Gavin & Stacey

TV ratings: Gavin & Stacey pulls in nearly 6m

BBC1 comedy Gavin & Stacey wins slot at 9pm with 25% share, gaining 100,000 viewers on previous episode.

Poor Gavin. He's just discovered Stacey has been off the pill for a year without telling him - now Bryn's giving him advice on sex. The only thing that could make it worse is Stacey's mum being there, too... which, of course, she is.

While Gwen and Bryn keenly discuss Gavin and Stacey's sex life, traumatised Gav is left flailing, and perhaps considering poking twigs in his ears to make all the bad words stop. Meanwhile Stacey is telling Ness she's worried she'll be like Barren Karen from down the road.

So Barry's least convincing psychic does her a reading - using a paperweight. After Gavin and Stacey opt for a more conventional method, and visit a doctor to find out why Stacey isn't pregnant, it's time for them to head to Billericay to see Pete and Dawn renew their wedding vows.

Half of Barry appears to be going to the ceremony, many a bit puzzled why they're invited (they must have missed the memo telling them they're legally obliged to gather on a weekly basis).

Smithy has been given the job of playing father of the bride and, thanks to a comical shopping trip with his mum and sister, has a smart suit to wear.

But first it's Pete's last night as a 'single man' (I know. So does everybody else. But Pete is a bit of a spanner) and he and Dawn will have stag and hen nights, albeit ones lamer than a limping horse. Still, they act as a perfect set-up for what wouldn't in a month of Sundays be considered a picture perfect ceremony.

Gavin And Stacey series 3 episode 4 review

Charm and poignancy come through as Gavin and Stacey get some difficult news...

TV ratings: Gavin & Stacey pulls in tidy 6m

BBC1 sitcom pulls in 2m more than The Bill in most-watched show of its third series.

Gavin And Stacey series 3 episode 3 review

Nessa becomes unlikeable. A new drink is invented. Is Gavin and Stacey threatening to outstay its welcome?

Stacey thinks she's pregnant and spends the whole episode getting excited, but has yet to take a test. And Smithy avoids Nessa as he and the Essex massive spend a weekend in Wales, staying at Bryn's. Rob Brydon makes the very best of Bryn's ambiguities as he welcomes a gang of lager-swilling lads into his home. But the repeated gags (you slaaaags) and the heavy-handed plotting lack the initial sweetness this show was sold on. After the charm has gone, it's just people saying things to each other in two different accents.

As Stacey (Joanna Page) frets over her efforts to get pregnant, Gavin (Mathew Horne) plays host to his Essex chums on a boys' night out in Cardiff, in the sublime comedy series about the eponymous Anglo-Welsh couple. Uncle Bryn (the incomparable Rob Brydon) turns his house into a "bachelors' paradise" for Gavin's friends, and grows dizzy with excitement at being surrounded by a whole gang of Essex scamps. "I feel like Fagin," he quivers.

Gavin and Stacey: series three, episode three

Gavin has a night out with the boys while Stacey makes a worrying discovery.

John Prescott to appear in TV comedy Gavin and Stacey

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott is to make a cameo appearance in BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey.

BBC slammed for releasing Gavin & Stacey DVD

The BBC has 'devalued the licence fee' by releasing the new series of Gavin & Stacey on DVD before it has finished its TV run, critics said.