Gavin & Stacey

Many of the main characters in Gavin & Stacey share their surnames with famous serial killers. There's the West family (Fred West), the Shipmans (Harold Shipman) and the Sutcliffes (Peter Sutcliffe).

The first episode of Gavin & Stacey was seen by just 543,000 viewers when it made its debut on BBC Three in 2007. 5,630,000 people watched the first episode of Series 3.

American TV network NBC planned to make an American version of Gavin & Stacey, but later dropped the idea. At the time of writing (November 2009), rival network ABC is now having a go at developing the format instead.

Although the comedy is set in Billericay (Essex) and Barry (Wales), the external scenes are mainly shot in Cardiff. However, there is some location filming in Barry and Essex.

In 2009, two specially filmed Gavin & Stacey sketches were shown as part of Comic Relief. In the first, Bryn and Nessa go to Las Vegas to sing at the World Karaoke Championships with Tom Jones. (The charity single released of the duo's singing reached number one in the UK singles chart on the 15th March 2009). This was first seen on BBC Three on Sunday 8th March 2009 at 7pm - 7:15pm.

In the second sketch, broadcast on Comic Relief night, Smithy stumbles across the England Football team in a conference room. He gives them a lesson on how to be a proper team.

Series 3, Episode 1 of Gavin and Stacey was the last comedy programme to be broadcast on BBC Three before it moved online.