Gavin & Stacey teaches us all a lesson, says James Corden ahead of much-anticipated Christmas special
JAMES Corden reckons our love for Gavin & Stacey is down to the fact he’s made fans wait for so long.
The beloved comedy’s creator now believes other shows should consider a slower approach.
James and co-creator Ruth Jones spilled the beans on how The Finale came about at the premiere this week, some 17 years after the first episode.
James said: “People have spoken a lot about, you know, why do we think that the show may have garnered the attention that it’s got, now?
“And the more I’ve thought about it, I sort of wonder if actually it’s a lesson in patience.
“We’re told now, particularly in television or the way that we consume stuff, we talk about speed.
“And we’ve decided that speed is the single most important thing in everything that you can do.
“I ordered it then and it arrived then and I watched it then.
“And you get young people now watching things at twice the speed that it was ever meant to be formatted at.
“Then here’s a show that ended 15 years ago, waited 10 years to tell another hour of the story and waited five more years to end it.
“And actually, maybe the lesson for all of us is actually maybe time and patience and care might be how things have a longevity outside of what we consume on our phones.”
The duo began work on the much-hyped special, which lands on Christmas Day at 9pm, in the summer of 2023.
Viewers last caught up with the gang in 2019, when the show ended on a cliffhanger as Nessa proposed to Smithy.
James and Ruth revealed they always wanted to pick up where they left off, but the timing was always off.
It means they didn’t even tell the BBC they’d prepared a new script until it was almost written.
Ruth laughed: “Well, it took me a little while to get up off my knees.
“It doesn’t really feel like we’re in charge of writing it. I feel like we just have to be together and we sort of open a portal and the characters arrive and they tell us what they want everybody to know.”
They’re both feeling the pressure ahead of the big day.
James added: “Right now, we are the worst people to be talking about this show. We couldn’t feel… more nervous.
“We have never ever thought past what we’ve been commissioned to do. So, you know, when we were writing the scripts for the first series, we didn’t know if the show would get greenlit.
“When we did the first Christmas special, it was just a dream come true for us to have a show that was considered worthy of a Christmas special.”
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale airs on BBC1 on Christmas Day at 9pm.
Gavin and Stacey's Best Moments
With the news that the show is set to make an exciting return to screens, let's take a look at some of the comedy programme's biggest and best moments...
- Smithy and Rudi’s American Boy rap – No one will ever forget when James Corden and Sheridan Smith rapped perfectly word for word the Kanye West and Estelle hit American Boy as they walked across the car park on the phone to Gavin.
- Pam’s Vegetarian faux pas – Despite loving a cheesburger, Pam found herself caught up in a web of unexpected lies when she claimed to be Vegetarian. She is forced to keep up the secret throughout the entire show and uses hubby Mick to help her scoff meat. She is later rumbled when Stacey catches her in the act as she scoffs ham in the kitchen. Stacey says to her: “Is that ham, Pam!?… “I’ve seen you, Pam. A scotch egg here, a bit of bacon there, putting those regular sausages into the Linda McCartney box”.
- THAT fishing trip – It remains one of the biggest mysteries in Gavin and Stacey history as to just exactly what did happen on the ill-fated fishing trip. Bryn appears to be hiding a secret as to an occurance between him and his nephew Jason which has left relations fractures. Ness’ on-off boyfriend, Dave, is the only other person to know the whole truth. Bryn did appear to allude to him and Jason lying together naked to keep warm as he said to Dave: “We’re going to have this out, once and for all, man to man, you may know what happened, David, but you don’t know why it happened! It was freezing cold, it was! And when you are that cold…”
- Islands in the Stream – No one can ever forget the classic Karaoke performance of Islands in the Stream. Nessa and Bryn performed the track in front of all their nearest and dearest. It saw the whole pub burst into some line-dancing as they enjoyed a boozy night out.
- The Xmas special proposal – In 2019, fans were left overjoyed when the show made a comeback but it ended on the ultimate cliffhanger. Nessa asked Smithy if she would marry him as she finally laid bare her feelings for him. Fans were gutted as the show then cut straight to the credits as they never found out just how Smithy answered. Will all be revealed in the brand new episode?