Contrary to the 2023 Christmas special where we are missing an archived page to know how it was originally broadcasted, we have access to the data for this one.

It is clearly advertised by the broadcaster (screenshot) as the first episode of the 4th season. So, it should be listed this way.

In which case if you are going by Channel 5's info then you must move the 2023 Special to S03E07 as according to the link you sent there are no specials now.

@PebblestheDog said:

In which case if you are going by Channel 5's info then you must move the 2023 Special to S03E07 as according to the link you sent there are no specials now.

The problem is that, as indicated, we don't have the Channel 5 info from the time of its broadcast. Even if it is now numbered as S03E07, it wasn't released under that number as the episodes S03E01 to S03E06 weren't yet released.

• Was it released as S03E01 and moved later to the end of the season ?
• Or was it released as a special episode between the 2 seasons and moved to S03E07 later ?

At the time there was no information from Ch 5 as a renewal was up in the air and the "Special" infrrmation only came from TVDB who always classify Xmas episoed as Specials so as far as Ch5 is concerned it has always been S03E07 - at present only TMDB has it classified as a Special which is definately incorrect. It is unfortunate that you and TVDB do not agree on numerous important matters to those of us (the majority) who require your service as a required source for their media server databses and not as a knowledge base for all things Movie and TV you should all try and match up and not be in competition with eachother .

Did you look at the date ?

• S03E01 to S03E06 were broadcasted in January and February 2024.
• So, an episode broadcasted on December 22, 2023, before them can't be numbered as S03E07.

It should be numbered

• either S03E01, shifting the other episodes to S03E02 to S03E07
• either as a special episode between season 2 and 3

It is absolutely needed to list the episodes in the order of their original broadcast.

TVDB did choose the first solution, but we need to know how it was officially broadcasted on December 22, 2023. Unfortunately, the archived are unusable as they were created from a georestricted region.

Considering that they have broadcast the Christmas episode of the 4th season as episode S04E01 and move it later to S04E07, we are going to consider that they have done the same the previous season and list this episode as S03E01.

You know, all the issues with these "christmas specials" would be easily rectified if you put them in the "SPECIALS" section. The clue is in the name.

CH5 have them as the last episode of the season they proceed, which makes no sense as they are dated before the S0?E01 episode they are part of.

Just launch them into the "Specials" and be done with it.

And the reasoning that we always follow the broadcasters airing/numbering is moot here as they contradict each other on the network's own website.