IT was the happy ever after that Gavin & Stacey fans had been dreaming of for 17 years – Nessa and Smithy finally said: “I do.”
Millions across the nation last night tuned in for the final chapter of the beloved BBC One comedy.
And loyal followers were rewarded with the perfect ending as James Corden’s Smithy realised he was meant to be with Nessa.
In an emotional scene on a cargo ship, Smithy dropped to one knee and told his true love, who had proposed in a 2019 festive cliffhanger: “Five years ago on Christmas Day, you asked me a question and I didn’t answer you.
“And I thought about it every day. And I’m sorry I left you hanging.
“I know it’s been messy and not perfect. But that’s because we’re messy and not perfect. But I love you, Nessa. I always have. Will you marry me?”
The saga closed with a moving montage of the gang celebrating at the couple’s low-key pub wedding.
Writer Ruth Jones, who plays Nessa, said simply: “I hope we did you proud.” She added: “I’m not going to lie, I’m feeling a bit drained!”
Meanwhile, James said: “Tears all around. It was probably the most emotional film set I’ve ever been on and it was kind of wonderful.”
The one-off episode, which aired at 9pm, has been confirmed as the final instalment of Gavin & Stacey, which first screened in May 2007, after three series and three Christmas specials.
It included several shock twists as we caught up with characters last seen in 2019’s festive one-off, in which Nessa proposed despite Smithy being engaged to Sonia.
That meant the whole cast was on tenterhooks for the new script.
Larry Lamb, who plays Gavin’s dad, Mick, said of the final episode: “I do not think I can ever remember being so moved by something.”
Alison Steadman, who portrays Gavin’s mum Pam, added: “I don’t normally cry and get over-emotional, but I was just completely choked.”
The episode began with Smithy’s wife-to-be being revealed as Sonia.
Their wedding day featured a cameo from Sheridan Smith as Smithy’s sister Rudi and a moving scene where Neil The Baby, Smithy and Nessa’s teenage son, sang a version of The Beatles’ Blackbird, written by Paul McCartney.
James revealed he appealed to Macca directly for approval to use the tune.
It was a wonderful way to close it all out.
James Cordon
Then Gavin finally aired the group’s misgivings over the nuptials, prompting a crazy chase across the country to catch up with a heartbroken Nessa, who had left Barry Island to return to her old job on a cargo ship.
Dave Coaches’ minibus became their unlikely chariot as the gang raced to Southampton Docks.
James said: “It was a wonderful way to close it all out. I’m very proud of what we’ve made.” But how did it land with fans? Well, I think it’s time for us all to admit Gavin & Stacey was never really about Gavin and Stacey.
Instead, it has always been about their enigmatic best mates, Nessa and Smithy. And with a happy ever after as exquisite as last night’s, thus will forever more be the case.
The sight of Smithy on one knee, in a divine dash of realism, united Britain in a way PM Keir Starmer can only dream of.
Their wedding could have been overblown. But a humble pub lunch made for the perfect ending. However, earlier moments in Gavin & Stacey: The Finale are more worthy of a mention.
Canny James Corden and Ruth James pulled off a bait and switch that will go down in TV history, with the reveal of Sonia as Smithy’s intended.
Larry Lamb and Alison Steadman were effortless and immediately quotable — charcuterie board, anyone? — as Mick and Pam.
The mad twist of Gwen’s secret boyfriend was another unexpected treat.
They all came into their own, though, in the final coach chase, a glorious parody of more high- octane stunts. And herein lies the beauty of Gavin & Stacey.
It has always stuck in its lane, never trying to be something it’s not, and remained bloody good at what James and Ruth always hoped it would be: Proper British TV gold.
Even if it could have been called Smithy & Nessa all along.
Today, as we bid farewell to our favourite characters, the cast shares some behind-the-scenes secrets of the finale’s biggest storylines . . .
THE return of Smithy’s awful fiancée Sonia was the episode’s first big moment.
Behind the scenes, pictures had already suggested that Smithy was marrying someone — so when he arrived at a department store to meet his bride, we’d all gleefully assumed it was Nessa.
Until Sonia, played by Laura Aikman, appeared.
James, above with his screen girlfriend, said: “I was in America and I had this idea at three o’clock in the morning.
“I called Ruth and said, ‘I wonder if we could trick everybody into thinking for the first six or seven minutes that they’re just going to watch a wedding between Nessa and Smithy?’.
“Because after the 2019 special, all people would say to us was, ‘What does he say?’. They would never say, ‘Who did he choose?’. I just wanted it to feel satisfying.
“At the premiere, it was lovely to hear a collective gasp when she was revealed.”
STACEY and Jason’s mum Gwen has been a widow for the entire show, so fans were delighted to see her finally finding love.
The reveal of her secret boyfriend, though, was a huge shock when Nessa’s ex, Dave Coaches, came down the stairs.
Melanie Walters, who plays Gwen, said: “I had a coffee with Chris, our amazing director. And she said, ‘I will tell you something’. She said, ‘There’ll be a moment that I think you might shriek a little’.
“And true enough, I did when I read the script and it was Dave Coaches.
“Part of me sort of hoped Gwen will have a little love in her life, but not in a million years would it be Dave Coaches. I thought it would be one of Doris’ cast-offs.”
Stacey actress Joanna Page added: “I just read it while voice-noting Ruth, going, ‘Oh my God, Gwen’s got a boyfriend. I’m telling you, she’s got a boyfriend’. And then, ‘Oh, my God, she does’.
“And then I sent her this message screaming, ‘Oh, my God, Dave Coaches’. And I couldn’t believe it.”
FANS will have been rather surprised to see Stacey’s saucy side as she tried to tempt Gavin into role play to spice up their marriage.
Actress Joanna Page said with a laugh: “Stacey was what she was like in the first series. She was a little bit dirty, and it was fun to play.
“I was so excited when I read the script — just the scene where I’m spinning Mathew Horne (Gavin) around, bending him over and slapping him on the backside.
“We’ve been playing husband and wife now for so long that it just felt natural.”
Larry Lamb and Alison Steadman still had the same synergy as Mick and Pam Shipman. Larry said: “No matter the trials and tribulations of her Royal Highness, and ups and downs and everything else, Mick is the consort, he looks after her, but she wears the trousers.”
Alison added: “Oh, it’s just absolutely lovely. And it was always so easy to be with you.”
Meanwhile, it was all change for warring Dawn and Pete, who we joined six months after their divorce. Ruth said: “We love Pete and Dawn, but one of the challenges is that they very much belong in the Essex world. They’ve got no real reason for travelling down to Wales.
“It’s been so lovely, in this final episode, to give them a really good story.”
VIEWERS were on tenterhooks waiting to hear the truth behind Uncle Bryn and Jason’s fabled fishing trip which was a recurring reference throughout the show’s history.
And for one moment, it seemed like we were about to get the answer.
Amid Bryn’s anger about Gwen’s secret boyfriend, she rounded on him, fuming: “You want to talk about secrets?
“Thirty years ago, you two went on a fishing trip that almost tore this family apart.”
A plot twist meant it was Dave Coaches who was left to reveal what he knew, stuttering: “From what I was told, it was cold. The tent was up and the sun was down. The fire was blazing.
“And the soup was bubbling in the billy can . . . ”
Then Gwen’s fire alarm went off and viewers’ hopes of knowing more about that fateful event were shattered.
Jason actor Robert Wilfort said: “I’d like to say now and forever, the joke has always been you don’t find out what happens on the fishing trip.
“I’m sorry everybody, but that has always been the joke and it always will be because it’s funny.
“It’s funnier that way.
“And I was so pleased that we didn’t reveal it . . . because we’ve never known what it is.”
IT was a scene similar to Hugh Grant leaving Duckface at the altar in Four Weddings And A Funeral when Gavin finally had the courage to tell Smithy he should ditch Sonia.
After the priest — Anna Maxwell Martin in a fun cameo — asked for any reasons why the two should not marry, the whole gang stood one by one to back Gavin’s impassioned speech.
Then, together, they careered out the door to help Smithy track down Nessa.
At the premiere, Ruth said: “It was a lovely moment when everybody cheered when Smithy left the wedding. It was just so rewarding to hear that!”
Larry Lamb, who played Mick Shipman, added: “I’ll never forget it. There must have been 40, 50 extras there, who all sort of knew the story because they’re all fans.
“And the looks on their faces — the shock — it was just absolutely brilliant.”
James revealed: “Essentially, we didn’t really tell anybody what to do other than our cast, who would all stand up at their various points.
“When Anna said, ‘Please stand’, there’s two ladies at the back on Stacey’s side who stood up! We didn’t tell them to.
“They were just real fans of the show who were so in it, that they just stood up and were like, ‘I just thought he shouldn’t be marrying her!’.”
SMITHY finally caught up with Nessa at Southampton Docks as she prepared to ship out to Italy.
It was an entirely unromantic backdrop for an incredibly romantic scene.
Ruth Jones has revealed how the intention was for the moment to be a little more rom-com Love Actually than hostage movie Captain Phillips.
She said: “Originally, it was going to be this big scene in an airport, but we couldn’t get permission to film in Cardiff Airport.
“So initially, we thought, ‘Oh no, this is awful, what are we going to do?’.”
James Corden said: “Production designer Dave Ferris had been saying every day, ‘I don’t think we’ll ever be able to make an airport secure enough, should it not be the ships?’.
“Then we remembered that there was a reference to Nessa working on the ships years ago, and so that immediately became that.”
Ruth added: “There was a lot of security to get in there, wasn’t there?
“We were always on the lookout for cameras, because that was like the most important thing that didn’t get out — the image of James down on one knee in front of me.”
