Gavin & Stacey

I partied too hard: James Corden

Since hitting the headlines as the star and writer of hit comedy Gavin & Stacey, James Corden has become an unlikely pin-up.

Gavin and Stacey star 'pressure'

Ruth Jones, the co-writer of the acclaimed comedy Gavin and Stacey, says the "pressure is on" as she starts work on the third series.

I'll Stace 20 Years

Actress Joanna Page says she'd be happy to do Gavin & Stacey for another 20 years.

Gavin and Stacey live in my house

When the cast of hit comedy Gavin & Stacey pack up after filming in the show's two houses, the real owners can move back in.

Perhaps the best sitcom of the year was Gavin and Stacey. As Henry Normal pointed out - there are loads of scenes when everyone's laughing but nobody's the butt of the joke - a refreshing approach. The sequence where the entire family got fantastically over-excited over Gavin's dad's (three-second) appearance on the news was probably the best portrayal of family life on TV since the early days of The Royle Family. We'll put aside memories of that horribly disappointing Christmas special, though, and hope for the best when the recently announced third series rolls around.

Shipman's victim's son attacks Gavin and Stacey

The BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey has delighted millions of fans whilst also gaining a clutch of awards. But until the Christmas special, few among the audience had realised that the main characters are named after serial killers.

James Corden: Worth his weight in gold

If 2008 was the year comedy actor and writer James Corden's career took off, 2009 will see it go stratospheric.

It's Chriiiisssstmaaasss! hollers Smithy down the phone to Gavin, and indeed it is. Unlike some Christmas specials whose only relevance to this time of year is the transmission date, our December date with the Shipmans and the Wests was the televisual equivalent of a full turkey dinner, turning up sloshed at midnight mass and answering the door to three sullen youths who give you a load of abuse when asked to expand their carolling repertoire beyond the chorus of 'We wish you a Merry Christmas.' Plus, it had a decent plot and some killer lines. Marvellous.

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.