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EXCLUSIVE: Beloved BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey is set to return for another a bite at the Christmas cherry.
Deadline understands for the sitcom from James Corden and Ruth Jones will film a new episode over the summer with a view to airing at Christmas time this year, five years on from the previous ratings-topping special.
We are told the series is in development/pre-production and cameras will roll in a few months time on the show, which is produced by Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow, Jones’ Tidy Productions and Fulwell 73, which is co-owned by Corden.
Gavin & Stacey is doubtless one of the most beloved British sitcoms of all time and the 2019 Christmas special was the most-watched show in a decade at more than 18 million viewers.
Mild spoiler: It ended with a cliffhanger, with Nessa (Jones) proposing to the ever-cheeky but loveable Smithy (Corden). That cliffhanger has led to undimmed chatter over the past few years that Corden and Jones would return to the show, noise that has only grown louder with Corden’s return to the UK as he ended his eight-year-long Late Late Show stint in the States.
Deadline is told that the majority of the main cast will likely return for the special. Other than Corden and Jones, Gavin & Stacey stars Matthew Horne and Joanna Page in the titular roles along with an ensemble cast including Rob Brydon, Alison Steadman, Larry Lamb and Julia Davis.
Following the ups and downs of the title characters and their much-loved family and friends, the show which brought fame to the Welsh seaside town of Barry and the Essex town of Billericay started in 2007 as a small BBC Three sitcom but quickly grabbed a cult fanbase and was shifted to BBC One.
It ran for three seasons from 2007 to 2010, winning a BAFTA along the way, and also aired a much-loved Christmas special in 2009. The BBC will be hoping Gavin & Stacey can hand a bit of a boost to what has been a quiet couple of Christmases, with the most-viewed show in 2023 being the King’s Christmas message followed by a Strictly Come Dancing special watched by just over 5 million.
The 2019 Christmas special wasn’t without controversy. The ep featured Nessa and Bryn, played by Brydon, singing a karaoke duet of The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’ that included a homosexual slur, which wasn’t bleeped out. The slur has been removed from BBC iPlayer and was removed from repeats of the show the following year.
Corden returns
Since finishing his CBS late-night show, Corden has been relatively coy on next moves. His 1,000-episode run on The Late, Late Show has made him into a household name in the U.S., and he has starred in movies such as Peter Rabbit, Cats and Superintelligence.
He recently turned to audio by fronting a weekly Sirius XM show, titled This Life of Mine with James Corden, for which he has already chatted with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Kim Kardashian and David Beckham.
Speaking at the RTS Cambridge Convention late last year, he opened up about “feeling compelled to come home” after nearly a decade on The Late Late Show, as he urged British TV decision-makers to take more risk in the vein of the Gavin & Stacey commission nearly 20 years ago. At the time, Corden said he didn’t know if he would do any more Gavin & Stacey but stressed he would “love to make something together again” with Jones.
Gavin & Stacey is the second returning BBC comedy to be revealed by Deadline in the past week, following Coogan’s unveiling of an Alan Partridge comedy doc series titled And Did Those Feet…, which is also made by Baby Cow.
The BBC, Baby Cow’s parent company BBC Studios and Fulwell 73 declined to comment on Gavin & Stacey. Deadline has reached out Tidy Productions.
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