Mathew Horne

The former host of The Late Late Show has confirmed that the finale of the beloved BBC sitcom will air on BBC One on Christmas Day in 2024.

The post also confirmed that Corden has written the special with co-creator Ruth Jones, who also plays the other half of his relationship in the show, Nessa.

Fans will be hoping for proper closure after the last Christmas special (2019) ended on a huge cliff-hanger when Nessa proposed to Smithy (Corden).

They’ll also get to check in on their on-screen son Noel Edmond Smith, aka “Neil the Baby.”

A first-look image shows the new leads and former Class K students Stephen (Layton Williams) and Mitchell (Charlie Wernham), who have returned to Abbey Grove as Drama and PE teachers to ‘educate’ a new school of misfits.

Nathan Bryon will lead a new team of breakthrough writers, including Laura Smyth, Leila Navabi, Priya Hall, Ciaran Bartlett, Rhys Taylor and Layton Williams.

When it comes to coming-of-age tales on TV, Bristol has Skins, Hackney has Top Boy, but what about those of us who grew up in sleepy market towns smack bang in the middle of the country?

When a new BBC Three comedy made its low-key debut in the spring of 2007, no one imagined that Gavin & Stacey would go on to become the comedic equivalent of a national treasure. 

Despite its two writers’ utter lack of experience as screenwriters – James Corden and Ruth Jones had met as actors on Kay Mellor’s slimming club drama for ITV, Fat Friends – it soon became clear that here was a startlingly original show blessed by a group of fully realised characters, a script crackling with wit and an unusually brilliant cast. 

The three-part series is set in the eponymous working-class market town in the East Midlands.

Morgana Robinson stars as the tired and truculent matriarch Maxine, who manages a local chip shop.

Maxine is trying to ride out her divorce and search for a new flame, but her dullard ex-husband Terry (Mathew Horne) is trying ever more desperately to win her back. Meanwhile her vulnerable son Leslie (Jai Hollis) has just come out as gay.

Creator and writer Nathan Foad (The Young Offenders) said: “Making Newark, Newark is my wildest dream come true.

To commemorate 50 years since the first broadcast of classic sitcom Dad’s Army, the three episodes lost from the BBC archive have been recreated for Gold.

The new episodes, written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry, continue from the original sitcom as bank manager-turned-squad leader Captain Mainwaring (Kevin R. McNally) takes command of a local group of Home Guards during the Second World War.