Gavin & Stacey

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 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.

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.

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.

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