Thank goodness for Vic and Bob. If you watch the first five minutes of this special with your eyes closed you could almost be hearing a vintage episode of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. There’s a song, some cartoon thumping and Bob saying “don’t matter” just like he did all those years ago. This is V&B back on form at their bizarre best.

There is a plot too. Bob’s moody son Erik (Daniel Simonsen) has demanded a bobble hat for Xmas and after the first one goes up in an inevitable blaze Bob and Vic, joined by Beef (Matt Berry), Julie (Morgana Robinson) and Vic’s brother Bosh (Dan Skinner) head off to get the only one nearby – currently being worn by Phil Collins, who sportingly does what will hitherto be known as a Peter Gabriel. Unless it’s a very good lookalike.

It is hard to believe the rumours that the BBC had doubts about recommissioning this series. House of Fools really is the best thing V&B have done since the heyday of Shooting Stars. In the same way that they brought their distinctive inventive sensibility to the panel show format with SS, they've brought it to the sitcom genre in HoF, with sponge-festooned Christmas trees, tatty clothing, surreal knockabout clowning and – pay attention at the back – Vic’s art on the walls. 

All of this and Reece Shearsmith as a maudlin Santa with marital issues and a racist streak makes this special one of the comic highlights of Christmas. Erik gets his bobble hat and to cap it all Vic and Bob fans have certainly got what they want for Xmas - there’s a new series on its way as well. Let’s hope the high standard of lunacy here is maintained.