highlight for me though has to be the return of Wallace and Gromit to the small screen in a new animated special A Matter of Loaf and Death, which for me will be the one show I absolutely will not miss!

More information about these programmes and others will be reported as soon as I gather it…

Times Profile: Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson)

Outside the Box is a HUGE fan of television sitcom Spaced. In my opinion it was the best written sitcom ever on UK television. So to celebrate the US release of the sitcom on DVD, I will endeavour to share all things Spaced related that I can find with my friends and readers across the pond, starting with this recent profile of Spaced co-writer and star, Jessica Hynes.

She has had plenty of other high-profile roles – Sheryl, the butt of Caroline Aherne’s fat jokes in The Royle Family; a nurse and love interest for David Tennant in Doctor Who; the devout mum in Son of Rambow; her Olivier-nominated stage role as the unruly jailbird Bolla in The Night Heron in 2003 – but she will be for ever linked with Spaced,which she wrote with her co-star Simon Pegg. It encapsulated that twentysomething transition between student sloth and adult responsibility, refracted through a playful prism of movie, TV, and vide-ogame references.

<<<READ THE FULL PROFILE HERE>>>