The writers made their own Christmas turkey!
What a shame. I was really looking forward to this and hoped that after the last Christmas special (which was a bit wobbly) that it would be back on form, but alas no...
For a start the writers took huge liberties. For his own reasons Ralf Little seems to have steered well clear of this, so no Antony, but no Baby David either. No Nana of course, because she died in the last episode (although they could have done a flashback), but where were the neighbours Tom and Mary, and Cheryl. She was briefly mentioned as Twigy's ex-girlfriend, but not as a friend to Denise and as a neighbour to Jim and Barbara.
Also, as another poster has pointed out, Dave's dad was always referred to in contemptous terms by Jim as 'hopalong' because of his disability, and as a work-shy waster. But in this he seemed to be a completely different character who had full use of both his legs and had worked at an insurance company for thirty years. Like Mrs Mainwaring in Dad's Army and Mrs Daley in Minder, Dave's dad should never have been seen except in our minds. Tom Courtney should have played a different character, or if he had any sense, avoided this like the plague.
Then there were the so-called jokes. A turkey that won't defrost, they were doing that on On The Buses in 1971, strong punch (Man About The House 1974), a reclining sofa (Are You Being Served 1976). Need I go on. The Royle Family deserves better than that. Where was the clever banter, the funny comments, the sense of warmth? I can only surmise that this was ghost-written by someone who had never seen the show before. A wasted opportunity and an embarassment to all concerned.