James Corden

James Corden on the Christmas special

After a year in which he won a Bafta for playing the lovably flawed Smithy in Gavin & Stacey, then a British Comedy Award for co-writing the thing, and was extolled as the new face of British comedy, James Corden is entitled to put up his feet on Christmas Day.

Named 3rd best show of 2008: The sitcom about two ordinary households has made its creators household names. Last year, James Corden and Ruth Jones wrote and starred in a little-watched BBC3 series documenting the ups and downs of a young couple and their families. This year, it won them two Baftas. And rightly so, for its wit, perceptiveness and warmth. The second series, shown in spring, was just as funny but even more moving.

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Series two of the Bafta award-winning comedy gets a repeat (it was first shown on BBC Three) to take us up to the Christmas Special, which is sure to be a highlight of the festive season. The writers James Corden and Ruth Jones - who also play Gavin and Stacey's best friends Smithy and Nessa - have created such a tight but wide-ranging cast of characters, each loveable in their own way, that it's always a pleasure to meet them again. Nessa, in particular, is brilliant - hard as nails and with a thousand past lives, including driving for The Who and founding the girlband All Saints. One thing she hasn't done, though, is have a baby, and her pregnancy is revealed to a shocked Smithy tonight.

BBC3's smash-hit comedy is finally promoted to BBC1. Ahead of this year's Christmas special, here's a re-run of series two, first shown in March. Having scored a massive success with their first series, writers/stars Ruth Jones and James Corden were under immense pressure to create an even better follow-up. This they did with almost annoying ease: witness this opening episode in which, for ten minutes, almost nothing happens. This is fine because the characters are so warm and so funny, it's a joy to spend time with them. And later, as the family reconvene in an Italian restaurant, there's some beautifully orchestrated hysterical farce as the secret of Nessa's pregnancy slowly leaks.

The series about how a nice boy from Essex and a sweet girl from Barry in south Wales fell in love and married has been an astounding success and won a stash of prestigious awards for writers James Corden and Ruth Jones, who also star in the show as Smithy and Nessa.

Following its BBC3 airing this year, BBC1 is giving fans and those who missed this comedy gem first time around the opportunity to view the second series in which newlyweds Gavin and Stacey (Mathew Horne and Joanna Page) return from honeymoon to a big welcome from both families and adjust to married life.

There's still no official word on whether Ruth Jones and James Corden will be able to find time in their fantastically busy schedules to write series three.

But series two of the nation's favourite comedy - previously seen on BBC3 - finally arrives on BBC1 just as the DVD goes on general release.

So can there possibly be anyone left out there who doesn't yet know 'What's occurrin'?'. Even if you've seen it before, the feel-good warmth of Jones and Corden's writing doesn't dim.

Ahead of the much-anticipated Christmas special, the big success story of BBC3's comedy output is promoted to the heady heights of BBC1 for a welcome repeat of the just-as-good-as-the-first second series. The more people that see this show the better, as it's absolutely stonking, with Ruth Jones and James Corden's scripts hitting the right note between sweet and subversive. If there's one criticism, Gavin and Stacey themselves take a back seat for much of the series, but blame the writers for creating such a lovable and well-drawn group of characters. Brilliant.

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