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Now i might sound a little bit biased as i was born and still live in Barry Town. But i have to say i can relate to all of the characters in this show. Although Nessa is slightly exaggerated, i actually know people that sound like her. Nessa along with Pam have to be my favourite characters as they are polar opposites of each other but, both equally as funny..... in different ways. This show is HILARIOUS! the jokes, the innuendos, the one liners, the catchphrases, the characters - they are all "cracking" (yes, Barry people actually say that). The only negative i have (its a tiny one) is that no one in Barry, NO ONE! has a welsh accent as strong as Stacey, Bryn and Gwen. After the Christmas special, i am so expecting another series. Fingers crossed. 9/10

I must say I can't quite understand the previous reviewer, as I think they are on a different planet to anyone else and I felt compelled to put the record straight.

Gavin & Stacey is one of the best comedies I have seen in recent years. It features a wonderful cast and a brilliantly written script form Ruth Jones and James Cordon. The programme is set around Gavin (an Essex boy) and Stacey (a receptionist from Barry Island) who begin their relationship over the phone when they are at work.

Feedback from the series has been so good that a second series has already been commissioned.

In the 1980s, the most famous hit of writer John Sullivan was 'Only Fools and Horses', but what actually won bigger ratings was a gentler comedy drama he wrote about two people falling in love, 'Just Good Friends'. And in some ways, 'Gavin and Stacey', a low key hit, is the 'Just Good Friends' of our time. At initial acquaintance, it's not riotously funny, and it's certainly not savage (unlike 'Pulling', another BBC3 hit); but the more you watch it, the more you find yourself smiling throughout, simply because the world it depicts is unquestionably the real world: this, in a way that few other television programs are, is a story of contemporary life. The central role of Gavin is quite passive and non-comic: the other characters are one-part sitcom staple, one part modern cliché, but still original - the mix works, supporting by acting and direction which overplays nothing and stays true to the rhythms of the everyday. As such, it's a record for the historians of the future to judge our age by; but very much also a comedy for us to laugh at now.

I must say that I have really started to like British Comedy. Gavin and Stacey has become my second favorite show behind the IT Crowd. I love some American shows like Seinfeld and All in the Family, but love watching and learning about the different cultures of British television. I just don't understand the 6 episodes per year for 3 years thing. I really need more of Gavin and Stacey as I'm just starting to really love it and it is already over. So much talent, character development, and plot only to be cut short by about 100 episodes. The show is really one of those shows that you just can forget about life for a while and have fun watching on the weekends. I find myself saying Lush, Cracking, and Hiya more times than I really want to say them. On the off chance that the stars of the show ever read these reviews please do everybody a favor and make more episodes. I see so many talented people think they can create something better, when the best thing they have ever done is right under their noses. I'm not sure the actors know what this show means to the true fans. We work hard each week and wait to watch the next episode. 20 is not enough and the story has not been told but only just started! This is a cannot miss for almost any fan of sitcoms. Do yourself a favor and spend about 8 hours watching all 20 episodes and you will be craving a 4th, 5th, and 6th season like the rest of us.

I bought the complete series of Gavin & Stacey in a box-set and could not stop watching it even though I wanted to delay watching the third and final season as it would mean that my viewing pleasure would be shortened.

Gavin & Stacey is a story centred on 2 individuals, their family and friends. It has a very simple storyline showing how the characters relate to one another in their ordinary day to day lives.

The romance between Gavin & Stacey aside, what I loved about the series is the friendship between Gavin & Smithy and Stacey and Vanessa. It is easy to identify with how the separate pairs of besties relate to each other and remain besties throughout the series despite their changing circumstances, like Gavin & Stacey getting married and each having to leave their hometowns and their besties at different points in the series.

I particularly liked how Vanesssa (played by Ruth Jones) is so tough and yet vulnerable. Vanessa also makes makes some very terse remarks in her Welsh tongue which cracked me up. I love the soundtrack, and how the characters relate through music (music by New Order, for one).

All the actors hold their own and both scriptwriters Ruth Jones and James Corden deserve the all accolades they have received for this series.

An absolutely superb comedy, top class acting and the writing is incredible. This truly is one of the greatest comedy series I have seen in years.

Following the relationship between Gavin (Matthew Horne: Teachers and Catherine Tate) and Stacey (Joanna Page) from their initial phone flirtation, to their wedding day and beyond into married life this programme is skillfully written by James Corden and Ruth Jones who also star as Gavin and Stacey's best friends Smithy and Nessa (who completely steal the show in my opinion.) Those who've given this show a poor rating obviously have no sense of humour and can't appreciate decent comedy!

Being Welsh this is a typically stereotypical view of the way we live out life in Wales. But we don't mind being the but of a joke every now and then. Particularly when the joke is as good as this.

I have often met like people like Nessa and Gwen (Nessa's character being taken to the extreme however) but where in the world did Bryn come from? There are characteristics of Bryn that I have seen in many elderly Welshmen I have met in the valleys and even in my own Grandfather who grew up on the edge on the Rhondda valleys, but Bryn as a whole is unfathomable to me. Such a brilliantly unique character of heart warming naivety and innocence (and horrendous cringe worthiness) that no explanation can accurately describe him.

I have to say that this series completely took me by surprise. I expected it to be completely over the top and totally removed from real life...... and it is. Having said that it works to such a degree that I urge you to try it out for yourselves.

This was a delightful, short, minimal-commitment that took me two or three days to breeze through. It's nothing mind-blowing and it doesn't move mountains or shift paradigms. Rather, it's a character-study of two (extended) families who come together - one from Wales and the other from England - after the connection and marriage of a couple. It's an easy, fun, friendly watch. I wish there were more shows around like it, where each of the characters is good-hearted, loving, communally-minded, and thinks about and expresses love towards those in their lives, despite their faults. It's not ground-breaking, but it isn't contrived either. It's an honest slice-of-life, and it's lovely. It's not the laugh-a-minute slapstick comedy that British comedies often are. Rather, this is driven by the characters.

Highly recommended.

This was an outstanding series - won a few awards as well. This is Welsh humour and needs to be listened to so that you understand the joke. Many might need slapstick for humour but this picks up on the way many Welsh families are intertwined and how the matriarchal and patriarchal figures are often figures of humour. Ruth Jones demonstrates real skill in playing such a part and the cast is full of home grown talent.

They must be watched in order - each episode runs naturally on but will spoil the previous episode if watched out-of-synch.

Roll on series 2

Gavin and Stacey is the best programme on TV at the moment. The cast are absolute legends and the casting team could not have picked better at all. Alison Steadman has me in stitches and Rob Brydon singing James Blunt has to be a classic. The whole cast is brilliant....i don't know how you get any work done. Keep up the good work guys you are fantastic!!!!!!

Gavin and Stacey is the best programme on TV at the moment. The cast are absolute legends and the casting team could not have picked better at all. Alison Steadman has me in stitches and Rob Brydon singing James Blunt has to be a classic. The whole cast is brilliant....i don't know how you get any work done. Keep up the good work guys you are fantastic!!!!!!

I never even considered watching this with my parents when they first followed it. Everyone online and real life just kept saying "bring back Gavin and Stacy!" and no one was in any doubt that by an objective metric this has become essential British Television.

I actually did get into it in the end. It's hard to describe...the humor is this idiosyncratic send of up of people's small foibles (familiar) but there's something about it's tone that oscillates from a life affirming serial about family and romance to the darker side of life. Nothing bleak, but the little embarrassments, the bizarre little things that we want to call people out on but don't are satirized with impeccable timing. Many shows try to show the humor that abounds in normal living and at last one of them isn't totally excruciating.

Filled with vivid, three dimensional personalities, Gavin and Stacy are the focus story-wise but in practice it's basically about everyone BUT them.

The over arching narrative is good enough but it certainly does not over stay it's welcome. It's all very breezey.

What really makes this show great is the characters. Smithy the boyish, occasionally naive, immature, fun, emotionally wearing his heart on his sleeve, deeply loyal to his best friend. All round life of the party. Next there is Nessa, big, hard as nails, unflappable, deadpan with a very colourful life history. A great larger than life creation. Then there's Uncle Bren a man who gets so excited he can't fall asleep until 10:30 at night! His little gym is the talk of the town.

I feel I should warn people that this was a very low budget tv show, technically it's a little dated. The lighting is sometimes harsh and white white, the picture looks blown out. It was filmed digitally in standard definition so it's not going to look all that amazing.

The devils in the detail in this series. It's funny yet realistic at the same time. Taking pleasure over simple things like the merits of wearing oven gloves over using a tea towel or what kind of sauce to put on your fish and chips.

The main fault the show is the character of Stacey who is just isn't that funny.

The fashion is starting to look quite dated now, which is strange because it was only shot 15 years ago or so. IT was an era when men wore skinny jeans, top buttons were done up, lot of cardigans, polo shirts, tracksuits done up to the neck.

The series is well balanced by the character of Michael, an easy going, friendly and common sense character with a calming influence. The tech in the series is also dated now with references to myspace, iPods. CD players, big square televisions, flip phones, it's amazing how old it all looks. Essex is portayed as quite well to do but Barry is meant to be a bit rubbish, arcades with tacky yellow paper and marker pens, bingo nights, etc. The music also really dates it, there's lots of Snow Patrol, James Blunt, arctic monkeys, girls aloud, Kaiser chiefs, the looks, razorlight. Very popular in the 2000s but nobody really cares about them in 2020. Smithy has a love of West Ham, golf, his unseen girlfriend Lucy and a fear of dieting. Gavin must deal with his loving but overbearing mother, who loves her only son more than life itself and probably spoilt him a lot growing up. The character Gavin though is fairly straight and ordinary, not much to say about him....

The two truly hilarious are Pete and Dawn who come across as tragically comical, and constantly bickering then 5 minutes later head over hills in love. Another character Doris is hilarious too, a flirtatious neighbour, despite being an OAP she still has the hots for Gavin.

The picture is 16:9 but grainy at points, your TV is going to do a lot of upscaling.

I did like the realism in this series, not all the characters are rich, good looking people who have the most amazing adventures like a lot of stuff you'll watch on TV. Case in point Gavin still lives with his mum and dad. Smithy we find out later also still lives with his mum. This is what modern Britain is actually like now. Lots of young adults on low wages still living with their parents and trying to enjoy their lives a bit. If anything things have gotten worse since 2007.

I binge-watched Gavin and Stacy July of 2021, a while after positively REVELING in Detectorists and Schitt's Creek, two shows that really are ARE worthy of the kind of accolades accorded to Gavin and Stacy, which to my mind was tepid, somewhat juvenile and often hit and miss by comparison. For me Detectorists was as near perfection as a TV show can get. I give G&S four stars due to the characters and characterization, and the acting and charm of some of the characters- Gavin, Stacy, Mick and Gwen, in particular. I thought Ruth Jones was much more interesting and engaging in Saxondale, and James Cordon is better now (has come into his own, with experience) on the Late, Late Show in the U. S. I'm a big fan of Rob Brydon in "The Trip" series along with the inimitable Steve Coogan- here I thought many of Brydon's talents were wasted. (BTW, I subsequently watched "Cruise of the Gods" (2002) on Brit-Box, with Cordon, Brydon, Coogan and David Walliams (Little Britain) and liked it very much- thought all, including a young Cordon, were splendid.)

I'm not necessarily a fan of shows that go for shock value (e.g., a toilet brush up the arse as foreplay, an elderly cougar neighbor that waxes profane and beds everyone in sight, etc.), unless it's done extremely well and is germaine to the plot, and here, it wasn't. Relatedly, I found Ruth Jones' character dour, unappealing- in many scenes, nearly comatose, bizarre.

I ended up wondering what all the fuss was about. I can see how the show was unexpected and zany when it debuted, but I don't think it's aged well (for me it strove a little TOO hard to be unpredictable and keep you guessing, which grew tiresome). My two cents worth. As an aside, I wracked my brains trying to figure out who Gavin reminded me of, and finally realized it was Anthony Hopkins' dummy "Fats" in the 1978 film, Magic- an eerie resemblance.

I recently caught the entire series on BBC3 back to back in one evening and must confess, I was laughing out loud more than any BBC comedy for a very long time.

James Corden and Ruth Jones should be commended for writing a show and not making themselves the central characters a-la Ricky Gervais, Steve Coogan and Co.

Great music throughout the series and some genuinely touching moments as well as some slightly 'blue' ones but all in all it is a very refreshing step in the right direction for the Beeb.

Really looking forward to the second series and finding out what Uncle Bryn and Stacey's gay brother did on that boat trip!

This is an absolutely brilliant series with wonderful characters saying hugely funny things. I'm Welsh and I have never seen anything which captures the rhythm of the way Welsj people speak like this, but the Essex characters are just as good in their ways. This isn't just the best comedy the BBC has done for a long time; it's the best series of any kind for a very long time. Everyopne will have their favourites amongst the characters but I defy anyone who has ever been west of the Severn Bridge not to see Bryn as the ultimate hero. Lots of the success lies in the timing, because the actors don't stand around for hours trying to milk laughs. All in all a very tidy show.

Gavin & Stacey is one of those classic British sitcoms that just makes you feel good about the place. It's warm, cosy and gentle in it's delivery. I don't consider it in the elite category as the writing simply isn't as strong as the likes of Fawlty Towers, Peep Show and The Office, but it is nonetheless a wholly enjoyable series that can be watched and re-watched indefinitely.

I cannot understand the previous comments either. This is one of the funniest 'feel nice' programmes I have ever seen. Perhaps it will only appeal to the British humour, but I doubt it. Ruth Jones is simply the best or in her own words 'Tidy'. The writing by Jones and Corden is ingenious and appeals to all age groups, the well deserved their awards. I watched the first series whilst it was showing for the first time, I watched it again during the BBC3 Gavin and Stacey evening, and even bought the DVD. (Something which I don't usually do) The second series is now being shown on BBC3 and it is just as good as the first. Lets hope there are more to come. If the BBC keep coming up with programmes like this then I will never moan about paying my TV licence again!

From great phrases to great characters. Gavin and Stacey has it all. The characters are all unique and have a story. The first episode, starts by the two main characters, Gavin Shipman ( Mathew Horne) Stacey West ( Joanna Page) talking on the phone at work, the characters are meeting up in London, after their relationship has blossomed online. They meet and the characters instantly bond. By the second episode, Gavin has proposed. To which Stacey's widowed mother Gwen and uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon) aren't to pleased about, has Stacey has been engaged 5 times before!. On the other hand, Gavin's parents Pam Shipman ( Alison Steadman) and Mick Shipman (Larry Lamb) are really happy about and plan to meet Stacey's family. With laughs love and excitement, Gavin and Stacey is the perfect programme to watch and is suitable for all.

If you've never seen this show, but you've read the premise and seen a clip or two, let me guess what you're thinking...... (1) The premise sounds a bit flimsy especially for three series' worth (2) The clips aren't very funny (3) It's the BBC, meh meh meh. I thought all these things too. I cannot stress too strongly how utterly, completely wrong I was. Gavin & Stacey is so good it's stunning. The writing is glorious - how can they create such characters? They're carved from real life and yet they just spring into your living room, it involves you right from the start, you feel part of it. And the performances.....! Effortless! Not a single moment is wasted in any episode, every character from the mains right down to characters that only appear once.... it's rich, powerful, hilariously funny, heart-wrenching and completely lovable. It will make you glad you're alive.

The laughs often fall flat, but that doesn't reduce the love you have for the characters.

I will be the first to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the 1st season, but from the 2nd season onwards someone has obviously forgotten to insert any jokes!!! Kind of odd for a "comedy" series I think! Instead they are focusing on overplayed drawn out dialogue (ordering a curry) and giving more time to possibly the 2 most irritating characters I have ever seen on TV Pete & Dawn...... Another big wrong is that in the 1st season Stacey was adorable, cute & very likable, now they have just made her a squeaky, whiny & extremely annoying little girl.

I suppose it is not too surprising considering Corden's writing skills which were so expertly showcased in the surely long-running & surely classic series "Horne & Corden"!!!!

To put it mildly.....pure tripe!!

This came on the telly when we were having a more stressful time than usual at home, when the need for light relief on the box is essential. It does not have a deep complex plot or a constant supply of gags, the humour is in watching the characters do their stuff. I guess it wont appeat to some people but we love it and have watched it over and over. All the acting is brilliant, all the characters are well drawn and quirky in their own way, and the joy is in watching how these characters will behave in this week's episode. The humour is very subtle, never laboured and we have noticed things we missed even after watching several times. This wont appeal to everyone and I think if after giving a couple of episodes a go you haven't enjoyed it you probably wont. But if you like stuff thats not quite mainstream and a bit different, and want something you can watch again and again to lift your spirits, then I cant recommend this enough. We reckon that the character of Ness could be a category of her own in the British TV quiz, 'mastermind'. If you see it you'll get what I mean.....