The Royle Family Season 2,Episode 7-Christmas With the Royle Family

"What if some were to fall on a dog" is one of the best Nana lines

Robert Donohoe

I can see him walking down the street with Oasis blasting through his headphones 😄

will doyle

soz i saw some one has alredy explined

mav

When Jim says to Anthony he can play the game "Hunt the Giro" Giro is a unemployment cheque from government, just incase you were wondering

mav

I'm a veggie too. I usually have a veggie meatloaf (bit of an oxymoron, that one) for Christmas lunch. It goes very nicely with all of the potatoes, peas and gravy that the rest of my meat eating family are having with their turkey.

Right Said Brett

Oh ok thanks bud.

After Work Reactions

Nobody likes Turkey. When I moved in with my Dad in 2004 we decided to just have Chicken, Beef or Pork instead. We're veggie now though, so it'll be a nutroast for us this year!

Ian Webster

turkey is a very overrated meat ,what the hell is it doing in the UK anyway ? its an american thing FFS ,a traditional meaty is goose ,i will be eating goose ! only goose ,and some duck too for the evening tea cold cuts ! plus u know if u buy goose or duck itll be naturally grown not these XXXL large turkeys sold for £30 at morrisons that have been injected with hormones and is drier than kate middletons music playlist ( take the comment with some satire lol )

girlsdrinkfeck

The confirmation that Josh is invested in a show is when you catch him signing along to the theme tune

Mark Parker

Tbh I don't think it will be much of a shock to anyone that you hated xmas Miffy

Would be cool if every Sunday movie day in December featured a Christmas themed film that Josh hasn't seen yet - Aardmans Arthur Christmas anyone?? Modern day classic that one is!😜🎅

King Bloo

I second the above suggestions of reacting to The Snowman (the original animated version) at Christmas. Plus don't forget about the other Raymond Briggs classic, Father Christmas! Both of those animated short films are as traditional parts of British kids' Christmases (in the 80s and 90s at least) as A Christmas Story and the claymation specials you mentioned are to American kids!

David Lyons

This episode really gets me because this is exactly what christmas was like for me as a kid, honestly the house isn't even that different to theirs. Just a nice atmosphere with the family, getting up early, eating a ton, watching TV when everyone is stuffed, then see the aunties and the grandparents and the cousins. Of course, then you get older and you start wanting to go out and see your friends or you want to go drinking, you make more time for other things and you forget the magic of stuff like this. This episode made me really miss it. Fantastic show.

SynphamyMusic

Friday Night Dinner, Gavin and Stacey, League of Gentlemen and now this. Funny how all the Christmas specials arrived to close to eachother!

Sam Reeves

Part 2 of my comment: It keeps self-deleting as it's too long I think: I am so, so happy you reacted to the version with the original song playing on the cassette recorder too - Pie Jesu, sung by Charlotte Church, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's a beautiful piece of music and makes an already moving scene even better. There were copyright or rights issues with this when the VHS and then DVD was first released with this episode and the song was replaced. It wasn't the same and although the scene was still excellent, I just feel Pie Jesu was perfect. "Bloody hell Barb, it's double fare on Christmas Day!" - the transition of Jim from caring, emotional, loving father to this default position of "grumpy tight arse" is so fantastic, and true to life. It's just brilliant characterisation. Then the episode ends with my favourite rendition of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by the Pretenders. The cherry on the cake! A wonderful episode of a great, great show. :-D

Ash Jeffries

Oh, this is my favourite ever episode of The Royle Family with The Queen of Sheba (later on) being my second favourite, probably. The Snowman was on the TV (a stage play version - the original was a book by Raymond Briggs which was adapted into an animated short film (only about 25 minutes I think.) It just has a beautiful soundtrack courtesy of Howard Blake and is such an intrinsic part of the English Christmas. I wouldn't say no to a reaction of The Snowman at Christmas on here actually - maybe add it to a film poll around the time? :-) Snowballs and Eggnog are different but sort of similar. Snowballs are a mixture of Advocaat (a custardy liqueur drink) mixed with lemonade, but again, not what Americans would call lemonade - our lemonade in the UK is fizzy and (usually) clear in colour. You can get "cloudy lemonade" which is a cloudy pale yellow colour but it is also fizzy. I understand lemonade in the USA is still, not carbonated. The scene in the bathroom with Jim and Denise is just absolutely exquisite. The way we have seen Jim behave over the last two series juxtaposed with this sign of true affection and love for his daughter. I know we had a flash of this on the wedding day and also in the episode where Barbara storms off, but it's particularly strong here, and beautifully acted by Ricky Tomlinson and Caroline Aherne who play Jim and Denise.

Ash Jeffries

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it before but "Gyro" is a Northern England word for job seeking benefits and "The Dole" is basically the Northern English word for the job seeking building where you go to "sign on" (put your name down to hopefully recieve Job Seeker's Allowance if you are out of work". Just thought I'd let you know as those words have been said in the show a lot and I've seen your face when you heard them. As always keep up the great work mate, you're the only Patreon page I am consistently subscribed to. It's great getting to relive my childhood growing up in the 90s watching The Royle Family and it's so great that you have understood so much of this show. Hope you and your girlfriend are happy and well.

JokerDanny

First time I got tipsy was on advocaat! Think I was only 5 or 6! In the late 70's! We used to get a tiny glass full at Xmas. How times have changed ! If my Mum and dad were around now and they did that, they would probably got a visit from social services !! Gonna be very tough this year now both my parents have gone. Miss those simple magical xmas times...

Claire Prowse

same , to me snowballs are them things with smooth cream inside and chocolate over with coconut sprinkles on top :P hope you're doing well mate ;)

TheHigh

I tear up every time I watch that bathroom scene, think it's that 'Pie Jesu' song that does it to me.

Wilss

I got my first mobile phone around this time and it was definitely for emergencies only, the calls cost 35p per minute.

Keith Pratt

I was 9 years old when this special came out. I remember watching this with my parents and laughing at Jim’s “my arse” quips and farting but was too young to understand a lot of it. This is my first time watching the series start to finish over 20 years later and it’s genius. It really is the perfect cast and there’s so many subtle looks and expressions that crack me up, but that scene with Ricky and Caroline in the bathroom in this ep has been the icing on the cake for me so far. Oscar worthy acting from the both of them, brought a little tear to my eye that did 🥲

Tom French

Noel Edmonds was referenced on Mondays Gavin & Stacy and now he's mentioned in the Royle Family. Britain can't get enough of Noel Edmonds 😆

will doyle

The play on TV is The Snowman, the original animated version of which has been shown on TV here every Christmas since the eighties. It's become a real institution, I can't really remember Christmas without it, which sounds a bit silly. I also remember my parents around this time having similar sentiments to Dave and Jim about the cost of mobile phones, which to be fair were incredibly costly in 1999. Like so many Royle Family episodes, this feels incredibly real to me and reminds me of Christmas nights as a kid in the nineties watching the ghastly Noel Edmonds, and the strange melancholy of the day winding down. I never thought I would get nostalgic about watching Noel Edmonds. I'm not sure people still watch TV together like that anymore at Christmas given how much viewing habits have changed, which is sort of sad thought. And like others have said, it's interesting to see Jim and also Denise become slightly more 3D characters and to have their personalities explored a little further and become slightly more vulnerable.

Charlie

It’s similar but not quite the same as eggnog, or rather eggnog is a bit like advocaat but slightly different

Kieran B

Hey Josh, I love this episode. It really helps to show another side to Jim. It's situations like that that really endear you to him rather than just hate him for being a moody, lazy fucker. We do have snowball cakes, BTW. They have a mallow centre and are covered in chocolate and coconut. The snowball Christmas drink is made with advocaat (pronounced "ad-voh-kah"), which is a yellow egg yolk-based alcoholic drink. It can't really be drank on its own, and is mixed with lemonade to make a snowball. I'm guessing eggnog is similar (or the same perhaps).

Steve Small

A snowball is a cocktail made with advocaat and lemonade

Stu 79

One of the best christmas sitcom episodes. Makes me sad that we lost Caroline Aherne so young. Very talented woman.

will doyle