Gavin & Stacey

I don't mind new writers and actors being given breaks, but couldn't they be honest about it? Gavin & Stacey is described as a comedy drama. Which is similar to describing George W Bush as warmongering christian (which he is, but that's not the point). Posing as a comedy drama while hidden away on BBC Three gives the series an excuse to neither be funny nor dramatic while building an unwarranted 'cult' following.

While BBC Three has had success with other shows in the past, need to start reigning in the dross.

The past few years have been like a sitcom desert in British TV land. I seriously can't remember one sitcom I've actively made an effort to watch from start to finish. To my surprise, Gavin and Stacey has filled that void.

The beauty of this show isn't about the Gavin and Stacey characters, it's about the wonderful ensemble cast around them. And, although there are a few storylines, it's more about finding comedy in the mundane and every day.

We're more than halfway through the latest series of Gavin and Stacey and so far, hardly anything has actually, you know, happened. But that's all to the good, because I reckon this is the funniest, most warm-hearted sitcom on telly for ages.

What's great is that all the characters in the series are likable, with even the more overt comic characters like Uncle Bryn and Nessa being fully rounded and sympathetic, without simply being used to set up jokes. The performances are exceptional too - James Corden is a great comedy actor and lights up the screen whenever he appears, and although some people seem to be finding Joanna Page a bit annoying, I think she's playing it just right, and her accent just makes the lines funnier.

Okay, it's lighter on storylines but now this sitcom delivers glorious set-pieces to compensate. Yet it never tips over into cheesiness - thanks mainly to a lake of smut bubbling below the surface.

The idea of two people meeting, falling in love and getting married isn't a theme we don't know inside out but this works thanks to wonderful writing and a cast of highly talented people who seem to fit perfectly in their roles. Rob Brydon's Bryn is wonderful and his love of James Blunt (the one about the wise man by the sea) really made me laugh.

Gavin & Stacey is completely believable and the writing is razor sharp. British comedy has taken a bit of a dip lately with the sketch show taking over but Gavin & Stacey proves the sitcom is alive and thriving.

A confession, for I have clearly sinned - if only critically: I've never reviewed Gavin and Stacey for the simple reason that I am not as in love with it as everybody else seems to be but don't hate it enough to rustle up any vitriol either.

There is nothing less interesting to write about than something a bit ho-hum, so-so, quite-nice-if-you-like-that-sort-of-thing, so I ignored it - but after a successful, nay acclaimed, and multi-award-winning first series, it's back and therefore more difficult to ignore.

The humour is Royle Family-lite with moments of Kath and Kimness and occasional forays into the uncomfortable conversational cul-de-sacs trademarked by Gervais and Marchant, which is why I ignored it the first time: everything felt second-hand. It made me smile and there is a genuine sweetness about the relationships which is cockle-warming. I'm just not a big fan of warm cockles.

Gavin and Stacey, back for its second series on BBC Three, continues to pose the question: who are the real stars of this thing? The pair were back from their honeymoon in Greece. It was "nice". But who wanted to hear about that when Stacey's friend Nessa still hadn't told Gavin's friend Smithy that she had his bun in her capacious oven? Mathew Horne and Joanna Page play the nominal leads with such Christ-like modesty that one feels vaguely aggrieved on their behalf that the best lines are written for Smithy and Nessa by the very actors who play them.

Mind you, James Corden and Ruth Jones came up with some crackers as they elaborated further on Nessa's extensive "Past". It turned out Nessa had driven the lorries for The Who's world tour. "Until I found out some things about Pete Townshend I didn't like. All I'll say - and I said it to his face - is where's the book?" This comedy is less mild than it looks and even funnier than I remembered.

The first series of Gavin and Stacey was a fairly low-key affair: a BBC3 sitcom about an Essex boy and a Welsh girl falling rather sweetly in love, with the comedy left mostly to their families and respective best friends, Smithy and Nessa (James Corden and Ruth Jones, the show's writers). Before long, though, that same low-key series started to win one entirely justified award after another.

So, the big question on the programme's return last night was how it would react to its own success. The answer, happily, is by not changing much. At times, Nessa and Smithy did seem slightly exaggerated versions of their original selves, but not enough to do any real damage. Otherwise, there was the same winningly good-natured tone, and same clear-eyed tenderness for the characters. Above all, there was the same joyous preference for finding the comedy already present in ordinary life (ie from basically nice people doing their best) rather than inventing some wild sitcom version purely to get laughs.

Ruth Jones Interview