As happens over Christmas, I missed a lot of the shows I wanted to watch so last night, I finally got a chance to catch up on a few things and one of them was the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special; what a load of …. you fill in the blanks.

I’ve never seen the show before but the trailers for it looked very funny, however the reality was far from it. There were a few funny moments but they were far outweighed by the ludicrous characterisation.

What’s Nessa about?? How is she supposed to be anything like a real person? She really was too ridiculous to watch and was without doubt was the low point of the whole show for me.

The high point was Gwen’s neighbour, Doris, telling Gwen and Bryn that she was very drunk but she put it far more colourfully. You can see it here right at the beginning of the clip but be warned, it contains swearing…

The next funny moment occurred in the same clip at about 5.22 mins in, during a scene where Bryn and Gwen are extolling the virtues of Mint Bailey’s. And the last amusing scene was when Edna – elderly mum from next door – popped up from behind the bar and Alison Steadman’s character, Pam, rolled up a magazine as a weapon because the old lady bites… here’s a clip from that scene which is 8 mins in.

But that was it. I didn’t find anything else in the whole show giggleworthy at all. I was very disappointed in it other than the brilliant acting on the parts of Larry Lamb and Alison Steadman.

What did you think of it and if you’re a fan, is the rest of the show that dire or does it get funnier?