Few 21st-century British sitcoms have won classic status, but Gavin & Stacey did so with a vengeance. James Corden and Ruth Jones, who’d met as actors on ITV’s Fat Friends, were new to writing when they began work on the show, yet their fully-realised, relatable characters, superbly cast, have given us what every creator of TV comedy desires – a well-written series that is a genuinely popular success.

In an era of streaming and niche audiences, Gavin & Stacey retains a rare cross-generational, mainstream appeal that is now vanishing fast.

Mathew Horne and Joanna Page are delightful as the eponymous couple whose blind date turns into a complex, enduring relationship. Their love story – Essex boy meets Welsh girl – is the narrative arc that is the show’s glue. The tenderness between them is fundamental to the show’s appeal. Smithy (James Corden) and Nessa (Ruth Jones) are the counterpoint to this, and their on-off relationship has kept us guessing since 2007.

Gavin & Stacey was ahead of its time in having two plus-size characters attracted to one another, and comfortable in how they look. Other taboos are broken too – Nessa’s S&M jokes, Smithy’s gluttony – and many of the more obvious gags would fall flat in lesser hands. The rest of the cast are also pitch perfect, with  Alison Steadman as volatile, self-deluding Pam, and her endlessly accommodating husband, Mick, played by Larry Lamb, both hugely experienced actors.

Rob Brydon shines as Bryn, as do Melanie Walters as Stacey’s steadfast mum, Gwen; Julia Davis and Adrian Scarborough as the bickering Dawn and Pete; and Steffan Rhodri as Dave, Smithy’s taciturn rival for Nessa’s heart. A shout-out, too, to director Christine Gernon. 

Series 1, episode 1

Here’s a new sitcom from BBC Wales. Cracking! It may be worth a look…

Stacey – a twentysomething from Barry — is on the phone to Gavin, her virtual boyfriend of six months. Tomorrow they will finally meet in the flesh. “Only 17 hours to go, babes,” he tells her. Cut to Billericay, Essex, where young Gavin is equally anxious about tomorrow, and not helped by his wide-boy bestie, Smithy, who fears Stacey will turn out to be a “minger” and her mate, Nessa, a “munter”.

Enter Nessa herself, back in Barry: jet-black helmet of hair, leather jacket, skimpy top, cleavage for miles. Is she ready for the trip to London? “I got me sling, packet of feminine wipes and 60 Regal. What more do I need?”

In Essex, Gavin’s high-maintenance mum, Pam, announces she’s “on the Atkins”, which is why she’s devouring three steaks. “Bloody hell, woman, you’re eating half a cow!” says her long-suffering husband, Mick. The core cast is complete when, back in Wales, Uncle Bryn turns up with a rape alarm for Stacey to take to London.

The big day dawns at last. Travel is via Dave’s Coaches. Can they smoke on board? Dave assents: “Fags and weed, glue and speed, but I draws the line at crack.”

They meet at Leicester Square. For Gavin and Stacey, the attraction is instant. For Smithy and Nessa, it’s repulsion. Or is it?  Soon they’re all pie-eyed and Smithy is asking Gavin: “Got any Johnnies?” Nessa overhears: “Don’t worry, I got a stash. Ribbed!”

So far, the show is a wild mix of saucy and sentimental. More than 580,000 viewers (respectable for BBC Three) have tuned in. We end with a romantic gesture from Gavin that’s on a par with anything in Casablanca or Love Actually… only it happens at Barry coach station. Then the rape alarm goes off.

Series 1, episode 6

What’s occurring? Just three months after meeting, the happy couple are getting married. Last-minute nerves are understandable – let’s not forget that Stacey has been engaged five times already. But this is the real thing, and all the ingredients of a fancy white wedding are in place.

Yet this wouldn’t be Gavin & Stacey without the off-colour jokes: “The only church you’ll ever get me inside is Charlotte,” says one of Smithy’s friends. Nessa, famous for her colourful past, reveals that her ex-lovers have included Nigel Havers and Dodi Fayed. Two of Gladys Knight’s Pips have also fallen for her goth charms!

Other scenes are full of sentiment. It’s hard to stifle a tear as Uncle Bryn reads out a letter Stacey’s late father wrote to her: only to be opened on her wedding day. Corden is brilliant as the best man, overcome by emotion and unable to give his speech. Jones, as maid of honour, delivers in spades. When the wedding photographer urges the pair to stand closer together, her lip-curl must be seen to be believed.

There are fabulous cameos from Pam and Mick’s friends, Dawn and Pete, who are hilarious as a sexually ambitious but constantly rowing couple. The series ends on a cliffhanger as Nessa can’t bring herself to tell Smithy she’s pregnant with his child.

With series 1 under their belt, Corden and Jones can rejoice that Gavin & Stacey is that rare thing – a hit sitcom, a bona fide breakthrough, and one of BBC Three’s flagships. It was the most nominated programme in the 2007 British Comedy Awards and, a year later won the Bafta Audience Award. In 2010, the RTS nominated Ruth Jones for the Comedy Performance prize.  

Series 2, episode 5

It’s the Islands in the Stream episode, sung deadpan by Bryn and Nessa at a  surprise barn dance for Gwen’s birthday. The hilarious duet went on to enjoy a glorious afterlife in 2009, courtesy of Comic Relief, when Tom Jones joins the pair in Las Vegas to clinch the world karaoke trophy for Wales.

The song, re-titled (Barry) Islands in the Stream, tops the UK charts, proving that Gavin & Stacey, now promoted to BBC One, is a surefire hit.

Yet all is not well with the eponymous couple. Stacey is homesick, stuck living with the in-laws, can’t find a job … and cloth-eared Gavin just doesn’t get it. Now she tells him she’s going home to Wales.  Can it be over? As much as the humour, the show thrives on this emotional arc, the jeopardy, the attachment to characters that has been built up. We truly care about these people, and that explains why, here in 2024, millions are waiting to see what happens on Christmas Day.

That said, the jokes are still, as Nessa would say, “cracking”. Many are of the running-gag variety, a particular strength of the show. Gwen’s ever-ready omelettes get another outing. Pam, who has long been pretending that she’s a vegetarian, is caught red-handed when Stacey finds her secretly pigging an entire packet of ham. But the best running gag is saved for last.

“Islands in the ….” Then silence. An ashen-faced Bryn stops mid-croon as the barn dance door bursts open, framing his nephew, Jason (Robert Wilfort). As always, the shame-faced pair dare not look at each other.

Everyone in the hall, and all of us at home, are wondering the same thing: for pity’s sake, what did occur on that infamous fishing trip?

Series 2, episode 7

It’s classic romcom fare: in Wales, Ness goes into labour a whole month early. In Essex, Smithy goes awol. As if Gavin & Stacey didn’t already have enough star power, it’s Sheridan Smith, as Smithy’s sister, Rudi, who helps Gavin find the feckless father.

Cue a madcap motorway dash across the country, including a momentous stand-off at the Severn bridge when the Essex boys find they’re 10p short of the toll. Which of us hasn’t wanted to storm out of the car, yank up the barrier, and drive off in a cloud of dust?

Back in Barry, Nessa has given away her full name when checking into hospital: “Vanessa Shanessa Jenkins”. Contractions quickening, she now lies on the maternity ward bed, legs akimbo and still encased in her kinky boots and fishnet stockings. Bryn has just bought a 60gb iPod (doesn’t 2008 seem like a century ago?) and has 60,000 dreadful songs with which to regale mother and baby. The rest of the Welsh contingent and most of the Essex posse are gathered round.

Will Gavin and Smithy make it in time? One is driving towards a birth … the other towards a death: of a relationship. Stacey has threatened to return Gavin’s wedding ring. This is a season finale, and Gavin & Stacey again manages a brilliant climax, pulling off the difficult trick of changing tone in an instant. One minute we’re chuckling, the next we’re sobbing. A radiant Nessa hands the newborn to a dumbstruck Smithy. Then the camera pans to the hallway, where Gavin and Stacey are snogging. Still on her finger is… the wedding ring.

Series 3, episode 5

It’s bank holiday weekend and, unusually, the sun is shining brightly in Barry, tempting Pam and Mick to leave their beloved Essex for a surprise visit to Stacey’s family. What could go wrong?

For Bryn, the beach demands the full shorts, socks and sandals look – along with a lemon short-sleeved shirt, graced with black piping and matching tie. In her caravan, Nessa is giving baby Neil a reading lesson. He can’t walk yet but she’s confident he’ll be able to tell the difference between Obama and Osama, as in the US President vs the architect of 9/11. She shows him pictures of each in turn, explaining: “Very different people with very different ideas.”

Nessa and Dave are to tie the knot in three weeks. Yet she can’t keep her hands off Smithy, who is also heading west on the M4. Nessa assures her jealous fiancé that the sex with Smithy is strictly vanilla.

Food jokes proliferate in Gavin & Stacey and this episode is no exception. Smithy’s car is plastered in junk food wrappings. And the episode ends with a barbecue where Smithy and Dave agree a truce and shake hands.

Before that come some priceless small moments –  Elvis impersonators queuing up for a cappuccino on the beach – and some poignant big moments relating to Gavin’s infertility. And who can forget Bryn slathering on Mick’s suncream – or Gwen’s elderly neighbour, Doris (Margaret John), nailing There Is a Light That Never Goes Out on acoustic guitar? In other words, not your average day at the seaside. And not your average sitcom.

Christmas special 2019

Sex, drugs and feelgood festive vibes are thickly laid on in an outstanding festive edition that pulls in an astonishing 17.1 million viewers. Much has changed since the last outing in 2010. Gavin and Stacey have three kids, and Nessa and Smithy’s son, Neil, is a charming 11-year-old, living with his mum at Uncle Bryn’s.

Nessa and Smithy are still at it, but there’s one cloud on the horizon: Smithy’s new girlfriend, Sonia. They’ve been together nearly a year, but Christmas Day will be the first time anyone else has met her.

The action begins on Christmas Eve. Pam doesn’t relish Christmas in Wales, where the housekeeping is not up to her own Essex standards. One irritant is Gwen’s towels: “It’s like drying yourself on a Ryvita,” she tells Mick.

Her packing is interrupted by Dawn, who, yet again, is purple with rage at her husband. The marriage is over because she’s discovered that Pete’s a “junkie”. It turns out that she found a spliff in the glove compartment of the family car. Pete, hangdog as ever, arrives on the scene, and explains that the joint was a Secret Santa gift at work. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, everybody then gets stoned, or at least Pam, Mick, Dawn and Pete do.

It’s laugh-out loud funny, and we haven’t even got to Christmas Day. Sonia (Laura  Aikman) turns out to be an attractive blonde with social pretensions. Around her, Smithy talks as if he has a poker stuck up his rear end and has swallowed a dictionary. 

Millions of us recall how the episode ends: Nessa asks Smithy to marry her. It’s the cliffhanger of all comedy cliffhangers. And Smithy’s answer, after a five-year wait, is now just days away… 

All Gavin & Stacey episodes are available on iPlayer. Reviews by James Bennett and Steve Clarke. Tidy!