This review contains spoilers
Seventeen years ago, we – that is the half a million of us who tuned in to BBC Three on a Sunday night in May – were introduced to Gavin Shipman and Stacey West. He, a cheeky Essex boy, she an effusive girl from Barry, South Wales. There was no way of knowing then that the comedy named after them, Gavin & Stacey, would go on to tell one of the greatest love stories in TV history. What’s even more surprising, though, is that the love story wouldn’t actually be Gavin and Stacey’s.
The last time we were invited to Barry for Christmas in 2019, we were left on a cliffhanger when Stacey’s best friend Nessa (Ruth Jones) had got down on one knee and asked Gavin’s best friend Smithy (James Corden, co-creator and writer along with Jones) to marry her. Tonight’s episode – subtitled The Finale, should anyone question whether it really was the last ever – finally revealed what had happened after the proposal: Smithy walked away, an oblivious Gavin (Mathew Horne) came out of the house and Nessa, still on one knee, launched into “the finest Cossack dancing I’d ever seen”.
In the five intervening years, inevitable changes had struck the Shipman-Wests: Mick (Larry Lamb) was now retired, driving Pam mad with his indoor golfing, while Uncle Brynn (Rob Brydon) had got a new roof rack for the Picasso. The beauty of Gavin & Stacey is in Corden and Jones’s ability to celebrate the provincial normality. Aside from references to Big Fat Sue having surgery in Turkey, a Charli XCX needle drop and Nessa’s vaping (cigarette in the other hand, naturally), this episode would have made just as much sense back in 2007.
As theorised by fans (me included), it soon became clear that we were about to watch a wedding – just not the one we wanted, as Smithy was engaged not to Nessa, but to his uptight girlfriend Sonia (Laura Aikman). From calling Gavin’s mum Pam (Alison Steadman) an “attention-seeker” to her hatred of strippers at hen parties, it was made clear that she wouldn’t – and had no desire to – fit in with Smithy’s nearest and dearest. She wasn’t one of them, and so not one of us.
As the families reunited for a traditional piss-up the night before Smithy’s stag do, I couldn’t help but shed a tear over the sheer familiarity and warmth these characters have fostered over the years. It wouldn’t be the last time I cried at the finale – by the end of the hour and a half, I had sobbed on five separate occasions.
Sometimes with laughter – particularly at “despicable little rat” Pete and Dawn’s arguments post-divorce, at Gavin and Stacey’s attempt to spice up their sex life with misguided role play – but mostly with pure joy. I was more moved by Mick’s fatherly speech at Smithy’s stag than I have been by any of my own family member’s weddings.
This was a love letter not only to the beloved characters nurtured by these fabulous actors, but also to those of us who love them as much as they love each other. There were references to old jokes – the corn on the cob, the fishing trip, foam parties – and surprises that even the most diehard of fans wouldn’t have seen coming. I happen to think that Gwen and Dave Coaches make a beautiful couple.
By the time the wedding rolled around, I – along with Stacey and Pam – was begging Smithy not to go ahead with it. Thankfully, Gavin interrupted the nuptials (heralded by a surprise and deadpan appearance from Anna Maxwell-Martin) and told his best mate that he didn’t think Sonia was the right woman for him. I wonder if we broke the world record for the most people cheering at the same time?
And so – as has become a Gavin & Stacey tradition, when Gavin raced to Barry to tell Stacey he loved her, when Smithy did the same to see Nessa give birth to his baby – a race against the clock to stop Nessa starting a new life “on the boats” began. Even with the anticipation building and a stunt involving a bus and a big bush took over the end of the episode, it kept its colloquial charm.
Gavin & Stacey couldn’t have finished with anything but a happy ending. Having Smithy and Nessa finally saying “I do” in a small, unfussy ceremony followed by a karaoke-led pub reception was the perfect ending to a perfect comedy. By the time that familiar closing refrain of “tell me tomorrow, I’ll wait by the window for you” played out, I was crying again.
Cancel all the programmes, shut down all the channels. Television does not get better than this.
‘Gavin & Stacey: The Finale’ is streaming on BBC iPlayer
