Best of the BBC Box Sets Christmas Gift Guide AD

Every Christmas, even now, one of my favourite things to do is to grab a highlighter and leaf through the Radio Times to make sure that I am not missing out on any essential viewing. That said, the BBC are extremely good at putting together Box Sets of all their classics – which means no one has to miss out on the really good stuff!

When it is cold outside and your tummies are full of Christmas food, the best thing to do is settle down with a cuppa – and a mince pie close at hand, just in case you do find a space somewhere – to watch one of the sets on offer this year.

Here are just 5 of my absolute favourite BBC Box Sets which will see the whole family well into the New Year.

The Two Ronnies

I could sit and watch The Two Ronnies over and over again. Their humour isn’t just funny, it is extremely clever too.  The Four Candles sketch is one that people will forever remember but there are also plenty of other great classic moments too.

Who could forget the Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town? Or the very clever Crossed Lines sketch where two men are in phone booths side by side, having two different conversations but sounding like they are talking to each other! Plus, there are many, many clever lyrics from songs they wrote together. Sheer brilliance!

Attenborough: The Life Collection

I have long been a massive fan of David Attenborough. His knowledge knows no bounds and the manner in which he presents it is both enthusiastic and engaging. This huge box set is worth over £90 and includes all of David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ series. These are as follows:

• Life on Earth – a chronological account of the flora and fauna of planet Earth over a period of 3,500 million years.
• The Living Planet: An ambitious 12-part documentary that spanned the globe with portraits of each of the major geographical regions that offer a home to life.
• Trials of Life: Originally broadcast in 1990, it examines animal behaviour in all its infinite variety and in doing so we are allowed to witness some of the most enchanting animal personalities, as well as some of the most fearsome.
• Life in the Freezer reveals incomparable standards of natural history filming to trace Antarctica’s seasonal cycle from the long winter months when the formation of ice almost doubles its surface area, to the brief summer when the race to breed really heats up.
• The Private Life of Plants: This is the series that I can really recall watching – and got me hooked. Attenborough takes us through each aspect of plants’ lives travelling, growing, flowering, their struggle with other plants and animals, and the ingenious way they adapt to even the harshest of conditions.
• The Life of Birds presents a fascinating and exciting view of the world of birds, the largest animal group on earth, in a series of ten fifty-minute episodes.
• The Life of Mammals looks at why mammals are the most successful creatures on the planet.
• Life in the Undergrowth: Here David shows us not just bugs, beetles and creepy-crawlies, but scorpions and centipedes, mites and mantids, spiders and dragonflies.

Dad’s Army

Dad’s Army is one of those programmes that I have never really made the effort to sit down and watch. When I was small I can remember Captain Mainwaring – as he was the one who narrated the Mr Men series. Apart from him, I didn’t really pay too much attention. Fast forward to my adulthood and I repeatedly hear how much of a classic and how wonderful this show is. A box set would certainly make sure I put in the effort to watch it in full. It features the wartime antics of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard. Featuring a vicar, a verger, an overbearing ARP warden – and Pike’s mum and the whole thing makes up for very funny viewing!

Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses never failed to make me laugh as I was growing up. The antics of Del, Rodney, the rest of the Trotters and all their friends were always a sight to behold. It is hard to believe that it first started in 1981 – when I was 10.

There were a total of 7 series and fifteen specials. Some of my favourite moments include dropping the chandelier – I can remember being in fits of giggles over that! The bar fall – simple comedy but sheer brilliance in the timing! The characters are all lovable in their own right and the scripts are so funny and wonderfully written.  This is one our household would watch time and time again.

Fawlty Towers

It is hard to believe that there were only ever 12 episodes made of Fawlty Towers. It still remains one of my favourites and I used to regularly do impressions of Sybil (she still creeps out occasionally!). I still regularly recall Basil wacking his car with a branch – which is totally lost on Grace!

This box set is a special edition celebrating the 30th anniversary. The series is BAFTA award winning and the set comes with John Cleese adding audio commentaries regarding every episode.

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