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Posts Tagged ‘Gavin and Stacey’

Feedback: GAVIN & STACEY (series 3)

Friday, November 27, 2009 Wesley Leave a comment

Young ‘Gavlar’ and Smithy are back, and for me it feels like they have never left. Sure Gavin has moved from Essex to Wales, and the series has made the jump from BBC3 to BBC1, but other than the geographic co-ordinates it all just feels the same.

The characters and the show both seem not to have moved an inch since the last time we saw the gang a year ago. Sure Gavin has a new job and Smithy has no work on the account of the economy, but really do we care about their working lives? No we don’t!

Gavin and Stacey is about family and friends and the emotional soup that comes along with having people in your life that you care about… Sadly for the series, television is about being fresh and exciting, and giving your audience a feeling that you are on a journey to someplace new and exciting. Which is not something I got from the first episode of the new series. I felt more like I had been there and done that, and got the box-set already.The jokes felt recycled, and the mood of the show still had that warm fuzzy feeling about it, like watching home movies of your friend’s funny family.

Of course it was only the first episode, so I will not abandon hope. I will stick it out with my television family of choice and continue on the journey through Gavin and Stacey’s lives. I will watch with anticipation for  those moments that made Gavin and Stacey the biggest sleeper hit in recent BBC memory… And in true family fashion they may disappoint, but I will probably love them all the same despite!

So with my wishy-washy views on the series out of the way, I wonder what the other critics out there thought???… Read more…

Paper Watch: James Corden, Ruth Jones, I’m a Celebrity and more

Monday, November 23, 2009 Wesley Leave a comment

From The Guardian: The Lush Life of James and Ruth

With the return of Gavin and Stacey for a third and sadly last series The Guardian took a trip to Barry Island to see “what’s occurrin’?” with the stars and writers of one of the best comedy shows of the noughties.

They’re friends and co-writers but around these parts they’re simply Nessa and Smithy, the characters they created and play in Gavin & Stacey, which is filmed here on Barry Island where they’re welcomed back like the homecoming king and queen.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

From The Telegraph: 100 TV Shows That Defined the Decade

With the noughties drawing to a close many of the newspapers are doing decade reviews. The Telegraph took a look at 100 shows that defined the last ten years. At first I was a bit angry with the rankings but soon I realised this is not a ‘best shows’ list, these are the shows that defined where we are going as a nation. Surely if it was a ‘best of’ list the top five would have looked like this:

  1. The Wire
  2. The Sopranos
  3. Six Feet Under
  4. Family Guy
  5. Dexter

The two most important television trends of the past 10 years couldn’t be more different. In America, the decade has proved a golden age for drama. Bold, brilliant series such as The West Wing, The Sopranos and The Wire have brought novelistic storytelling and Hollywood production values to the small screen. These groundbreaking, “high-end” dramas were watched in a new way, too: downloaded from the internet, or bought as a DVD box-set, they were viewed “on demand” and helped turn television into an increasingly solitary pastime.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE AND SEE THE FULL LIST

From The Times: Gavin & Stacey’s Joanna Page

The Times features an interview with the wonderful Joanna Page who plays Stacey on the hit BBC show Gavin & Stacey. Reading it I discovered that the actress is not all that different from the character on the show.

Joanna Page talks a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Ask her a question and she’ll natter on non-stop, possibly without breathing, until you ask her another. So much comes out that some of it gets lost along the way.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

From The Times: Caitlin Moran the return of I’m a Celebrity

Without question Caitlin Moran is the best commentator or television. She views and reviews shows in a way that the rest of us could only dream of, and this week she is on top form taking a look at the return of the celebrity jungle adventure that is I’m A Celebrity…

“There’s eels in there.”

Those are words that — as my friend James pointed out — alert celebrities to the fact that their career is going through a rather thin phase. Particularly if, at the time they’re uttered, it’s in proximity to a trapdoor opening on to a 15ft pit, at the bottom of which is your only hope of a meal that day, and Sam Fox — still picking giant spider legs out from between her teeth — is bawling “Gwan, mate! You can do it!” from the sidelines.

Yes, it’s the return of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! — the show that brings celebrities and eels together, often in the same item of clothing, as demonstrated in the amazing “Eel Trousers” task of 2006. And who is going to be donning the Eel Trousers of 2009? Well, thanks to a series of ferocious tabloid leaks, it was absolutely no surprise at all when the full line-up appeared on the opening show on Sunday.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Visiting the Families over Christmas

Sunday, December 28, 2008 Wesley Leave a comment

Can you believe that another Christmas has come and gone already?

It was a busy one, but like a lot of my presents the television available was wrapped up nice, and looked great, but after opening, they were a bit of a disappointment.

Take my trip to see my old television friends Gavin & Stacey on Christmas Eve. The couple had promised me an enjoyable evening full of surprises and revelations, but in the end delivered little we hadn’t seen already. The shock announcement promised in all of the trailers was let out of the bag in the first five minutes of the encounter, and wasn’t that shocking!

Viewers were also promised an insight into what happened on that fishing trip. Sadly it never arrived, they teased us with it, but in the end the conversation was cut short, and viewers know no more then we did before.

It wasn’t all disappointment though, there were some laughs and the script was written in the usual Gavin and Stacey style where all the best lines are given to Nessa, Bryn and Smithy, but after all the anticipation  I was left feeling slightly disappointed with my trip to Essex.

Saying that, the trip to Essex was not as disappointing as my trip to visit the Royles. After an absence of two years on my screen, I was really looking forward to seeing The Royle Family this Christmas. Sadly though my trip up north felt a bit wasted. The laughs were few and far between, and aside from the turkey ordeal, the Royle’s were just a bit boring!

Looking Forward to… Christmas with GAVIN & STACEY

Thursday, December 11, 2008 Wesley Leave a comment

The fact that this could be the last time we see the Anglo-Welsh couple Gavin and Stacey on our televisions gives even more reason to watch this festive helping of the best romantic comedy on English television.

Personally, I am more interested in seeing how much turkey Smithy can eat, hearing one of Nessa’s Xmas anecdotes and finally finding out what went on during Bren’s infamous fishing trip. Then there is the news that the show’s namesakes Gavin and Stacey will reveal a revelation that will shock Pam and Smithy providing them with a Christmas present that they didn’t really want.

If the Christmas special is up to the quality that the first two series then viewers should be in for a very festive treat!

The Gavin & Stacey Christmas special is on BBC1 andBBC HD Christmas Eve at 22:00 (10pm). And for the real Gavin and Stacey fans out there, a “Making of…” special can be seen Christmas day on BBC3 at 23:30.

The BBC’s Christmas Line-up

Monday, December 1, 2008 Wesley Leave a comment

Coniferous trees around the world are getting worried, kiddies are getting excited and we are all getting poorer – it must mean Christmas upon us.

The holiday television schedule for me has always been pretty much a microcosm of the entire holiday experience. It comes with lots of hype and pretty packaging, but when you tear it open, many of the presents that looked most appealing turn out just to be a bit daft! Still year after year I get excited, and year after year I hope that this year will be better than the last… which is why I am still kind of excited by some of the programs coming this Christmas to the BBC.

Highlights of the BBC Christmas schedule include:

 

New episodes of some of your favourites including:

  • Gavin and Stacey
  • Doctor Who
  • The Royle Family
  • Strictly Come Dancing
  • My Family
  • Top Gear
  • Lead Balloon

As well Christmas will see the return of Top of the Pops for a couple of Christmas specials, and Alan
Davies will be reprising his role in Jonathan Creek.

In addition there is some new drama coming to the Beeb in the form of The 39 Steps starring Rupert Penry Jones, which looks promising.

Film fans should be happy on the BBC with their choice of films, but there is nothing really in their seasonal line-up that anyone who owns a DVD player has probably not already seen.

The biggest highlight for me though has to be the return of Wallace and Gromit to the small screen in a new animated special A Matter of Loaf and Death, which for me will be the one show I absolutely will not miss!

More information about these programmes and others will be reported as soon as I gather it…

Gavin and Stacey… some choice scenes.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Wesley Leave a comment

The second season of Gavin and Stacey is over now, and we are only a couple of Christmas specials away from waving goodbye to them forever (or at least that is the rumour).

So to celebrate the passing of series two, and to whet our appetites until Christmas when Gav, Stacey, Nessa, Smithy and Uncle Bryn grace our screens again, I shall search the web for some choice scenes.

The first is this gem… the corn on the cob love scene.

The second gem is this great scene… what does that sign say?

And this scene… “stop calling it a honeymoon!”

Categories: BBC3, TV Tags:

Gavin and Stacey – ep 3

Monday, March 24, 2008 Wesley Leave a comment

The thing that makes Gavin and Stacey so watchable is the wonderful dialogue. Last night’s episode had some great lines but among the funniest was the conversation when Smithy was telling Gavin about breaking up with his girlfriend and the distress that he is in;

“I’ve been thinking about ending it all… suicide!”

“What?”

“How many Nurofren would I need to finish me off?”

Gavin looks at Smithy’s fat face. “You… you’d need hundreds!”

*sigh* “I can’t afford that can I? Not if I’m gonna have a holiday this year.”

Fantastic stuff…. and here is a great scene from episode 2.

Categories: BBC3, TV Tags: