50 Fun Facts About Gavin and Stacey

Which notorious Englishmen lent their surnames to Gavin & Stacey's Shipman, West and Sutcliffe families?

Serial murderers Harold Shipman, Fred West and Peter Sutcliffe supplied the surnames, and Ruth Jones hoped nobody would notice until it became 'even more delicious'; it is Doris who points out the coincidence on screen.

Which singer-songwriter's 2005 single 'Run' opens every episode of Gavin & Stacey?

Stephen Fretwell's 'Run' only reached No. 79 in the UK chart, and Q once called him 'Scunthorpe's finest export... ever'; his song 'Darling Don't' later turned up in Skins.

Which Rogers and Parton duet did Gavin & Stacey's Bryn and Nessa take to number one for Comic Relief?

Islands in the Stream, their duet at Gwen's birthday barn dance, was re-recorded as '(Barry) Islands in the Stream' with Tom Jones, who at 68 became the oldest person then to have topped the UK singles chart, and Bee Gee Robin Gibb.

Pam and Mick's 'Billericay' home in Gavin & Stacey was actually filmed in which village near Barry?

Dinas Powys's Laburnum Way stood in for 23 Limetree Avenue, Billericay, so every Essex scene at the Shipmans' was shot a few miles from Barry; the three series were made almost entirely in south Wales.

About how many UK viewers watched the 2019 Gavin & Stacey special, comedy's biggest audience in 17 years?

18.5 million people watched in all, 11.6 million of them on the night, making it Britain's most-viewed non-sporting broadcast in a decade.

Gavin and Stacey, best mates in tow, first meet in person at which London landmark?

Leicester Square was filmed in 2006, a year before the series aired, and the night ends with both couples in a hotel; Gavin then drives to Barry to confess his love.

Which diet does Pam Shipman fake in Gavin & Stacey after Mick panic-buys food for their Welsh guests?

Vegetarian was the lie Pam told to explain Mick's bags of veggie shopping, and she kept it up for a whole Christmas while craving a roast; by dinner everyone except Gwen had rumbled her.

What is the deadpan greeting of Nessa, Stacey's tattooed, chain-smoking best friend in Gavin & Stacey?

What's occurring sits in a catchphrase kit with 'Oh', 'Tidy', 'Immense' and 'Truth be told', and Ruth Jones wrote the part for herself while James Corden wrote Smithy for himself.

Which never-explained outing with nephew Jason haunts Uncle Bryn throughout Gavin & Stacey?

A fishing trip is all we ever learn; Bryn gets as far as 'It was freezing cold... and when you're that cold you-' before he is cut off, and Dave Coaches is the only outsider ever told the truth.

James Corden says Gavin & Stacey was inspired by his real best friend Gavin, who met his wife how?

Over the phone at work is how the real Gavin found his wife, and the idea struck Corden during a wedding reception; he and Ruth Jones pitched it as a one-off play before the BBC asked for a full series.

Gavin asks Stacey to marry him at which London station, moments before her train home to Wales?

Paddington, London's terminus for South Wales trains, hosts the engagement in only the second episode, after a misunderstanding on a call had Stacey refusing to speak to him.

Series two of Gavin & Stacey opens with the newlyweds returning from a honeymoon in which country?

Greece was the honeymoon, and the welcome-home meal for both families ends with the whole evening slowly relocating to the restaurant toilets.

Which club's shirt does Gavin Shipman wear in Gavin & Stacey, a team the actor who plays him also supports?

Tottenham is Gavin's team as well as actor Horne's, while Smithy follows West Ham and Nessa turns out to support Aston Villa; Mick sticks to golf and the Tuesday pub quiz.

Nessa in Gavin & Stacey says she was in which girl group originally, until she fell out with Shaznay?

All Saints is just one line on Nessa's improbable CV, which also includes fluent Welsh, excellent ten-pin bowling and lewd encounters with a parade of celebrities.

Which haulage firm, Nessa says in Gavin & Stacey, let her keep two lorries when she quit driving for them?

Eddie Stobart trucks were one stop in Nessa's working life, alongside producing for BBC radio and a stint as a roadie for The Who.

Which three-word exclamation, alongside 'I panicked', is Pam Shipman's catchphrase in Gavin & Stacey?

Oh my Christ is the cry of a mother who calls Gavin her 'Little Prince', brands Princess Diana a 'hussy' and has claimed to be 51 on her last five birthdays.

Which dish does Gwen, Stacey's widowed mother in Gavin & Stacey, offer to cook at every opportunity?

An omelette is Gwen's answer to every crisis, and the kind, put-upon widow lets Nessa take shameless advantage of her; Gwen, like Mick, was cast by audition rather than written for a named actor.

What is Smithy and Nessa's son called in Gavin & Stacey, a name Gavin jokes honours Noel Edmonds?

Neil is the first name of both Smithy and Nessa's father, while the middle names Noel Edmund honour Nessa's Hear'Say friend Noel Sullivan and one of Smithy's relatives, hence the Noel Edmonds gag.

Which History Boys actor plays Gavin's big-eared mate Budgie in Gavin & Stacey and later led Being Human?

Russell Tovey, Samuel Anderson (Fingers) and Andrew Knott (Dirtbox) all came from Corden's History Boys cast; Budgie's real name, Karl Barratt, appears only on the wedding table plan.

Which Horrible Histories and Ghosts star plays Deano, Smithy's dim builder workmate in Gavin & Stacey?

Mathew Baynton went on to create The Wrong Mans with Corden for BBC Two, and Deano's signature is a half-tea, half-coffee drink he calls a 'toffee'.

Which Little Britain star plays Jammy, the stag organiser selling Smithy a Prague weekend in Gavin & Stacey?

Matt Lucas's name, the makers say, helped secure the filming locations in Barry, and Ruth Jones had herself played Myfanwy in Little Britain; Gavin vetoes the Prague plan.

Gavin and Stacey's children Harri, Caitlin and Megan share their names with which famous family?

The British royals Harry, Catherine and Meghan are the namesakes, which suits a grandmother like Pam, who adores Camilla.

The 2024 Gavin & Stacey finale drew roughly how many UK viewers, scripted TV's biggest audience in over 20 years?

20.9 million watched in the end, on Christmas Day 2024, 17 years after the first episode; Corden had announced on 3 May that the last script was finished, and filming wrapped on 8 October.

In the Gavin & Stacey finale, everyone piles onto Dave's coach to catch Nessa before she sails from where?

Southampton Docks is where Nessa is due to board a cargo ship for six months' work when Smithy arrives having walked out of his own wedding.

Which Motherland star plays the celebrant at Smithy's abandoned wedding in the Gavin & Stacey finale?

Anna Maxwell Martin had spent summer 2024 opposite Corden in Joe Penhall's The Constituent at the Old Vic; Laura Aikman's return as the bride, Sonia, was kept secret until broadcast.

Dave Coaches pops the question to Nessa in Gavin & Stacey's 2008 special with the jewellery hidden inside what?

A cigarette packet suited Nessa, a chain smoker who gave up only while pregnant; she says yes, Smithy is quietly unhappy about it, and Dave himself calls the wedding off at the altar in series three.

What do Pam, Mick, Pete and Dawn share in the 2019 Gavin & Stacey special, so that Pam forgets the puddings?

A cannabis joint that Dawn found among Pete's things triggered their latest marital crisis, and once the four had smoked it the replacement puddings were left at the pub on Christmas Eve.

Which Abigail's Party star plays Pam in Gavin & Stacey, a part Corden and Jones wrote specifically for her?

Alison Steadman created the monstrous Beverly in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party three decades earlier, and had already worked with Corden and Jones on the ITV drama where the two writers first met.

James Corden and Ruth Jones first met as castmates on which Kay Mellor ITV drama, years before writing Gavin & Stacey?

Fat Friends, Kay Mellor's series, had Corden as Jamie Rymer and Jones as Kelly across four series from 2000, and the actress who would become Pam was in it too.

Which actor, EastEnders' Archie Mitchell, plays Gavin's down-to-earth father Mick in Gavin & Stacey?

Larry Lamb won Mick through audition rather than having the part written for him, and was being murdered as Archie in Walford the same Christmas series three aired; his son George is a presenter.

Uncle Bryn in Gavin & Stacey was written for which actor, Ruth Jones's old Porthcawl Comprehensive schoolmate?

Rob Brydon earned a BAFTA nomination for Bryn in 2009; at an earlier school, Dumbarton House in Swansea, he stole Catherine Zeta-Jones's lunch money, as he confessed on Would I Lie to You?.

Corden and Jones first offered Gavin & Stacey to the BBC as a one-off play under which title?

It's My Day was the working title, and the BBC asked for a full series instead; Corden and Jones then wrote Smithy and Nessa for themselves.

Which director, a One Foot in the Grave veteran, helmed all 22 episodes of Gavin & Stacey?

Christine Gernon is credited on every episode from the 2007 opener to The Finale, the only director the show ever had.

Which production company, co-founded by Steve Coogan, made Gavin & Stacey for BBC Wales?

Baby Cow takes its name from Coogan's early characters Paul and Pauline Calf, and it was Baby Cow that sold NBC the remake rights in 2008, the first of three failed American attempts.

Gavin & Stacey launched in May 2007 on which channel, where its first episode drew under 600,000 viewers?

BBC Three was the launchpad, and when the channel signed off as a broadcast service in February 2016 its very last programme was a Gavin & Stacey episode, introduced by Corden.

What does Nessa do at the end of the 2019 Gavin & Stacey special, after telling Smithy not to change for anyone?

Proposes to him on one knee is how it ends, a cliffhanger that won the 2020 BAFTA Must-See Moment award; Smithy gives no answer on screen, and the 2024 finale opens with him engaged to Sonia instead.

Which US network ordered Us & Them, the American Gavin & Stacey starring Alexis Bledel, then never aired it?

Fox ordered 13 episodes in 2013, cut the order to seven and shelved them; Crackle finally streamed the lot in 2018, with Jason Ritter as Gavin, after NBC and ABC had each tried their own versions.

Which American series did Smithy actor James Corden host on CBS from 2015 to 2023, the home of Carpool Karaoke?

The Late Late Show made Corden a US star through Carpool Karaoke, a bit he traces to a 2011 Red Nose Day sketch in which Smithy sang with George Michael in a car.

After Nessa, Ruth Jones created and starred in which Sky One comedy-drama set in the Rhondda valleys?

Stella ran for six series from 2012, and Jones nearly set it in Bristol to dodge comparisons with her first Welsh hit before settling on the fictional Pontyberry.

Besides Welsh, which language does Gavin & Stacey's Nessa speak fluently, among her many improbable talents?

Italian fluency sits on a CV that also claims a spell as a BBC radio producer and an engagement to Dave Coaches; her age stays a mystery until the 2019 special implies she is 55.

What is tattooed on Nessa's right upper arm in Gavin & Stacey, the most prominent of her several tattoos?

A red dragon, Wales on her sleeve, goes with jet-black bobbed hair and Gothic make-up; beneath it all she is surprisingly intelligent at times.

How many times had Stacey been engaged before Gavin, a secret that comes out on the stag and hen night?

Five previous engagements was the revelation Gavin got on his own stag do, and by the wedding day he had forgiven her; Smithy then made a fool of himself with the best man speech instead.

In the 2019 Gavin & Stacey special, what has Gwen's neighbour Doris left to Gavin and Stacey in her will?

Her house next door to Gwen's is where Gavin, Stacey and their three children now live, and Nessa is contesting the legacy through the courts; the episode is dedicated to the actress who played Doris, who died in 2011.

In Gavin & Stacey's 2008 special, Gavin takes a job in which city so the couple can live in Barry?

Cardiff is where he starts series three, commuting from Gwen's while Pam and Smithy grieve as if he had emigrated; the move is his answer to the homesickness that nearly broke the marriage in series two.

Which actress plays Smithy's sister Rudi, who works at a Billericay KFC, in Gavin & Stacey?

Sheridan Smith was dating Corden in real life from 2007 to 2009 while playing his stroppy little sister on screen; Rudi likes to be called 'Smithy' too, purely to wind him up.

Which Nighty Night creator plays Dawn Sutcliffe in Gavin & Stacey, a role Ruth Jones wrote with her in mind?

Julia Davis was six weeks pregnant with twins when series one was filmed, and she and Jones had met years earlier in an improv troupe that also included the future Uncle Bryn.

Which Welsh actress, Love Actually's 'Just Judy', won the part of Stacey almost instantly at audition?

Joanna Page and Horne were cast together on the strength of their chemistry, and Page later joined ITV's Loose Women as a regular panellist in 2023.

Which 2009 comedy-horror film paired Gavin & Stacey stars Horne and Corden, to dreadful reviews?

Lesbian Vampire Killers was savaged by critics, and Corden later said watching it would be too harsh a punishment for Guantanamo prisoners; their Horne & Corden sketch series flopped the same year.

When Gavin turns up unannounced in Barry in episode two, Uncle Bryn is convinced he is what?

A Jehovah's Witness is Bryn's verdict on the stranger at the door, a man who also gets over-excited by his sat nav and the internet and loves Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City.

Smithy's mother Cath in Gavin & Stacey claims to suffer from which condition, which Pam blames on her drinking?

Narcolepsy, 'a mild form' in Cath's words, arrives with Pam Ferris in series three alongside rumours of a fling with the primary school headteacher; Ferris went on to play Sister Evangelina in Call the Midwife.