Julie Walters

Now that our appetite has been whetted by Monday's retrospective, Victoria Wood - Seen on TV, here's the queen of comedy's brand new special in which she tries to help all those so shattered by the sheer slog of festive preparations. "Christmas is a stressful time," says Wood. "By compressing an evening's viewing into 60 minutes, we hope families will have more time for other festive traditions such as arguing with relatives and defrosting turkeys under the hot tap." Sketches, spoofs and silliness abound. Long-time collaborator Julie Walters is on hand to play the wonderful Bo Beaumont, the once-popular Acorn Antiques actress who believes she's still a star despite her reduced circumstances and innumerable failed attempts to get on every reality show from Strictly to Dancing on Ice. This scenario allows room for appearances from Anton du Beke, Torvill and Dean and Delia Smith. Then there's "Lark Pies to Cranchesterford", an affectionate spoof of just about every costume drama ever made, and "The 2009 Mid-Life Olympics" (events include 4 x 400 hedge trimming). All of which amounts to as entertaining yet reassuringly traditional an hour of fun as only Wood can serve up.

In her first Christmas special since 2000, Wood presents a sketch compendium dedicated to the vagaries of middle age. There is an episode of Lark Pies to Cranchesterford and the return of Julie Walters as delusional soap duchess Bo Beaumont. The one-liners crackle but there's an air of exhaustion to the proceedings, with skits on txt spk and the menopause so quarter-baked you start to wonder whether it might be time to reassess Wood's hitherto incontestable Grade II-listed status. But then along comes Walters with another joke about biscuits and, phew, everything goes national treasure-shaped again. In a nutshell: lumpy.

A night to settle in with a sausage dumpling and a pot of hot coffee as BBC2 offers a much-deserved hooray to Britain's top lady comic. First a 90-minute documentary featuring favoured collaborator Julie Walters and one-time co-star Roger Moore. Then another chance to see her frankly wonderful Christmas special from 2000 (it's been that long), plus a classic episode of dinnerladies to finish. Burp. Pardon. She's a clever old thing.

Victoria Wood does not appeal to everyone but she does have a large and devoted following - almost a cult - which includes my mother-in-law, whose enthusiasm is undimmed by dementia. "Christmas," says Wood, "can be a difficult time for those struggling with that bonnet-free wasteland between the last Lark Rise and the next Cranford" - and so she steps in to fill the gap with Lark Pies to Cranchesterford, the heartwarming story of a young girl who leaves her rural hamlet for a job in the Post and Potato Office. In among the sketches are personal-injury commercials, unlikely sporting events and a dance number in which the midriff bulge is given the Busby Berkeley treatment. She will be joined by long-time collaborator Julie Walters alongside Delia Smith and Torvill and Dean.

With Ant and Dec attempting to become ITV1's answer to Morecambe and Wise on Boxing Day, this is the nearest that the BBC comes to that inclusive festive family show of the bygone Eric and Ernie era. Giving a flavour of the gentle spoofs being cooked up by the "queen of comedy" (the BBC press notes) is a pastiche of costume dramas called "Lark Pies to Cranchesterford". Guest stars include Julie Walters (natch), Delia Smith and Anton du Beke.