Collections: Christmas Comedy

'Tis the season to be jolly! And where jollier than at BBC Comedy online, where our series of Christmas-themed clips will make you laugh until your faces are as red a certain jolly, bearded, fat man's costume. So, sit back with a glass of eggnog, a turkey sandwich, heck, even a cheeky mince pie and enjoy our selection of festive comedy fayre. Yule love them!

If a show is worth its comedy salt it may well get the chance to have a crack at a festive special. Are You Being Served? broadcast a mere five during its 13-year run, proving that there'll always be a place for 'camp as Christmas' comedy.

During the four broadcast series, Edmund Blackadder proved himself to be nothing if not a selfish man - as Baldrick would no doubt attest, if he'd had half a brain. So it was that Blackadder's Christmas Carol twisted the story of both Blackadder and Ebenezer Scrooge and began instead with Edmund as the nicest man in England. It didn’t last, as this clip shows.

Blackadder writer Richard Curtis also created a more likeable character in Dawn French's Reverend Geraldine Granger from BBC Ones The Vicar of Dibley. Three series and five Christmas specials followed the Reverend Granger's adventures in the Oxfordshire village of Dibley, including this comedic nativity moment.

After two series of Gavin and Stacey a festive episode was the next logical step for the couple as we see their Anglo/Welsh friends and family come together for Christmas. In the clip Gavin visits Santa and sits on his...er...her knee.

Being self sufficient doesn't mean one has to eschew the fun of the festive season, as Tom and Barbara Good entertained neighbours Margot and Jerry Leadbetter during the 1977 Christmas special of The Good Life. Homemade crackers and paper hats were all the rage back then.

Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet), the snobbish social climber, was constantly intent on out-doing her friends and neighbours. Perhaps that's why Keeping Up Appearances had four Christmas specials. Here, Hyacinth harangues the postman into broadcasting her popularity among Christmas card senders.

Christmas still isn't the same without the annual Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special. From 1969 to 1980, families in Britain watched in their millions as the duo performed a number of their best-loved sketches featuring plenty of celebrities of the day. Here are a couple of classic moments that you may remember from Christmas past.

If there's a more iconic British sitcom than Only Fools and Horses we'll eat Del Boy's filofax. The show featured so many classic moments that picking the best is impossible; even more so when there are 18 Christmas Specials covering 22 years! Here's just one clip for your festive viewing pleasure. Bain Marie, Rodney!

Though it only ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, The Royle Family has continued life in the form of several special episodes since 2006. In this Christmas special clip, Dave and Denise's attempts at Christmas lunch are foiled by a supreme lack of skill in the kitchen.

Largely a continuation of the show Happy Ever After (albeit with a change of surname for the main protagonists), Terry and June centred on a happily married middle-class couple who move to suburban Purley, and Terry's desire to impress his boss and get a job on the 'top floor' of his office. During its run on BBC One four Christmas specials were broadcast and here's a classic clip from one of them.

Misanthropic bigot Alf Garnett was never likely to enjoy Christmas nor experience a Scrooge-like reappraisal of the most charitable and giving of holidays. In Till Death Us Do Part, which ran for seven series until 1975, Garnett's tirades were often shocking, though always funny because he was a hard character to take seriously. In these two clips, we see Garnett in full, hateful swing. Merry Christmas, indeed.

One of the longest-running comedy shows on television, The Two Ronnies, featured sketches written by John Cleese, Spike Milligan and the elusive Gerald Wiley (a pseudonym of Ronnie Barker's). During the series' run, four Christmas specials were broadcast featuring a number of festive skits, including this little number.

Catherine Tate created numerous memorable characters for The Catherine Tate Show, but perhaps none quite like Nan. The character was so popular that a spin-off episode, Nan's Christmas Carol, was broadcast in 2009. Here, Nan meets a not-very-scary Ghost of Christmas Past.

Outnumbered, which began in 2007 on BBC One, is unique for being a BBC sit-com with a semi-improvised script designed to get realistic performances from the Brockman children Karen, Ben and Jake. This Christmas special clip sees Karen ask a pertinent question about Scrooge and Hitler.

Bringing us right up to date we have Christmas Offerings from Misery Bear, Wikileaks Christmas Song 2010 and Secret Santa.