Gavin & Stacey

The problem with Gavin and Stacey - other than James Corden's penchant for making a prat of himself at awards ceremonies - is not that it's terrible. It isn't. It's overrated but it can actually be rather sweet, albeit with self-consciously saucy bits (An old lady talking about drugs! How risque!) and an irksome jarring inauthenticity. Still, like the mint Baileys that so beguiles Bryn (Rob Brydon), Corden and Ruth Jones's comedy is something of an acquired taste and one acquired by rather a lot of people.

One of the most endearing and understated series of recent years, this sure-fire comedy about Essex boy Gavin and his Welsh sweetheart, Stacey, combines mordant humour and cringe-making moments of mundanity with seemingly effortless success.

This hour-long special is destined to become a classic - as James Corden and Mathew Horne confirm they'll be making another series.

The whole tone is perfect, crammed with great character acting and brilliantly observed humour, as the entire Barry contingent converge on Billericay.

The devil is in the detail - with the merits of Mint Baileys, EastEnders, Battleships, and talc all discussed. Watching Smithy singing along to Feed The World breaking into bouts of road rage is hilarious. While his attempts at coping with a future without Ness, his baby, and his best mate are genuinely touching.

Gavin and Stacey ready to return

Gavin and Stacey co-writers James Corden and Ruth Jones have announced there will be a third series of the hit comedy show. They made the announcement live on stage in Barry Island, where Jones was hosting an open-air edition of her BBC Radio Wales show.

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.

Gavin & Stacey's Family Reunion

Ruth Jones and James Corden, creators of 2008's surprise Bafta-winner, tell The Telegraph why good-natured comedy is back.

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.