Gavin & Stacey – The Finale: After 17 years, it’s finally goodbye – but did Smithy say yes to Nessa?
It’s been five years since since we last caught up with Gavin and Stacey, and, more importantly, since Nessa got down on one knee to propose to Smithy.
Left on a Christmas cliffhanger, not since Rachel got off the plane has the nation been so invested in the fate of a will-they-won’t-they. Because Gavin and Stacey might have sweetly brought the worlds of Billericay and Barry together, but Nessa and Smithy’s anti-romance provided the comedy heart.
At a screening just before Christmas, series creators and stars James Corden and Ruth Jones were both emotional as they spoke about saying goodbye. This is a series that means so much to its cast and creators, as well as its millions of fans.
So. Seventeen years after that eventful first night in a central London hotel room (and en suite), one of the most beloved British comedies of all time has finally come to an end.
* Warning – some spoilers for Gavin & Stacey: The Finale ahead *
The Barry gang are on their way to Essex for a wedding. Pic: Toffee International Ltd/Tom Jackson/PA
Gavin and Stacey are getting ready for a wedding. There is talk of suit fittings and bridesmaids and Smithy standing at the end of the aisle.
It’s the night before the stag and the hen dos, an occasion in itself, and in Essex, Gavin’s mum Pam is stressing about the “flow of the buffet”. Dad Mick is now retired, so her home, her sanctuary, is filled with golf balls and “Sky Sports blasting”. In Wales, Stacey’s mum Gwen appears to have a secret and Uncle Bryn is worrying about his roof rack and whether everyone will be ready to hit the road in three hours and 11 minutes.
So it seems Smithy did indeed say yes. Hurrah! But does this all feel a bit too easy? In John Lewis for official wedding list business, we finally catch a glimpse of his bride-to-be.
And… she isn’t Nessa. She is, in fact, Sonia, the girlfriend he fleetingly introduced five years ago, who left the 2019 Christmas celebrations early. Back then, they didn’t appear to be a match made in heaven. Have things changed?
“I’m so excited,” Sonia tells her fiance. “Somebody’s already bought the handheld Dyson.”
Smithy is excited for his stag do. Pic: Toffee International Ltd/Tom Jackson/PA
Smithy is more concerned about his stag – “the most important day of my life”.
Elsewhere, Stacey is keen to spice up hers and Gavin’s sex life, Dawn and Pete have finally ended their marriage (but not their sniping), and Nessa and Smithy’s son, Neil the Baby, is now 16 and about to start a plumbing course.
Over the course of an hour-and-a-half, we find out what happened five years ago and what Smithy did, or didn’t, say to Nessa. In a turn of events no one was expecting, there was Cossack dancing involved. Now, she wants to bail on Sonia’s hen do – “full Gareth” – and later reminds Smithy she won’t be at the wedding itself, but not because she has other plans. “We both knows that.”
As the families and friends are reuniting for a wedding, the finale is filled with familiar faces: Budgie and co are back (of course, when there’s a stag do involved), Smithy’s little sister makes an appearance, despite him blocking her on Snapchat, and Dave Coaches also has an unexpected new role…
Dave Coaches is back! Pic: Toffee International Ltd/ Tom Jackson/ BBC
We also hear more celebrity anecdotes from Nessa – she “done The Knowledge back in the day” and drove a black cab, which is how she “fell in with Hale and Pace” – and jokes referencing everything from Byker Grove to Baby Reindeer.
And of course, the infamous fishing trip. The finale gets tantalisingly close to revealing what happened, but Bryn is saved by the bell; or in this case, Gwen’s omelette and a fire alarm.
As always, the laughs and emotion are perfectly balanced, with one particularly lovely moment coming from Mick’s stag-do speech. He and Pam weren’t able to have another child after Gavin, he tells the boys, but when a seven-year-old Smithy came into their lives, “it didn’t feel like there was anything missing anymore”. There’s no time to get too sentimental though – not when there’s a foam party on the horizon.
As the big day approaches, Smithy’s friends start to voice their doubts. We see he still has Nessa’s ring. But she’s thinking of leaving Barry and returning to the ships…
Jones and Corden were emotional at the BBC preview event for Gavin And Stacey: The Finale. Pic: PA
At the preview screening, Corden and Jones were joined by castmates, who all shared their experiences of filming the final scenes.
“I remember just getting to the end and thinking, my God, I’m never going to get through that,” said Joanna Page, who plays Stacey, of the first time she read the script. I [knew I was] going to find that so hard to film because they’re all my friends and it’s such memories.”
Larry Lamb, who plays Mick, described the script as “another miracle from the dream weavers” Corden and Jones, and became emotional as he added: “I do not think I can ever remember being so moved by something either that I’ve been involved with or not involved with.”
Alison Steadman, who plays Pam, said she was “completely choked” watching the episode back. “It’s been one of the best jobs of my whole career,” she said. And it was never hard, she added, for her and Lamb to feel “like husband and wife”.
Up there with presents, turkey and Wham!, Christmas TV specials are as much a part of the UK’s annual traditions come 25 December. The best, from the soap drama of EastEnders and Coronation Street to the comedy of The Royle Family and The Office, are always remembered.
In saying goodbye to Gavin and Stacey, Nessa and Smithy, Corden and Jones have left fans with a pretty much perfect ending. Tears, laughs, joy – it has it all.
The finale sums up what is at heart a show about family, the one we are born into and the one we build. Gavin & Stacey is loved because it is so relatable, particularly at Christmas, capturing so well those wonderful snapshots of life spent with very different friends and relatives, whose paths otherwise might not cross.
“You just want it to feel satisfying,” Corden said of the ending. The last day in particular, he said, “was probably the most emotional film set that I’ve ever been on”.
Expectations around a final episode for a show as big as this one are always high. Get it wrong, and you might end up with a petition on your hands.
Did Corden and Jones pull it off?
Let’s just say it was crackin’. Truth be told.
Despite The Who’s Quadrophenia being set over 60 years ago, Pete Townshend’s themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.
The album is having a renaissance as Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia A Mod ballet is being brought to life via dance at Sadler’s Wells East, and Sky News has an exclusive first look.
As Townshend puts it, the album he wrote is “perfect” for the stage.
Pete Townshend
“My wife Rachel did the orchestration for me, and as soon as I heard it I said to her it would make a fabulous ballet and we never really let that go,” he tells Sky News.
“Heavy percussion, concussive sequences. They’re explosive moments. They’re also romantic movement moments.”
If you identify with the demographics of Millennial, Gen Y or Gen Z, you might not be familiar with The Who and Mod culture.
But in post-war Britain the Mods were a cultural phenomenon characterised by fashion, music, and of course, scooters. The young rebels were seen as a counter-culture to the establishment and The Who, with Roger Daltry’s lead vocals and Pete Townshend’s writing, were the soundtrack.
Quadrophenia the album is widely regarded as an essay on the British adolescent experience at the time, focusing on the life of fictional protagonist Jimmy – a young Mod struggling with his sanity, self-doubt, and alienation.
Townshend sets the rock opera in 1965 but thinks its themes of identity, mental health, and modern masculinity are just as relevant today.
He says: “The phobias and the restrictions and the unwritten laws about how young men should behave. The ground that they broke, that we broke because I was a part of it.
“Men were letting go of [the] wartime-related, uniform-related stance that if I wear this kind of outfit it makes me look like a man.”
Paris Fitzpatrick and Pete Townshend. Pic: Johan Persson
This struggle of modern masculinity and identity appears to be echoing today as manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate, incel culture, and Netflix’s Adolescence make headlines.
For dancer Paris Fitzpatrick, who takes on the lead role of Jimmy, the story resonates.
Paris Fitzpatrick, who takes on the lead role of Jimmy in the ballet
“I think there’s a connection massively and I think there may even be a little more revival in some way,” he tells Sky News.
“I love that myself. I love non-conforming to gender norms and typical masculinity; I think it’s great to challenge things.”
Despite the album being written before he was born, the dancer says he was familiar with the genre already.
“I actually did an art GCSE project about Mods and rockers and Quadrophenia,” he says.
“I think we’ll be able to bring it to new audiences and hopefully, maybe people will be inspired to to learn more about their music and the whole cultural movement of the early 60s.”
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In 1979, the album was adapted into a film directed by Franc Roddam starring Ray Winstone and Sting but Townshend admits because the film missed key points he is “not a big fan”.
“What it turned out to be in the movie was a story about culture, about social scenario and less about really the specifics of mental illness and how that affects young people,” he adds, also complimenting Roddam’s writing for the film.
Perhaps a testament to Pete Townshend’s creativity, Quadrophenia started as an album, was successfully adapted to film and now it will hit the stage as a contemporary ballet.
It appears that over six decades later Mod culture is still cool and their issues still relatable.
Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet will tour to Plymouth Theatre Royal from 28 May to 1 June 2025, Edinburgh Festival Theatre from 10 to 14 June 2025 and the Mayflower, Southampton from 18 to 21 June 2025 before having its official opening at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London on 24 June running to 13 July 2025 and then visiting The Lowry, Salford from 15 to 19 July 2025.
Russell Brand has been charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1999 and 2005.
The Metropolitan Police say the 50-year-old comedian, actor and author has also been charged with one count of oral rape and one count of indecent assault.
The charges relate to four women.
He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2 May.
Police have said Brand is accused of raping a woman in the Bournemouth area in 1999 and indecently assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2001.
He is also accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Westminster in 2004.
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Ashna Hurynag discusses Russell Brand’s charges
The fourth charge alleges that a woman was sexually assaulted in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.
Police began investigating Brand, from Oxfordshire, in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations.
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The comedian has denied the accusations and said he has “never engaged in non-consensual activity”.
He added in a video on X: “Of course, I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.
“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”
Tom Cruise has paid tribute to Val Kilmer, wishing his Top Gun co-star “well on the next journey”.
Cruise, speaking at the CinemaCon film event in Las Vegas on Thursday, asked for a moment’s silence to reflect on the “wonderful” times shared with the star, whom he called a “dear friend”.
Kilmer, who died of pneumonia on Tuesday aged 65, rocketed to fame starring alongside Cruise in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, playing Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, a rival fighter pilot to Cruise’s character Maverick.
Tom Cruise said ‘I wish you well on the next journey’. Pic: AP
Val Kilmer in 2017. Pic: AP
His last part was a cameo role in the 2022 blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise, on stage at Caesars Palace on Thursday, said: “I’d like to honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer. I can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun and came back later for Top Gun: Maverick.
“I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.
“I wish you well on the next journey.”
The moment of silence followed a string of tributes from Hollywood figures including Cher, Francis Ford Coppola, Antonio Banderas and Michelle Monaghan.
Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes told the New York Times on Wednesday that the actor had died from pneumonia.
Tom Cruise at Caesars Palace on Thursday. Pic: AP
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, Kilmer discussed his illness and recovery in his 2020 memoir Your Huckleberry and Amazon Prime documentary Val.
He underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for the disease and also had a tracheostomy which damaged his vocal cords and permanently gave him a raspy speaking voice.
Kilmer played Batman in the 1995 film Batman Forever and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of rock singer Jim Morrison in the 1991 movie The Doors.
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He also starred in True Romance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as well as playing criminal Chris Shiherlis in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie Heat and Doc Holliday in the 1993 film Tombstone.
In 1988 he married British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while working on fantasy adventure Willow.
The couple had two children before divorcing in 1996.
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