BBC One's nostalgic trip, Gavin and Stacey: A Fond Farewell, took viewers behind the curtains of the beloved comedy series over its 20-year journey, featuring insights into the revamped Christmas Special.
After a long wait, Gavin and Stacey graced our screens once more on Christmas Day, leaving fans eagerly waiting to see the potential romance between Smithy (played by James Corden) and Nessa (portrayed by Ruth Jones) conclude.
Since its inception in 2007, the show has chronicled the lives of two families: one from Billericay in Essex and another from Barry Island in Wales.
The leading roles of Gavin and Stacey are portrayed by Mathew Horne and Joanna Page, who join an illustrious ensemble cast including UK screen stalwarts Alison Steadman, Rob Brydon, and Larry Lamb.
In the documentary, creators James Corden and Ruth Jones candidly shared their initial hesitation about the Christmas special they had penned, confessing that they were close to scrapping the entire project due to their dissatisfaction with the story, reports the Mirror.
James revealed the creative strife, stating: "The 2019 special - I don't know if people know this - but we gave up on it at one point. We'd written maybe halfway through and we went, 'This is awful, it's rubbish, it's terrible.'"
He continued to describe the pivotal moment: "It's extraordinary how close we were... I remember us saying to each other, 'Well thank god we didn't call the BBC.'"
Delving deeper, he shared: "So we ate dinner in my kitchen and I said, 'Look, I think we probably owe it to the show to go back in and talk about why it's bad.'"
Corden concluded the anecdote with the could-have-been ending, saying: "We were about two hours from saying goodbye to it and saying, 'We can never do it again. It isn't very good.'"
Ruth chimed in: "But then we realised - which is true for every episode of Gavin and Stacey - the reason all these people are together is because of Gavin and Stacey.
"So we released the reason it wasn't working is because there wasn't anything substantial for them."
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James contributed: "Then that night at 11pm is when we came up with the scene of Stacey holding the matches. And it changed everything."
The cast chuckled as he added: "Then we called the BBC the next day and it went from like 'dead' to, 'Oh no it's alright!'"
Fans took to X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, to share their reactions to the emotional farewell documentary.
One wrote: "It's a credit to #GavinAndStacey that it can get a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary on prime time @BBCOne on New Year's Day."
Another penned: "This #Gavinandstacey doc is superb. Love you @JKCorden x and Ruth obvs , don't think she's on here."
A third remarked: "This Gavin and Stacey documentary on BBC1 atm is just what fans needed. Seeing all this behind the scenes footage is simply wonderful!"
One more commented: "I was a bit sceptical about if watching behind the scenes of Gavin and Stacey get made would be peak NYD tv but its so cute, i love watching creatives do their magic thing like this."
