[Neil Jones]

Michael McIntyre's The Wheel seems to be not the right game show for Christmas night - it felt just like every other edition of his show. It is a fun game show, but nothing special about it at all for Christmas night.

None of the Christmas specials feel special when you know they have been filmed at the same time as regular episodes. Ten years of the same shows in the same order on the same day also does little to convince viewers that shows are specially produced.

But that could be said for a lot of TV shows. Its no secret the soaps (for example) Christmas stuff is all done in amongst the regular production.

For logistical/production reasons its probably better to do a Christmas special of <something> with the rest of the run, while you have the set/location/studio/stage/cast/crew/whatever else in place already, especially if the show is due to go out around Christmas time.

[James2001]

I imagine it would be pretty much impossible in many cases to get the productions on many shows the way they wanted if they were mounting a single Christmas episode several months apart from the rest of the production run.

One strange thing when it comes to Christmas specials is with Last Of The Summer Wine, where several of their "Christmas specials" weren't specials at all, just regular episodes either taken from the forthcoming series or held over from the previous one. This shows up the most with the 2002 one, where we get a scene with Entwhistle (along with him making a joke about Hull) even though he wasn't introduced or met the characters until the second episode of the following series- clearly that episode was actually intended for later in the 2003 series but got pulled forward, possibly because of Norman Wisdom's guest spot, similar also happens with Crusher on the 84 Xmas episode.

While many Christmas specials of shows aren't set at Christmas, they're still clearly made as special episodes to be shown at Christmas, Summer Wine seems to be pretty unique in either pulling forward or holding back regular episodes to show around Christmas time separate from the rest of the series (of course Summer Wine did make several proper Christmas/New Year specials too, indeed they made the first feature length sitcom Christmas special back in 83). It's the 1984, 1991, 2001, 2002 and 2008 "Christmas" episodes which seem to fit into this category.

[James2001]

(Not a strict TV simulcast - I believe the radio edit is slightly different.)

Someone on Digitalspy posted that this year they noticed the radio version seemed to be an entirely different recording to the TV one (albeit with the same script), admittedly I'd assumed until now the radio version was just the audio from the TV version, though admittedly it's not something I've ever checked before.

[Neil Jones]

While many Christmas specials of shows aren't set at Christmas, they're still clearly made as special episodes to be shown at Christmas,

This was the case with Dad's Army, the three Christmas specials they made (1971, 1975 and 1976) you wouldn't know they were Christmas specials as they just look like normal episodes. This may be more to do with the plot of the show though, since I know in reality Christmas would be celebrated, albeit it maybe in an air raid shelter somewhere...

There are probably no end of other (Christmas special episodes of shows that don't look like Christmas specials) examples - Keeping Up Appearances comes to mind (the first Christmas special was themed, but the others weren't') and also Some Mothers Do Have 'Em - the episodes where Frank learns to drive and fly respectively.

And of course other shows pulled out all the stops and then some more to make the Christmas show a resounding success - obvious example here being The Morecambe & Wise show.

[Andrew]

Yes apparently “Turkey Dinner” that is shown on BBC TWO every year wasn’t actually a Christmas special, just an episode in the middle of a series that aired at Christmas

[James2001]

Also, there is no product placement "PP" on the show at all, so I'm not sure if the Brennans Bread, Barry's Tea, Kimberley biscuits, JR Sauce and the Supervalu bag et al are product placement items, more of a "oh look, this is Irish!"

Irish while being filmed in Glasgow 

[Pips2022]

Yes apparently “Turkey Dinner” that is shown on BBC TWO every year wasn’t actually a Christmas special, just an episode in the middle of a series that aired at Christmas

If it airs at Xmas and crucially is Christmas-themed then it’s ostensibly a Christmas special, but I get the distinction. The OFITG episode shown on Xmas Day 1994 guest-starring Brian Murphy (with the sort of ending which probably wouldn’t be deemed OK today)  was on Xmas Day and part of the series….but wasn’t Christmas themed, so isn’t now shown as a Xmas special on GOLD/Drama etc.

[tellyblues]

Yes apparently “Turkey Dinner” that is shown on BBC TWO every year wasn’t actually a Christmas special, just an episode in the middle of a series that aired at Christmas

If it airs at Xmas and crucially is Christmas-themed then it’s ostensibly a Christmas special, but I get the distinction. The OFITG episode shown on Xmas Day 1994 guest-starring Brian Murphy (with the sort of ending which probably wouldn’t be deemed OK today)  was on Xmas Day and part of the series….but wasn’t Christmas themed, so isn’t now shown as a Xmas special on GOLD/Drama etc.

OFITG's The Man Who Blew Away is set around Christmas or it could be that Margaret left the crackers out on the table for Victor to amuse himself with! I mentioned recently how the episode was intended to be the first episode of the new series and the BBC asked David Renwick to write a Christmas special but he didn't have time so extended this a bit. One Foot In The Algarve wasn't set at Christmas but at 90 mins and months either side of S4 ending in March and that 1994 Christmas special the following December, it stands out at something special. Maybe this type of thing isn't relevant now because of catch-up and streaming but I would argue that the Christmas specials aren't distinct enough.

[James2001]

The 1990 Only Fools and Horses Christmas special is itself basically an extended first episode of the 7th series, as it sets up the storyline for the rest of the series. Yet on both DVDs and repeats, it's treated as a standalone episode, and gets skipped over during showings of the regular episodes in order, even though the episode doesn't really stand alone, unlike the other Xmas episodes, and going from series 6 to series 7 without showing that episode creates massive plot holes (in fact you need to have seen the 88 and 89 specials to properly understand the 1990 one and series 7).

Otherwise you go straight from Rodney and Cassandra's wedding to Rodney split up from Cassandra sleeping on Del's sofa with Raquel moved in with no explanation (indeed not even knowing who Raquel is if you haven't seen the 88, 89 and 90 Christmas episodes).

[Ash101]

I do wonder at times like this what value the BBC Scotland channel really has? Because this evening, they're simulcasting the Hogmanay show on BBC One Scotland & basically making up their own NYE schedule.

So while Network is running:
17:45 - Pointless Celebrities
18:35 - The Weakest Link
19:20 - Yesterday (Film)
21:10 - That's My Jam
22:10 - News
22:25 - Graham Norton NYE Show
23:30 - Sam Ryder Party 1
00:00 - Happy New Year Live
00:10 - Sam Ryder Part 2
00:45 - Big Eurovision Party

Scotland has:
17:45 - The Edit
18:20 - River City
18:50 - Pointless Celebrities
19:40 - Yesterday (Film)
21:30 - News
21:50 - Hogmanay Preview
22:00 - Ooh The Banter
23:00 - Queen of the New Year
23:30 - Hogmanay
00:30 - Graham Norton NYE Show
01:30 - Big Eurovision Party

I wonder how the 21:30 news will work for Scotland? Will BBC News produce two national bulletins? One then & another at 22:10 for everywhere else?