Christmas Telly

I'm not old enough to have watched the Morecambe & Wise Christmas shows of the 70's, but they always seem to have been set as something of a high-water or benchmark for Christmas TV ever since. That was back in the days when drawing 20m viewers around the little black box in the living room was expected for such things, unlike today when reaching double figures is a celebrated rarity.

For me, The Office Christmas Specials have had the same effect on subsequent years of Christmas telly - nothing before or since has ever come close to replicating the drama, comedy, tension or quite brilliant ending that those 2 hours of TV put together back in 2003. I watched the whole series, including the specials again last month, and even now it still blows me away.

The only thing I wish now is that there was some way you could erase your memory each time after you'd seen it, just so you could enjoy the shock and sheer joy when everything suddenly, finally goes right for Brent, Tim and Dawn after 13 and a half episodes of their lives being utterly miserable.

This year's Christmas telly wasn't vintage to be honest - a hell of a lot of repeats and far too many crap films for my liking. However it did witness the end of Gavin & Stacey, and also the current incarnation of Doctor Who, both of which have been fantastic to watch over the past three years. With one of these, everyone knew what would happen, with the other most people had a feeling what should happen, but there was still uncertainty. In both cases, I didn't have a clue how the writers were going to get there, but was definitely excited to find out.

In the end, Gavin & Stacey finished exactly the right way - Smithey and Nessa were never going to get married, but then neither were Nessa and Dave Coaches. What you got instead was a very accurate interpretation of the modern family unit - far from perfect, far from traditional, but still very loving. Keeping the final scene down to just the four central characters was a very smart move too, avoiding the temptation to include the whole ensemble, and Uncle Bryn in particular.

Doctor Who on the other hand was heartbreaking I thought. I'd spent most of the time between the first part on Christmas Day and the second on New Year's Day trying to figure out just who was going to kill David Tennant off, and when the 'four knocks' were going to happen.

When it finally did occur, with four quiet taps on an innocent looking piece of glass, it was simply a brilliant, cruel, bitterly believable piece of writing. Not to mention a fabulous piece of acting by the two men involved.

So maybe not a vintage Christmas in front of the box, but between them, those two programmes pretty much rescued it. Rescued it yes, but surpassed Gervais and Merchant in 2003? Not in my opinion no. That really is going to take something a little bit special