In an episode recorded over the course of five hours, your hosts gather at Chez Neil for their own mini Christmas party, with a fine array of mince pies, cheeses and ales, as well as two of their favourite festive movies. The result? A fun and rambling journey which gets increasingly erratic as we continue.

Both nursing sore throats and hangovers from previous nights' office parties, we nevertheless get to all of the important questions, such as why Hans Gruber owns a TARDIS on wheels, which of Macaulay Culkin's traps constitute appropriate force, whether the Nakatomi Corporation employees deserved an externally-hosted Christmas party, how long Kevin McAllister would survive in Die Hard, and which film has the most inept police presence.

There's also a special post-credits treat, as Dan treats us to a reading of A Die Hard Christmas.

Home Alone discussion begins at 6 minutes, and Die Hard commences at 33 minutes.

References:

• Loaded: Why Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie of all time
• The Independent: YouGov poll claims Die Hard isn't a Christmas film
• Wikipedia: Home Alone (franchise) (yes there are five of them)
• Crave: Conspiracy - Uncle Frank Was Behind Everything In Home Alone
• Wikipedia: Scranton, PA (yes it has an airport)
• The Week: Diagnosing the Home Alone burglars' injuries - a professional weighs in
• Wikipedia: Tony Martin (UK farmer)
• Arcade Attack: Interview with Violet Berlin (including her Micro Machines videogame appearance)
• YouTube: Angels with Filthy Souls
• Waitrose Perfect Cheeseboard
• Arundel Brewery beers
• Neil's timing chart from the 100km South Coast Challenge
• YouTube: Run-DMC - Christmas in Hollis
• The Bluebird, Chelsea (venue for Dan's Medidata Christmas party)
• One Embankment, London (venue for Neil's ZPG Christmas party)
• Phil Spencer
• Twitter: Neil meeting Phil Spencer
• YouTube: Skyfall meets Home Alone
• Amazon.co.uk: Doogie Horner - A Die Hard Christmas

 YouTube trailers for films mentioned:

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
• Elf
• Bad Santa
• Miracle on 34th Street
• The Santa Clause
• Santa Claus: The Movie
• It's A Wonderful Life
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• Jingle All The Way
• Aladdin: The Return of Jafar
• Heat
• Uncle Buck
• My Girl
• Richie Rich
• Bone Alone
• Spy Kids
• Agent Cody Banks
• If Looks Could Kill / Teen Agent
• The Breakfast Club
• Pretty in Pink
• Die Hard 2
• Die Hard With A Vengeance
• Cutthroat Island
• The Hunt For Red October
• Predator
• Last Action Hero
• Witness
• The Living Daylights
• Licence to Kill
• Ghostbusters
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)
• Aliens

We'll be back on December 22nd with our BEST & WORST OF 2017, where a much more sober Neil and Dan will reveal their biggest hits and misses of the year.

Twitters: @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd

Emails: [email protected]

Intro music: John Williams - Home Alone theme Outro music: Vaughn Monroe - Let It Snow (Die Hard closing theme) Post-credits music: Michael Kaman - Ode to Joy (Die Hard version)