When Stacey Met Gavin
The Start of A Beautiful Relationship
There will be, in fact there already is, such controversy about the digital switch-over and the switching off of terrestrial TV signals and quite rightly there needs to be a substantial amount of work put in to enable this to be a success, it is fraught with logistical and social difficulties and I do not envy those who have been put in charge one little bit. Throughout this work over the coming years, I hope that the powers-that-be remain clear on their vision for the promised-land ahead. A television service that can be the pride of Britain and the envy of the world is the goal. At the forefront of this are the fantastic BBC3 and BBC4. I have written about them before. They allow for such a plenitude of experimental and slightly left-field shows that it they give genuine weight to the BBC’s remit of providing television to as wide a demographic as possible. Those terrestrial lovers will be in for a real treat. To wit…
On BBC3 last week I managed to catch the highly trailed and often repeated, Gavin and Stacey and what a gem it turned out to be. Matthew Horne steps out of the shadows from The Catherine Tate Show to play the eponymous hero alongside Joanna Page as Stacey. A cast of memorable, watchable and, to a greater or lesser degree, likeable characters play out a simple tale of friends and families getting to know one another as two people embark on a relationship. There’s not much that is (deliberately) laugh out loud funny on TV these days but Gavin and Stacey have got it pitch perfect. It borders on just the right side of believability while have a cracking good script that relies (imho), as all good comedies do, on character rather than situation. To paraphrase what the numerous trailers have said, if only it was the two of them it would be a little dull. Rob Brydon does a turn as Stacey’s uncle, Bryn (Welsh for “hill”) and is back to his Geoff and Marion best, while I’m sure I recognize the actor who plays Smithy from somewhere but can’t quite fathom where from (perhaps it was real life). Gavin’s mum and dad will be totally familiar to anyone from a leafy, suburban background and Stacey’s extended family are just as memorable. It is somewhat sad, that as these shows get popular there are clamours to get them moved to BBC2 or BBC1, I say “Go digital now and enjoy ‘em while they’re here”.
Tags: BBC3, Comedy, Digital-Switchover, Gavin-and-Stacey, Joanna-Page, Matthew-Horne, Terrestrial
