Crackin' - why Gavin and Stacey: the Finale deserved to top Christmas TV ratings

Only Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – also on BBC 1 – came anywhere near with 9.38 million.

Of course, neither came anywhere near the heady heights of Morecambe and Wise festive specials or Only Fools and Horses Christmas episodes.

That was in the days before ‘catch-up’. Now viewers can choose when and how to watch any TV programme.

As for me, I sat down with a plate of turkey sarnies, a side of pickled onions, a shot of egg nog and watched the final Gavin and Stacey – the sitcom about a girl from Barry, Wales, and a boy from Billericay, Essex, on the day itself.

It was lush. The 90-minute Christmas Day special of the BBC sitcom took viewers on an emotional rollercoaster that featured multiple weddings and the characters racing across the country in a coach.

There was heart-stopping tension, tearful goodbyes and joyous celebrations – writers Ruth Jones, who also plays Nessa, one of the greatest comic creations since Hyacinth Bucket, and James Corden, Smiffy, presented fans with a Christmas gift with bows and bells on.

To coin Mariah Carey – they made my Christmas wish come true. It revelled in giving fans a nostalgia trip by referencing favourite moments and using every catchphrase – and remembering characters past – raise a glass to Stacey’s neighbour Doris, played by the late, glorious Margaret John.

There was a nod to Marco’s, the Barry Island cafe where Stacey worked, a piece of toast from Smiffy’s best-man speech at Gav’s wedding, shouts of ‘go, go, go’, omelettes, Emlyn and the grabbers.

For the keen-eyed, there was also a reference to, arguably, the best sitcom of all time – Only Fools and Horses. It was a game in the arcade.

There were references to corn on the cob, the fishing trip and foam parties – and more ‘What’s occurings?’, ‘Gav-alars’, ‘Awight Dave, Awight’, ‘lushes’ and ‘tidies’ than you could shake a Nessa’s ‘Oh, Oh, Oh’ at.

The gang was all there – as well as Jones and Corden, Joanna Page, Stacey, Matthew Horne, Gav, Larry Lamb and Alison Steadman as Gav’s parents, pam and Mick Melanie Walters as Stace’s mum Gwen, Rob Brydon as her Uncle Bryn, Robert Wilfort as her brother Jason, Steffan Rhodri as Dave Coaches, Julia Davis and Adrian Scarborough, as neighbours Dawn and Pete and Neil, the baby, played by Oscar Hartland.

The finale picked up the action five years on from their Christmas proposal cliff-hanger in the 2019 festive special. Nessa got down on one knee and asked Smiffy to marry her … then the credits rolled.

Five years on, the action opens with Stacey walking up the hill from the island to her terrace home on the phone to Gavin excited that they were going to a wedding.

“What’s appertaining?”, it could not possibly be Nessa and Smiffy’s nuptials; it was far too soon into the episode. Of course it was not.

Enter bridezilla – Sonia, Smiffy’s snotty-nosed financee – played by Laura Aikman.

The couple prepare for their wedding and go to their stag and hen parties, but throughout Smithy’s friends share their worries about the marriage.

Best man Gavin finally tells Smithy during the ceremony he thinks it is a mistake and many of the wedding guests stand up in agreement to object to the marriage.

The wedding scene has everything – laughs and tears, tension and poignancy and pathos.

Smithy realises he has to confess his true love to Nessa, sparking a race on Dave’s coach to reach her before she leaves the UK.

She was about to sail away on a cargo ship bound for the Straits of Malacca. In front of his family and friends, he got down one one knee and proposes.

Cut straight to Nessa and Smiffy exchanging their vows and a knees up in The Dolphin.

Tidy.

It was the perfect happy ending to the comedy magic which is Gavin and Stacey.

Leave it there. I want to imagine Gavin, Stacey, Nessa and Smiffy, Pam and Mick, Dave and Gwen living happily ever after, Dawn and Pete never deciding whether they want to stay together and the fishing trip to remain a mystery.

Gavin and Stacey can also be seen on Freeview channel U&Dave and BBC iPlayer.