I’ve previously urged the readers of this site to abandon middle-of-the-road comedies such as Love Soup for Gavin and Stacey, so as we’re now into season two of this excellent BBC3 comedy, I think it’s time to explain why!

The first series, written by actors Ruth Jones (Nessa) and James Corden (Smithy), won Best New Comedy at the British Comedy Awards 2007, and Ruth and James also picked up awards for Best Female and Male Newcomer. The show follows the relationship of Essex boy Gavin and nice Welsh girl Stacey as they embark upon a workplace phone romance and agree to meet up in London. They take their best mates, tattooed trucker Nessa and playboy-in-training Smithy, along for moral support and everything goes swimmingly for our protagonists, while their best friends end up having a night of wild passion in the hotel bathroom, despite the fact that they can’t stand each other.

In Season 1, Gavin and Stacey experience the highs and lows of a whirlwind engagement and are married in the final episode, while Nessa comes to terms with the fact that she may have got a little more than she expected from her evening with Smithy and admits to Stacey that she is pregnant in the final episode. The opening episode of Season 2 sees Gavin and Stacey returning from their honeymoon and embarking on married life.

The main attraction of the programme is the fact that it makes full use of its excellent comedy cast. Alison Steadman is fantastic as Gavin’s mum, playing a “Birds of a Feather” made-good mother figure who tries to do the best by her golden boy Gavin and his new wife, while Rob Brydon plays the spectacularly weird Uncle Bryn, who seems to appreciate his niece’s new husband just a little too much.

Nessa (Ruth Jones) is a truly amazing new comic talent and takes the “funny fat friend” role to a whole new level as her character develops through veiled references to Nessa’s murky past which seems to have encompassed an unlikely range of job roles and sexual partners including Richard Madeley and Robert Maxwell!

Smithy (James Corden) is also a character with a strange duality as he’s the kind of guy that normally wouldn’t sleep with a “fat bird” (although he’s not in fine physical form himself), but makes an exception for Nessa despite being in a serious relationship with Lucy, his 17 year-old girlfriend. Then we begin to see his good side through the deep bond he has with his best mate Gavin, especially when he confesses to Gavin that he made excuses to phone him every day while he was on holiday in Spain.

Dawn (Nighty Night’s Julia Davis) and Pete (Adrian Scarborough) provide some hilarious moments from the sidelines as the long-married bitter couple that love to hate each other.

Overall, the new series is really promising and as the relationship between Gavin and Stacey is merely a central point for the comical craziness to converge around, it really doesn’t matter where it goes as long as we can continue to enjoy the exploits of their deranged family and friends.

I highly recommend this one; it’s my prediction for the sleeper hit of the year!

Buy Series 1 at Amazon - Gavin And Stacey : Complete BBC Series 1 [2007]

Buy Series 2 at Amazon - Gavin & Stacey : Complete BBC Series 2